The last decade approximately has brought immense change, challenges and opportunities for organizations large, medium and little in how we author and manage product related information.
Previous to the present , Computer Aided Design (CAM) and Computer Aided manufacturing (CAM) and merchandise Data Management (PDM) had primarily captured the eye of producing companies and their engineering, operations and IT departments. These investments were significant, in terms of the prices of hardware, software, implementation, and training, but the advantages were arguably limited.
Despite in its infancy within the late 1990’s, by mid-2000’s these capacities are dominated by much broader categories like Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) and merchandise Performance Analysis (PPA). At an equivalent time, they need to capture a growing mindshare from organizations outside of the normal manufacturing companies like the retail and insurance industries to call just a couple of .