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Too Complex to Ensure Mass User Adoption
Updated September 22, 2019

Too Complex to Ensure Mass User Adoption

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Siemens PLM Software

Siemens PLM Software, Teamcenter, is used across our entire organisation to manage the entire product lifecycle. Data is created by the designers and engineers, it is then made manufacturable by process engineers, and manufactured by operations. The entire process is done within the software suite and allows full traceability of the product, implemented from cradle to grave. Teamcenter does its job really well and ensures that a product of consistent quality is delivered to an end-user.
  • The software is really well suited for multi-site working due to the strong back-end and collaboration tools.
  • The software is highly configurable meaning that it can fit into most organisations existing processes by means of its configuration. (This is both a major strength and major weakness.
  • The software is built to accommodate multiple simultaneous users, all changing data at the same time, and all doing different things. The system has never crashed on me in this regard and always delivers what is expected.
  • It has too many features built into one software package. Whilst this may be considered an advantage to some, the lack of focus in the package means that there is no clear cut way to use it.
  • As mentioned in the "Pros" section, the configurability of the product is so great that it becomes an advantage. Whilst PLM is intended to enforce best practice in product design and management, the level of configurability means that companies are able to transfer their sub-standard practices into this world-class software and continue making the same mistakes as always.
  • The cost per seat to use it is very high. Whilst PLM is a great product to use, at this price, only enterprise-level customers can afford to use it.
  • + Siemens PLM Software, Teamcenter, has made it really easy to draw up datapacks that conform to a certain standard. These datapacks are reviewed by the right people and released for manufacture to the correct departments. The result is a product that lives up to design and quality expectations.
  • - The initial capital outlay for the product is astronomical when software, server upgrades, bandwidth, and human resources are considered. The ROI on this will be many years due to lost production time, initial costs, and the ongoing cost of training and mistakes.
  • - The software has resulted in a lot of confusion within the business. Many users have chosen not to use the software (although that is not allowed) because they feel they cannot deliver on the work if they do.
As previously mentioned, due to the intense amount of features and modules present in the software, the usability of the software suffers greatly. Many of the features are not used in our context, and many of the modules are not purchased, but the options are still present on the interface leading to a lot of clutter, much of which is never used. The interfaces suffer from a lack of design and tend to feel like a conglomerate of Windows 98 elements.
I have never personally dealt with Siemens customer support, but the consultants who did the initial setup of Siemens PLM (Teamcenter) did a really great job in answering all of our support queries in record time. Many of the queries were directed back to Siemens and answers were given via the consultants; this process never took more than 24 hours and usually solved the problems we had.
I was not part of the evaluation team that decided to use Siemens PLM Software, and I have also not been exposed to many other PLM software packages.

I have previously used PTC Windchill PDM software which I found to be a lot easier to navigate, to use, and to perform tasks in. I would easily revert to Windchill to perform the functions needed, except, Windchill is built specifically to integrate with a different CAD package, Pro/Engineer Wildfire or Creo.
Well suited for:
  • Enterprise companies who want to enforce a specific workflow to get products from concept to production;
  • Companies who have a large workforce that do not talk to each other in person but communicate product data between departments in the form of datapacks.
Not Well Suited for:
  • Companies and individuals who have very few products of which many are very simple. The cost is just not justified for these.
  • Companies without an IT department to manage the Teamcenter software (it is a lot of work and requires a full-time administrator).