In this webinar, our guest, Liz Herbert, VP and Principal Analyst of Forrester Research Inc., shares her research that supports the business case for moving to SaaS PLM. She is joined by Justin DiNunzio, Global Marketing Manager at Siemens Digital Industries Software.

Throughout the presentation, Herbert shares her insight into what makes an organization "Future Fit." This term is used to describe how adaptive, creative, and resilient an organization is and how it strategizes its investments and priorities.

In a recent survey, 83% of respondents said they are already using SaaS products or plan to invest in them in the next 12 months.

Forrester Research explains the benefits of SaaS

The reasons behind a company’s decision to move to a SaaS PLM solution are numerous and every scenario is unique. However, when Forrester compiled its research, it was discovered the central theme among companies that are moving to a SaaS solution is to improve its business agility. This can be summed up in four major categories:

• Faster deployment and development. SaaS PLM is ready to go with no need to procure hardware, perform testing, or install software.
• Frequent automatic updates to business functionality. Users get the latest innovations and regulatory updates faster and less disruptively through frequent and incremental upgrades.
• More sharing and collaboration powered by one version. All users are on the same version of software which eases best practice sharing and speeds time-to-value.
• Many-to-many digital business models powered by one version. Collaboration is easier between employees, partners, customers and connected objects in a real-time, many-to-many way.

How to prepare for a SaaS PLM transition

Signing up for a SaaS software solution is easy enough, but there are some key findings from Forrester’s research to keep in mind during the transition.

• Keep concerns in perspective with what can be delivered in-house. SaaS often outperforms in-house deployment on security and performance and SaaS PLM vendors make bigger investments in these areas than an single firm could do on their own.
• Consider vendor and solution viability. Cloud platforms have lowered the barriers to entry for SaaS startups, but as a result, some SaaS solutions have a short lifespan before the vendor fails, shifts direction or is acquired.
• Think ahead to vendor lock-in. Some of the benefits of SaaS inhibit the ability to switch vendors. There can be data and migration costs with switching.

Watch the on-demand webinar to learn more!