Several weeks back the prolific Oleg Shilovitsky attempted a SWOT analysis of the major players in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). I thought it was a good effort but he left off a few key companies and most importantly he failed to tie the SWOT analysis to a POP culture reference. So here is my attempt to carry on Oleg’s work by using a comparison of PLM vendors to the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in the Game of Thrones. Obviously in order to do this I will need seven PLM vendors to compare. I have selected the following vendors listed in alphabetical order to eliminate any potential for bias, Agile PLM (Oracle), Aras PLM, Arena Solutions, Autodesk PLM 360, Enovia (Dassault), Teamcenter (Siemens), and Windchill (PTC). I will attempt to summarize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for each company and how their characteristics relate to the various kingdoms of Westeros. I am pretty sure no wants to be the Stark’s or the Lannisters in this article but I must call them as I see them.

If you have followed The Game of Thrones you know that the state of the kingdoms is in constant flux with the various conflicts that occur with rulers being killed right and left. Safety Tip; if you are ruler of a kingdom in Westeros do not attend a wedding under any circumstances. For the purposes of this article we will focus on the most recent configuration of the seven kingdoms that I have lifted from the Game of Thrones Wiki. The North, The Iron Islands, The Riverlands, The Vale, The Westerlands, The Reach/South, and The Stormlands. It seems that the new configuration actually includes 8 areas when you include Dorne but for this article we will focus on the other seven for our comparisons.

House Bolton

We should start with the newcomers to power first and build up to the most established players last. In PLM terms Autodesk 360 is the most recent entrant into the field. Considering that back as recently as 2007 Autodesk CEO Carl Bass labeled PLM as a “load of crap” Autodesk has made quite a pivot jumping into the PLM market with both feet with this entry level PLM offering. Completely cloud based and touted for its simplicity and cost effectiveness this product is definitely positioned for smaller companies and organizations that are somewhat new to PLM. Autodesk has an extensive history in computer aided design and a large customer base that can be leveraged as customers for this offering. Given their resources I would consider this product to be a serious threat to other lower end solutions like Arena and Aras but so far the feedback is that the product needs work from a functional perspective. Given their newness to the market but considering their previous history I think Autodesk best compares to The North and the House of Bolton. Like Roose Bolton the company has had a change of heart in their loyalty after first condemning PLM and in order to succeed they must do so at the expense of other vendors that are more established in the market. They are a formidable player in the space and I expect their user base will grow with new adopters. It remains to be seen if they can provide the level of functionality needed for larger organizations.

House Frey

Arena Solutions was one of the first companies to market with a cloud based system. Like Autodesk their value proposition is based on affordability and short implementation times. Their target market is companies moving off of legacy systems with expensive upgrade paths (i.e. Oracle) and companies attempting to evolve beyond using spreadsheets for Bill of Material Management. Originally named BOM.com Arena has attempted to move beyond their low end origins and offer additional capabilities with Quality and Supply Chain solutions. They do not have the financial strength of Autodesk but have a significant head start and this shows up in their functionality. Their cloud based origins hinder them from competing with the higher level solutions but over time as they continue to add capabilities they may find themselves on more equal footing assuming they can endure. Profitability for cloud based companies is still somewhat in question and with Arena being a private company we really don’t know their performance. They also lack the functionality that some of the other entry level solutions offer as far as integration capabilities to CAD and ERP. They have also historically been reluctant to cooperate when companies elect to move their data to a different platform. Given their up-start status and their need to exploit other PLM companies clients I would compare Arena to the Riverlands. Like the Frey’s they must exploit the weaknesses of their competitors and maintain tenuous partnerships to thrive. Survival against some of the bigger houses may require whatever means necessary in order to come through it so possessing a formidable fortress certainly helps. Arena’s history in the market and subscriber lead should serve them well as they battle against other cloud based PLM tools like Autodesk 360 and the inevitable list of others who will follow.

House Greyjoy

The last PLM vendor we will cover in part one is Aras PLM. Like Arena, Aras has been around for some time and has a loyal following. Aras has reinvented themselves a couple of times and most recently has positioned themselves as a cost effective alternative to the bigger companies like PTC and Dassault. Unlike most vendors Aras is presented as a platform that can be enhanced in a similar way to Open Source solutions and most clients who purchase the software utilize their own resources or work with partners to develop the functionality they need. Given the length of time they have been in business I would expect that there is a significant amount of customization and knowledge on how to extend the tool. I am not sure how readily available it is to others but the concept sounds interesting. Most companies are reluctant to maintain the staff to develop and support this type of customization but if cost is an issue Aras offers potentially the most capability for the money in this class of PLM products. Like Arena their financial condition is somewhat of a mystery but given their model their overhead is probably less than Arena’s. I would compare Aras to the Iron Islands. They are a scrappy bunch who continue to battle bigger organizations for revenue and continue to survive by forming alliance with partners and winning over companies to their approach. The inhabitants of the Iron Islands maintain their own independent philosophy and stress self- reliance as a tenant of their belief system so this fits in well with Aras.

This article is already pretty lengthy so we will pick up tomorrow with the larger companies like PTC, Siemens, Dassault and Oracle. Feel free to make your own comparisons and chime in with your thoughts about the strengths and weaknesses of these products. Hopefully this article helps you better understand the landscape of Westeros and PLM.