Product Lifecycle Software Reborn At Nontechie Firms; The Market Is Growing; The consumer products sector spent $824 mil on PLM software last year.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: J. BONASIA

Product lifecycle management software came out of the computer-aided design software world. As such, it was used at first mostly to help make techie or complex products such as cars, jets and cell phones.

PLM, though, now is growing fastest among companies that make consumer goods, clothes, drugs and other everyday products.

Companies such as Procter & Gamble, J. Crew and General Electric's GE Plastics unit cranked up spending on PLM programs in the second half of 2003, says Kevin O'Marah of AMR Research.

He says the consumer product sector spent $824 million on PLM last year. That's a fraction of total PLM spending of $10.7 billion, but AMR says the niche is outpacing PLM sales overall. The firm says the sector's sales are expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 17% for the next five years vs. 13% for PLM overall and just 5.8% for most of the business software application market overall.

"This is a significant area for future investment," O'Marah said.

More industries are adopting PLM software because they have no choice, says Ramsey Walker, co-chief executive of Freeborders, a privately held maker of this software.