PLM Market Growth Exceeds Forecasts

By DE Editors

According to recent statistics compiled by consulting and research firm CIMdata, Inc.(Ann Arbor, MI), the worldwide product lifecycle management (PLM)market grew 8.7 percent to reach $18.1 billion in 2005. This growthrate exceeded earlier estimates, with the boost attributed to continuedstrengthening of the global economy and an increased recognition of thevalue of PLM in improving a company's business performance. PLMinvestments are forecast to continue climbing over the next five years,reaching an estimated $26.3 billion by 2010. That represents a compoundannual growth rate of approximately 7.7 percent, according to CIMdata.

CIMdata says its research describes a PLM industry as a broad marketencompassing investments in many different types of technologies andservices. This market includes technologies as well as a strategic businessapproach that supports the collaborative creation, management,dissemination, and use of product information from concept to end oflife. PLM integrates people, processes, business systems, andinformation across departments and through the extended enterprisewith suppliers and consultants.

CIMdata segments the PLM market into two primary subsectors:PLM information authoring and analysis applications (i.e., Tools), andcollaborative product definition management (i.e., cPDm). Historically, as CIMdata, theTools sector has received the lion's share of investment, althoughgrowth of that sector has slowed noticeably over recent years.

According to CIMdata, $12.1 billion was spent in 2005 by companiesworldwide on PLM Tools such as MCAD, electronic design automation(EDA), simulation and analysis, technical publishing, and others.Growth in this sector was primarily driven by investments in areas suchas mid-range MCAD. Areas such as high-end MCAD experienced very lowgrowth. CIMdata says that the Tools portion of the PLM market is forecast to grow at 4percent over the next five years to reach $14.7 billion by 2010.

The fastest-growing sector of PLM is said to be expenditures on cPDm, adefinition that encompasses collaboration, management, and sharing ofproduct-relatedinformation. This segment also covers technologies and approaches suchasPDM, visualization, data exchange, portfoliomanagement, digital manufacturing, enterprise application integration,workflow, functional applications such as configuration management, andbusiness- and industry-specific solutions.

CIMdata researchindicates that the cPDm portion of the PLM market exceeded previousforecasts for growth and reached $6.1 billion in 2005, representing anincrease of approximately 14.7 percent over 2004. The cPDm segment isexpected to continue its strong growth to $6.8 billion in 2006 andreach $11.6 billion by 2010 for a rate of 13.9 percent.

According to Ed Miller, president of CIMdata, PLM investments are fueled by executive-levelawareness of the business value of PLM as an enabler incompressing time to market, reducing cost, improving quality, andachieving product and process innovation.

For more information, visit CIMdata.com.

Sources: CIMdata press materials.