PLM Integration with Web Services: New Industry Standards for PLM Business Process Automation (TT)
9/24/2003
The most-discussed and highest priority Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) integration issues for users fall into three key areas: PLM-PD/ERP – at least 70% of the users interviewed brought this up as a key issue; PLM-PD/legacy applications, particularly manufacturing systems – this came up in about 50% of the user interviews; PLM-PD/SCM – more than 30% of the users are focused on this issue.
Most users currently concentrate on relatively simple integration and application interoperability. Indeed, eight of twenty interviewed employ manual approaches supporting point-to-point communication. Another six of the twenty have begun EAI efforts that automate point-to-point connections. These clearly do not represent the leading edge in development for enterprise frameworks. Only two users showed an advanced service-oriented approach for integration that targeted the supply chain; these two are still working to tie that effort back into Product Definition (PD) and ERP. This Tech Trend reports on the findings of D.H. Brown Associates, Inc.'s latest study in this area.
Keywords: PLM, integration, web services, XML, Dassault, EDS, MatrixOne, PTC, SAP, E2open, users, pain point, EAI, business process, service-oriented, SOAP, ERP, legacy systems, product definition, PD, CRM, supply chain, SCM