Is PLM too Complex for a Single Company to Implement?

Oleg Shilovitsky has an interesting observation about Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Systems technology.

http://beyondplm.com/2013/04/03/plm-journey-and-thoughts-about-technology/

His conclusion is

...that the realities of PLM implementations today are high cost, extensive need of services and expensive implementation. Which can be solved by hiring an army of consulting people to take a company through the “PLM transformation” period. That would be a “PLM journey” as we know it now. A potential alternative it to bring new level of technology that will provide new user experience, device independence as well as plug-n-play technology that eliminate needs to people to be involved into long implementations . Do you think it is a dream? I don’t think so… just my thoughts.

It may be that Oleg is correct. PLM systems are so complex and require so much resource they can only be delivered by cloud based solutions that are vertically integrated.  Building the server and network capability that will satisfy user expectations is a daunting task.  I know.  I just spend the last five years deploying Windchill for a large manufacturer at 26 tech centers in 13 countries.  No matter how much money we invested the users were never satisfied.  They want performance that rivaled Google, Facebook and Amazon.  It was impossible for us to deliver GooFacAm performance.  We could not afford the network and server capacity, not to mention that the underlying technology would not support true data distribution.   Google on the other hand, owns everything from the fiber to the browser and if you own a chomebook and/or Galexy Nexus, the computer and phone as well.  One can argue that their UI delivery is not very good, but no one can argue that their infrastructure isn't top notch.  Google delivers less than 200 ms latency for every application anywhere in the world.  To collaboration effectively, users need fast.  PLM just is not fast.  It takes too much investment for a single company to deliver PLM that will meet users expectations.

Collaboration is the primary function delivered by PLM systems.  We have learned over the last several years that Google, Facebook and Amazon deliver a superior collaboration experience.