An Aberdeen Group report on PLM, titled, " The Best Kept Secret of Top SMB Product Developers," benchmarked more than 290 SMB (Small and Medium Business) survey respondents in July 2008, finding that SMB adoption of PLM solutions is expected to grow 200 percent over the next 2 years. In addition, SMB professionals using PLM reported strong return on investment, including 18.5 percent improvement in product profit margins, 16 percent faster design release to manufacturing, and 54 percent quicker approval or rejection of engineering change orders.
Researchers determined top issues driving PLM adoption by SMBs include the ability to create higher quality products, manage increased complexity, improve collaboration and improve the speed to market. SMBs also can use PLM to help them conform to international requirements.
Source: Rennie, E. "Accelerated Innovation: Midsize firms rush to adopt product life cycle management." APICS Magazine, Nov/Dec 2008: pp. 32-36.