By Dave Hadfield, VP Customer Solutions with editorial support from Jon Nelson, VP Operations

PLM is not a new concept. It has expanded well beyond the industries where it started.  A question that we at Integware continue to hear from most companies, and in particular the visionaries within companies new to product lifecycle management, is “how do I show the business value of product lifecycle management?”

I’ve had the opportunity to manage a large number of projects over the years from very large to very small and I have often found that the main challenges related to successful enterprise solution delivery are usually not technical.  Yes technical obstacles will exist, will need to be overcome and engineering tradeoffs made.  But in my experience the major roadblocks to enterprise implementations stem from improper governance, issues related to management of change (by that I mean organizational acceptance and understanding of value) and strategic investment shifts.

I have been calling directly into the Life Sciences (LS) space for about a year and a half.  I will not call myself an expert, but given that I have been in the business world for over 30 years, I feel I have crossed over into the category of a “gray hair” and therefore I can have some relevant observations.  My below observations are in some ways provided as an outsider looking into the LS industry.

Believe it or not, there actually are some similarities.  Not sure if PLM is exciting?  Mike Tyson got a PLM lowdown for 10 minutes at DSCC this year, and you know what, the guy wasn’t bored.  Though, when it comes to Mr. Tebow, we have to be honest.  Put simply, it’s a catchy title, we are launching a new blog, and we are drawing you in!