A lot has happened since I last wrote about Propel and their Product Value Management strategy. Several significant updates are their continued progress toward their vision, very successful Propulsion and Dreamforce conferences, and a carefully executed shift in executive leadership.
Delivering on PVM
Let’s start with vision. The goal of PVM, in a nutshell, is to better connect product development with product commercialization. It sounds obvious, and those from outside of the engineering software community would probably assume PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) would inherently create digital continuity across design and commercial people and processes. Instead, most PLM solutions don’t address go-to-market or incorporate the customer experience. Interestingly, perhaps, some are starting to focus on the service lifecycle of the product following commercialization, but that’s a different post. Propel is relatively unique in their focus on PVM to close the “Product Value Gap” between product and commercial teams.
Since our last post, Propel formally announced their PIM (Product Information Management) solution to complement their existing PLM and QMS (quality management) capabilities. They also released significant additional capabilities to support new product development and go-to-market. This is evidence of significant investment to achieve their PVM strategy and we expect to see more over time.
It’s important to mention, though, that they’ve also continued to further their PLM capabilities, for example with recent enhancements to further support design collaboration and visualization and integration with Altium to support ECAD (electronic CAD) alongside mechanical designs and RenderDraw for converting CAD files to interactive 2D and 3D viewables. They’ve also extended their capabilities to better support design for supply to help manufacturers develop products that are better optimized for their supply chain with a SiliconExpert integration.
Leadership Change
Founder Ray Hein has paved the path to rethink how a software category supports an industry more than once, and proved his abilities again with Propel. He surrounded himself with a strong team and listened to his customers more than most CEOs I’ve met. He and the team continued to evolve their vision by learning from customer goals and experiences. They also leveraged their strong, inherent relationship with CRM and platform provider Salesforce to streamline and integrate across the digital thread from product inception to commercial offering. The result, their PVM strategy, is both valuable and differentiating.
Ray is stepping away from Propel’s day-to-day operations, but he’s leaving after a calculated and thoughtful transition. He passes control to Ross Meyercord, who has already been Propel CEO and worked on product planning and strategy for a year while Ray focused on the broader company vision as Chief Strategy Officer. Ray will retain a role on the Propel Board and continue to offer guidance. But Ross comes with strong experience in enterprise software for the manufacturing industry and appears to be taking the same customer-centric role that Ray did. He also inherited a strong team with great credentials. See the press release here.
We’re excited to see how Propel and their PVM vision continue to grow and create a continuous digital thread across the product lifecycle, as many would agree is the ultimate goal of PLM.
Thank you Ray Hein, Ross Meyercord, and Tom Shoemaker for continuing to keep us abreast of Propel’s progress.
Our related eBook teaches companies how to adapt people, processes, and technology to improve revenue and customer experiences by connecting the product digital thread. Watch the on-demand webinar with Jim Brown, Mark Boles (Propel), and Tom Shoemaker (Propel) to learn how to solve the product information disconnect, improve NPDI, and drive product profitability.