We are delighted to offer our community the opportunity to download WhichPLM’s ‘6th Edition’ Report free of charge! Available in PDF format or in print, our 2016 publication contains features on PLM and the Internet of Things (including an exclusive interview with IoT inventor, Kevin Ashton), detailed profiles of key players in the PLM and IoT sectors, the results of our extensive PLM user survey, extensive market intelligence and more. Download your copy today!
WhichPLM has always provided the industry with our ‘PLM bible.’ And 2016 was no exception. In mid-September 2016, we published ‘The WhichPLM Report: 6th Edition’.
While our 2015 publication blended our traditional PLM market analysis and editorial with a special focus on 3D working, this year’s report marries the same degree of PLM insight to an extremely in-depth look at the Internet of Things as it relates to retail, footwear and apparel.
Much of the discussion that today surrounds how the retail, footwear and apparel industry will respond to the IoT is devoted to understanding precisely what its impact will be on consumers, and where its potential value lies for retailers, brands, manufacturers, supply chain partners and agents who often recognise the term at the acronym level but would be hard-pressed to articulate it any further.
The purpose of our 6th Edition Report was to take meaningful steps towards a greater and more widespread understanding of the IoT among our readers – from the CEOs to the sourcing managers – and to present a unique, unbiased examination of its history, its technological foundations, and how other industries are already making use of it.
As with previous years, the report opens with a scene-setting introduction from our CEO, and then collects a host of brand new editorial pieces. Arguably the most important feature this year, is our exclusive interview with Internet of Things inventor, Kevin Ashton. Covering many pages, this exclusive conversation was conducted at the highest level, and includes discussions about the history of the IoT, the confusion that surrounds its definition, the nature of creativity in fashion technology, and the shift from the 20th to the 21st century paradigm of computing. The purpose of Kevin’s interview is to contextualise what follows, to serve as a primer for readers new to the concept, and to spark discussion between those who are not.
Kevin’s piece is followed by four extensive features on exactly how the IoT applies to the retail, footwear and apparel space, assembled from interviews with more than thirty industry figures. Following this are features focused solely on PLM – after all, that’s our namesake.
Interest in the report has been phenomenal, and the level of response to our PLM user survey has been overwhelming. These participants have provided us their unvarnished feedback on the real experience of shortlisting, selecting, implementing and working with PLM day in and day out, as well as their involvement (or lack thereof) with supporting.
As with previous years, the 6th Edition includes profiles of the retail, footwear and apparel industry’s key PLM vendors, as well as their thoughts on the Internet of Things. Each vendor was also given the chance to write a two-page article on the topic. As were the industry’s key consultants & implementers, who are listed straight after.
Our in-house expert advisors continue the publication with exclusive market intelligence and analysis; and we round off with a look into the future. ‘The future of PLM’, our closing feature, looks at how PLM (and fashion technology at a broader level) is likely to change in the next 1,3 and 5 years, and sets the theme for our ‘7th Edition’…
