SharePoint and Product Lifecycle Management
September 21, 2011
Acronyms can facilitate communication and impair it. Consider the three letter shorthand “PLM”. When we see the acronym, we think about product lifecycle management. To be candid, we do not juxtapose Microsoft SharePoint and the discipline of PLM for three reasons:
- SharePoint is a collection of components. The assembly of the components often produces a customized solution. Microsoft does not provide component level detail. Updates just arrive and often once learns what has changed and the consequences of those changes. PLM methods are often stretched in a “surprise” environment.
- SharePoint administrators may not have deep, traditional engineering backgrounds. In our experience, we have encountered professionals who can make Microsoft SharePoint hum, but the basics of textbook engineering often are not part of the every day toolkit.
- With more than 100 million SharePoint licenses, the vast majority of installations are built over time. As the licensee gains familiarity with the system, components—some from Microsoft and some from Microsoft certified vendors—are added. PLM relies on some assumptions that may not apply to ad hoc, “let’s just try it” enhancement of systems.
SharePoint is a collaborative content management platform used in businesses worldwide to streamline businesses processes. We recently read an interesting article from the Beyond PLM blog called, “Why PLM Should Care of SharePoint?” PLM stands for “product life cycle management.” Oleg Shilovitsky is a PLM expert and he asked many professionals about their views on SharePoint. They all reached the same conclusion: SharePoint requires a lot of information technology and services involvement. He also learned that SharePoint, much like the early Windows OSs, is a great tool for solutions development. He asserted:
When it comes to Product lifecycle management in manufacturing companies, organization of information and processes are two top critical questions. Let’s bring few more facts. A significant portion of … business is delivered by service organization. According to analytical companies in this space, the number is about 50%. Another fact – because of complexity of usage, the majority of PLM implementations have problems to be delivered downstream. I believe, already today, organizations have complicated choice between proprietary PLM platforms and less-proprietary SharePoint as a platform to develop business solutions for product development . The question PLM people need to ask is what solution will be preferred by developers in manufacturing IT to deliver next business process feature?
He concludes that SharePoint can provide good competition to many PLM platforms to deliver business solutions in the manufacturing industry. The IT angle will be the deciding factor. Do they invest the money or not? The decision is vital in a business’s future success.
One way to enhance and streamline SharePoint in a stringent PLM framework or in one of the more common relaxed approaches is to embrace technologies from companies like SurfRay. The developers of Ontolica have designed a system that can improve content access and findability in almost any SharePoint installation. Unlike Microsoft, SurfRay informs its licensees of enhancements and upgrades. Good engineering solves problems. Casual engineering creates problems in our experience. For more information about SurfRay, navigate to www.surfray.com.
Stephen E Arnold, September 21, 2011
SurfRay
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