Cartoon Network will be releasing a new version of the storied cartoon series Thundercats on July 29th at 8 pm Eastern time. I am really excited by this and after reading a cool article comparing the attributes of the various Thundercats to each other it made me wonder about comparing PLM tools in a similar way. So I decided to take a short break from my PLM Code of Conduct series and get into the serious discussion about which PLM solution most closely resembles the characters from the original Thundercats series. If you haven't seen the original series Cartoon Network has been running episodes as a means to promote the new version so you should check it out. Boomerang is showing Thundercats episodes every day at 5 eastern. The main group of Thundercats was led by LionO, who wields the sword of Omen and is the hereditary leader of the Thundercats. Tygra is the oldest of the Thundercats and is responsible for all design and construction functions for the Thundercats and can create lifelike illusions in people's minds, sounds like a PLM salesperson. Panthro is a warrior that has mastered all forms of martial arts and is also considered a brilliant engineer. Pride excellence and loyalty are at his core but he can have a bit of a temper. Cheetara is the only adult female among the group and her skill is the ability to see the future. Certainly being a visionary would be a good attribute for a PLM vendor. We also have the Thunderkittens, WilyKit and WilyKat. They are youngsters full of mischief with lots of energy but definitely need to grow up before they will be able to hold their own. The trick is to decide which Thundercat matches which PLM vendor. We will use Oracle Agile PLM, PTC's Winchill, Siemens' TeamCenter, Dassault's Enovia, Aras, and Arena for our comparisons with maybe a guest appearance from Softech's Product Center. Under no circumstances will we consider Snarf, who in my opinion is not a true Thundercat, he was a servant.
It seems appropriate to follow the hierarchy of the Thundercats and start with LionO. Keep in mind my analogy is not necessarily a comment on which PLM solution is best. As you would learn after a brief googling of the topic there are varying opinions about which Thundercat is superior. There is even a strong support group for Snarf. The purpose of the comparison is to try and align the characteristics of each character with the PLM system and to support this with reason. LionO is obviously very powerful and holds a leadership position over the other Thundercats. He is however very young since he experienced a suspension capsule failure on his journey from his home planet and aged some physically without growing mentally. I consider LionO most closely aligned with Oracle Agile PLM. Their ownership of Agile has been brief and I think they are just starting to hit their stride from a development and packaging perspective. The product was completely revamped several years ago and doesn't have the CAD lineage most of the other vendors in the PLM space share. However, due to Oracle's ownership I assert they are to be considered a defacto leader in the PLM space. Every other major vendor for PLM leverages Oracle technology in their PLM tool and Oracle's enterprise breadth is unrivaled. From revenue and earnings perspective Oracle is unmatched among the other PLM vendors. Granted Dassault and Siemens aren't exactly small fish but Oracle is significantly larger with more resources to bring to bear on Enterprise PLM. Like LionO they also need to continue to develop. Fusion is a promising platform that will ultimately unite all of their Enterprise software applications but there are still gaps and some of the existing connectors need to be refined. They have made great strides with their connectors for CAD but still need more capability and need to stabilize the latest versions. I really think software development management is a gap they need to close. In conclusion LionO has a legacy of leadership and is very powerful and the other Thundercats look to him for direction I think this is a fair comparison to Oracle in the PLM space.
Next in the hierarchy is Tygra and I think the main attributes for Tygra most closely resemble PTC. Tygra excels at design and in my opinion Pro/Engineer (I can't bring myself to call it Creo) is still the most robust and flexible of the design products out there. Others like NX and SolidWorks have closed the gap but PTC is still the leader in my opinion. I also think that Tygra's gift for illusion closely resembles PTC's packaging and positioning of Windchill. Windchill excels at managing Pro/E files (although still not quite as well as Intralink 3x) but their ability to perform as an enterprise PLM is still suspect. Many of their CAD based customers buy into the illusion but not all of them are happy with the results. I think PDMlink version 10 is a good step forward for PTC and puts them more on equal footing with Agile and TeamCenter but also think there is work to be done to integrate recent acquisitions fully into their technology stack and offer a truly enterprise ready product. I think in the long run that Windchill has enormous upside if PTC will truly listen to their customer base and not try to force feed their vision for PLM. The technology platform is fairly modern and while significant customization has been a hallmark of most Windchill implementations it is becoming less necessary with every new release. The abandonment of Product Point will force them to incorporate more features to simplify adoption and support of their technology which can only be a positive for all of their clients. Like Tygra PTC is a powerful entity with lots of talent and value. They just need to make sure they are leveraging it in the right way.
Panthro is considered somewhat on equal footing with Tygra , equally gifted but in other ways. Panthro is known as a strong warrior and engineer. While historically Unigraphics has lagged behind PTC and Catia their acquisition by Siemens seems to have injected them with new life. Like Panthro Siemens is aggressive and seems to be willing to be combative with other vendors as exhibited by their lawsuit with Oracle. TeamCenter seems to thrive in more engineering centric environments and works best with NX as part of the equation. As a standalone tool I generally see it fall behind Agile and Windchill in most head to head benchmarks. But like Panthro it is still widely respected as a robust PLM platform and is a good solid choice particularly if managing NX data is a critical requirement. Panthro is innovative and ingenious with his inventions and I have noticed that TeamCenter seems equally willing to adopt new approaches and technology as exhibited by their leadership position on governance and compliance and mechatronics.
My reasons for aligning Dassault with Cheetara really revolve around the cloudy strategy Dassault has when it comes to PLM. Dassault continues to try and assimilate Smart Team and Matrix One and it is still not clear what the future holds for Dassault PLM customers. There are rumors of the Enovia being extended down to SolidWorks and displacing EPDM and trying to unify all of the different platforms Dassault now owns. It would take someone with Cheetara's gifts of divination to truly know what the future holds with Dassualt. They seem to be eager to embrace new technology like the 3D environments they promote and the mobile platforms. Cheetara is also known for her speed and it seems that Dassault also has the ability to change direction very quickly. Cheetara is the most mysterious of the the Thundercats and Dassault is the most mysterious of the PLM vendors.
This leaves us with the Thunderkittens WilyKit and WilyKat. I equate these two with relative newcomers Aras and Arena. The Thunderkittens play a vital role on the Thundercat team just as Aras and Arena play a vital role in the PLM community. These companies tend to attract a good number of smaller or newer companies and drive PLM adoption beyond what the more established vendors attract. Their lack of CAD affiliation and shorter adoption times can make PLM more accessible to companies that are not quite ready for an Oracle driven PLM solution. While I am aware that Aras has made some inroads into a few larger companies Arena's software as a service model tends to mostly appeal to startups and companies in the less than 50 million space. Like the Thunderkittens both companies need to continue to grow in capability and strength to be able to consider themselves equal to the rest of the PLM vendors mentioned in this article. On the flip side we have Softech's Product Center which was a precursor for almost all of these tools. They are much like Jaga, the elder warrior regarded as once the greatest of all Thundercats. Jaga is no longer with us but his spirit guides the Thundercats much like many PLM vendors follow paths originally established by the old Workgroup Technology product.
Obviously this article has been written in jest and shouldn't be taken too seriously but the take away is that each PLM vendor has certain strengths and weaknesses and should be closely scrutinized before adoption of their technology. Much like the Thundercats these vendors have exceptional capabilities but are different from each other in certain ways. Oracle's size and breadth puts them in a dominant position but their relative youth with Agile means there is still room to make the product better. PTC's long established experience with Pro/Engineer gives them an advantage in engineering centric companies but they must continue to evolve Windchill to make it a more viable enterprise choice. TeamCenter is a storied brand and Siemens aggressive pursuit of new capabilities is impressive but they still need to address their core capabilities and improve ease of use and implementation. Dassault need to clarify the future direction of their PLM strategy and to decide how best to combine their various products and capabilities to best serve their clientele. Arena and Aras must continue to develop their functionality to offer a more robust capability to the market. They have the opportunity to grow up with their customers. We have a valuable group of vendors that provide essential technology for product development and slay the enemies of productivity. Thundercats HO![clear-line]