Choosing product lifecycle management software is rarely just a feature comparison.
A PLM system can look impressive in a sales presentation and still become difficult once your team starts working with real bills of materials, engineering changes, CAD data, suppliers, manufacturing users, legacy information and approval processes.
A PLM system can look impressive in a sales presentation and still become difficult once your team starts working with real bills of materials, engineering changes, CAD data, suppliers, manufacturing users, legacy information and approval processes.
That is why we created the Engineering Software Trials PLM Trial & Evaluation Scorecard.
This free scorecard gives engineering and manufacturing teams a consistent way to evaluate competing PLM platforms using the same requirements, workflows and evidence.
[Download the PLM Trial & Evaluation Scorecard PDF]
What Does the PLM Scorecard Evaluate?
The scorecard uses a 100-point evaluation framework covering the areas most likely to affect a real PLM implementation:
- Evaluation access and vendor transparency
- Product data and BOM management
- Change and configuration management
- CAD and ECAD integration
- Engineering-tool compatibility
- Internal collaboration
- Supplier and external collaboration
- Workflow and usability
- Search and data retrieval
- ERP, MES, QMS and API integrations
- Legacy data migration
- System administration
- Security and access control
- Deployment options
- Implementation requirements
- Total cost and time to usable value
It also includes a practical PLM stress test designed to expose problems that may not appear during a carefully controlled vendor demonstration.
How to Use the PLM Evaluation Scorecard
For the most useful results, select one representative product, assembly or engineering program and use it throughout every PLM evaluation.
Do not allow each vendor to demonstrate a completely different workflow.
Whenever possible, ask each vendor to work with the same type of:
- Product structure
- Bill of materials
- CAD or ECAD data
- Engineering change
- Approval workflow
- Supplier interaction
- Manufacturing or quality requirement
Score each evaluation item from 0 to 5.
0 means the capability is unavailable, fails the test or cannot be demonstrated.
3 means the system meets the requirement adequately.
5 means the system performs exceptionally well in your actual environment with little or no compromise.
The categories are weighted because not every PLM requirement carries the same risk.
For example, a beautiful interface should not compensate for weak change control, poor BOM management or an integration that cannot reliably preserve engineering data.
Test the Workflow, Not the Presentation
A PLM demo is useful, but it is not the same thing as an evaluation.
Whenever possible, ask to perform actual tasks yourself.
Try importing a BOM. Make an engineering change. Revise a component. Find where that component is used. Ask another department to locate the current released information.
If your organization works with multiple CAD systems, ECAD tools, suppliers or manufacturing systems, test those relationships as well.
And deliberately make something go wrong.
Reject an approval. Upload a duplicate. Change the wrong revision. Interrupt a workflow.
A production PLM system will eventually encounter mistakes, exceptions and unusual conditions. The evaluation is the safest time to discover how well the software handles them.
Pay Attention to Evaluation Access
One of the factors included in the scorecard is how much meaningful access the vendor provides before purchase.
There is an important difference between:
- Watching a sales demonstration
- Using an interactive product tour
- Entering a vendor-controlled sandbox
- Receiving a temporary trial environment
- Testing the software with your own data and workflows
None of those approaches automatically makes one PLM system better than another.
But the less independently you can test before purchase, the more uncertainty you are accepting.
That uncertainty belongs in the evaluation.
Involve More Than Engineering
PLM software often begins with engineering data, but engineering may not be the only group that has to live with the system.
Include representative users from areas such as:
- Manufacturing
- Quality
- Procurement
- Supply chain
- Service
- Program management
- IT
- Configuration management
One particularly useful test is simple:
Give a non-PLM expert a task and see whether they can complete it without extensive coaching.
Can someone in manufacturing find the currently released drawing?
Can purchasing identify the approved component?
Can quality determine what changed and who approved it?
Those everyday questions can reveal more about PLM usability than a long feature checklist.
Do Not Ignore Migration and Administration
Migration is one of the easiest PLM risks to underestimate.
Before choosing a platform, test representative legacy data rather than assuming it will import cleanly.
Look for:
- Duplicate records
- Missing relationships
- Broken metadata
- Lost revision history
- Unusable naming conventions
- CAD references that do not survive migration
Also ask who will maintain the system after implementation.
A workflow that requires constant consulting support, custom code or specialized administration may still be the right choice—but those requirements should be understood before the purchase decision.
Use the Same Scorecard for Every Vendor
The scorecard becomes much more valuable when every shortlisted PLM platform is evaluated against the same requirements.
Rather than asking:
Which PLM has the most features?
Ask:
Which PLM performs our important workflows with the least risk, friction and unnecessary complexity?
That might lead a large enterprise toward a platform such as Teamcenter, Windchill, 3DEXPERIENCE or Aras.
Another organization may discover that a cloud-focused platform such as Arena or OpenBOM better matches its requirements.
The purpose of the scorecard is not to choose the winner in advance.
It is to make the differences visible.
Before You Choose a PLM System
At the end of the evaluation, ask one final question:
Can your team prove this system works with your product structure, your engineering tools, your approval process and your downstream users before the implementation contract is signed?
If the answer is yes, you have considerably more evidence than a conventional software demonstration can provide.
If the answer is still unclear, keep testing.
[Download the Free PLM Trial & Evaluation Scorecard]
Use it alongside our PLM software trial pages and PLM comparisons to build a shortlist, evaluate competing systems and document why one platform ultimately fits your organization better than another.