Plex Plays A Key Role In The Digitalization Of Manufacturing
Over 900 customers, partners, and Plex Systems gathered at the DeVos Place on Michigan’s West Coast of Grand Rapids for the 13th annual Plex Systems user event. New features and a significant funding round book end the major announcements from the June 10th, 2014 Day 1 keynote:
New funding round accelerates sales expansion and market awareness. T. Rowe Price, Accel Partners and Francisco partners join to invest $50M in new financing. The $50M adds to the original $6M from Apax Partners November 2009 and the $30M from Accel Partners in December 2012
Point of View (POV): The round led by T.Rowe Price provides another validation point on the success of Plex in riding the manufacturing renaissance wave. Customers can expect a continued influx of enterprise software talent and product investment. Constellation expects greater sales and marketing coverage and improved business development and alliances.
Enterprise Edition adds to up market capabilities. New financials and supply chain applications expand the reach of the Manufacturing Cloud. Accounting now includes general ledger structures, enterprise chart of account management, inter-entity journal accounting, inventory transfers and consolidated financial reporting. Cash management solves key banking requirements such as receipts, account reconciliation, and centralized payments. Supply chain adds sales order management and purchasing. The latest release also includes new multi-site manufacturing requirements
(POV): New Enterprise Edition makes it easier to consider Plex as part of a two-tier ERP/Manufacturing strategy. New financial features make the product more CFO friendly. Meanwhile, the supply chain features such as centralized sales order and billing, and purchasing functions set the stage for future commerce capabilities as manufacturers explore direct sales versus distributor models. A key win is the ability to complete automated inter-entity billing as part of the distributed order fulfillment process.
New features and enhancements build on the core Manufacturing Cloud. SmartPlex Mobile is delivered on both Android and iOS. Manufacturers can now access key reports and analytic dashboards. Plex Finite Scheduling helps customers plan and manage availability and utilization of employees, tools, fixtures, work-center space, and other resources. Key features include capable to promise analysis, dynamic calendars, forecasting, and complex job scheduling. Global capabilities also include VAT calculation for EMEA, Brazil tax calculations, and nine languages.
(POV): Customers at PowerPlex raved about the role based library of IntelliPlex dashboards and reports. They applauded the ability to access a full view at any point in time with the new mobile capabilities. Finite scheduling also received a warm welcome as the dynamic calendar user experience showed how easy it would be to run a job schedule. Plex has improved its globalization capabilities as new customers across 1,100 facilities in 20 countries, and nine languages add requirements to each release.
Improved user experience takes a role-based approach and supports augmented reality. New role based user experiences cover from the shop floor to executives in the top floor. User experience transcends device and deployment options. The Google Glass integration enables operators to see and act on live data and shop floor transactions.
(POV): The new user experience serves up contextual information by role which is a best practcie. If properly designed, Constellation believes this should improve relevancy and relieve operators of information overload. Roles include manufacturing but also financial and administrative leaders. The integration with Google Glass improves the human to machine interaction and also keeps hands free for work and safety.
The Flickr Feed From PowerPlex 2014
<iframe align=center src=http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?user_id=35408001@N04&set_id=72157645112740565&detail=yes frameBorder=”0″ scrolling=no width=”600″ height=”500″></iframe>
The Bottom Line: Manufacturing System Replacement Cycles Have Woken Up From Their Dormancy
In the past three years, Constellation has seen an increase in inquiries and vendor selections for manufacturing ERP. The shift to local based manufacturing, cheaper domestic energy, and more automated complex manufacturing has created a new manufacturing renaissance in North America. While Plex is often in short lists, Plex is not a newcomer in the market. In fact the company began in 1995 as a client/server shop built on Progress. In 2001, the company moved to a cloud based approach. Still early in the market for manufacturing system replacement cycles, the company plowed ahead. As cloud adoption increased, interest increased in cloud based manufacturing solutions as an opportunity to replace aging systems.
Plex has done a great job moving beyond it’s initial automobile OEM roots for discrete manufacturing. Plex’s signature features are the rigorous traceability, quality, and safety capabilities and has expanded its market share in aerospace, food and beverage, life sciences, and medical manufacturing. In addition, the product is well positioned for sensor and analytical ecosystems critical to the Internet of Things. At PowerPlex, Constellation had the opportunity to interview craft beer manufacturers, small batch food manufacturers, and small A&D shops. Constellation sees this space as an emerging growth category given the estimated $50B manufacturing and tier two ERP replacement market over the next 20 years.
Your POV:
Are you looking at ERP and manufacturing solutions overhaul? Do you need specialized requirements for your industry? How are you doing this today? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.
Please let us know if you need help with vendor selection efforts. Here’s how we can assist:
Vendor selection
Implementation partner selection
Connecting with other pioneers
Sharing best practices
Designing a next gen apps strategy
Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
Demystifying software licensing
Related Research:
News Analysis: Acumatica Raises $10M In Series C Funding, Aims For 1B In Revenue By 2023
News Analysis: Aptean Six Months After The CDC Software And Consona Merger
Slide Share: The CMO vs CIO – Pathways To Collaboration
Event Report: Seven Trends From This Year’s Human Resources Technology Conference 2013 (#HRTechConf)
Event Report: Metaio’s #InsideAR Conference Hails The Future Of An Always On, Always Augmented Reality
Event Report: CRM Evolution 2013 – Seven Trends In The Return To Digital Business And Customer Centricity
Research Summary And Speaker Notes: The Identity Manifesto – Why Identity Is At The Heart of Digital Business
News Analysis: Kana Express 13 Addresses Omni-Channel Customer Service for Mid-Market
News Analysis: Oracle’s Cloud Strategy – Revisionist History or Cloud Genius?
News Analysis: The Vibe On Informatica’s Virtual Data Machine
Monday’s Musings: The Controversy Surrounding Gartner’s CRM Market Share Analysis
Research Summary: Constellation Cosmos – Cloud Bill of Rights for SaaS Apps, Actian and Netsuite Achieve Epic Status
Executive Profiles: Kirill Tatarinov, President Microsoft Business Solutions
Event Report: Microsoft Dynamics Convegence 2013 (#conv13)
Event Report: Customers Very Happy At Ultimate Connections 2013 (#ulticonnect)
Event Report: Informatica Analyst Day Reveals A Growth Strategy
Trends: Seven Priorities In The Shift From CMO to Chief Digital Officer
News Analysis: Adobe Behances The Creative Class With $150M Community Acquisition
Market Maker 1:1: Steve Miranda, Oracle Fusion Applications Update – The Inside Story
Monday’s Musings: Understand The Four Organizational Personas Of Disruptive Tech Adoption
Event Report: IFS World Conference 2012 – Innovations Abound Beyond ERP (#IFSWoCo2012)
News Analysis: SnapLogic Snaps Up $20M In Series C Funding For Cloud Integration
Event Report: The Day 0 & Day 1 Tweet Stream From #OOW12
Event Report: The Tweet Stream From #DF12
Event Report: Dreamforce X (#DF12) Emerges As The South By Southwest (#SXSW) For The Enterprise
News Analysis: Epicor Acquires Solarsoft, Moves Closer To $1B in Annual Revenues
Monday’s Musings: The New Engagement Platform Drives The Shift From Transactions
News Analysis: KANA Enters MidMarket With Trinicom Acquisition
Best Practices: From First To Worst – Continental In A Post United World, Lessons In Next Gen Customer Experience
Monday’s Musings: Seven Basic Privacy Rights Users Should Demand For Social Business
Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
Product Review: Google+, Consumerization of IT, and Crossing The Chasm For Enterprise Social Business
Monday’s Musings: Using MDM To Build A Complete Customer View In A Social Era
Monday’s Musings: Mastering When and How High End Brands Should Use Daily Deal Sites Such As Groupon
Best Practices: Applying Social Business Challenges To Social Business Maturity Models
Research Summary: Software Insider’s Top 25 Posts For 2010
Best Practices: Five Simple Rules For Social Business
Research Report: How The Five Pillars Of Consumer Tech Influence Enterprise Innovation
Research Report: Next Gen B2B and B2C E-Commerce Priorities Reflect Macro Level Trends
Tuesday’s Tip: Applying The Five Stages Of Adoption Towards SCRM Projects
Monday’s Musings: Avoiding Failure In Social CRM Projects Requires Ecosystem Coordination
Research Report: The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM – The New Rules of Relationship Management
Monday’s Musings: Why Every Social CRM Initiative Needs An MDM Backbone
Monday’s Musings: 10 Essential Elements For Social Enterprise Apps
Reprints
Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .
Disclosure
Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.
* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions. However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.
Copyright © 2001 – 2014 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!
The post Event Report: #PowerPlex At The Crux Of The New Manufacturing Renaissance appeared first on A Software Insider's Point of View.