Global PLM software showing measured growth

Product lifecycle management (PLM) software sales grew by 4% last year to around $14bn. Of that, approximately 67% or $9.5bn was invested in authoring and analysis tools, while 33% or $4.6bn was spent on ‘cPDm’, collaborative product definition management. Those are top line findings of US PLM analyst firm CIMdata’s PLM Market Analysis Report. The firm defines authoring and analysis tools as all of MCAD and ECAD, CASE (computer-aided software engineering) tools and technical publishing software. cPDm is focused on collaboration, management, and sharing of product-related information. These are interesting findings: while hardly massive in percentage terms, there is a marked absolute increase in spending, particularly on PLM software. Sources suggest that much of this is from the mid engineering market, with new users favouring systems like Smarteam for their low cost, flexible and pragmatic offerings. Ken Amann, CIMdata’s director of research, observes that both PLM segments grew in 2003, with cPDm investments increasing most rapidly and set to do so again through this year. He also notes that investments in what we might prefer to term PLM software, including license sales, subscriptions, recurring fees and maintenance, increased from $1.64bn in 2002 to $1.94bn in 2003 (42% of the total), representing a return to license growth after two years of decline. PLM services spend grew to $2.6bn, up from $2.5bn. “We project this market to grow at a rate of 11% to $5bn,” says Amann, although he adds that this could be higher, given the general improvement in global economic activity. CIMdata’s report provides the most comprehensive analysis of the PLM market. It provides a perspective on PLM across a variety of industry and geographical sectors, identifies market trends, reviews investments in PLM-related software and services, and forecasts investments to 2008.