Demand for PTC FlexPLM® V12, retail’s most widely used, visual and easy to use PLM platform, drives record growth in user numbers, new customer acquisition, and market share.
We're proud to be featured in The PLM Report 2022– a co-branded annual publication from WhichPLM and The Interline and we're delighted to report record growth in key areas. We now have over 250,000 active daily users worldwide, from over 1,200 iconic customer brands, using our FlexPLM solution for their product development. This record usage comes as a result of new customer partnerships, expansions and a 99% customer retention rate. Due to this tremendous growth, we've increased our already dominant overall market share of Retail PLM users.
Speaking about their decision to standardize on the FlexPLM platform for all of their footwear and apparel brands, Stephanie Anetrella, Senior Manager, Digital Product Creation at VF Corporation explained: “VF is a multi-brand corporation, we’ve grown through acquisitions and because of that, we have almost every PLM system out there and different processes for each one…VF did a full assessment on our current PLM platforms and the others in this space to determine what our go-forward strategy would be, and we’ve landed on FlexPLM for that solution. We’re focusing on a standardized platform with fully utilized capabilities using the leader in the footwear and apparel space.”
The latest instalment of The PLM Report (freely available to download from whichplm.com and theinterline.com) delivers exclusive retail PLM market analysis, provides technology buying advice, and features detailed profiles of all key PLM vendors. To participate in the Report, each PLM vendor was asked to provide evidence and data around new PLM sales, existing customer expansions, company resources, as well as up-to-date tallies of in-house and supply chain users.
Out of the retail PLM vendors that participated in The Report, PTC emerged significantly ahead of the competition based on the number of active users – reaffirming FlexPLM’s status as the retail industry’s most widely-used PLM platform. With over 250,000 combined active users, across internal teams and the external value-chain such as suppliers and factories, PTC’s record figures are approximately two to three times the public license numbers provided by the second-largest apparel and fashion-focused PLM vendor.
“The PLM Report 2022 is the latest and largest in a long-running series of industry-defining reports that capture the true size, scope, and composition of the PLM market for retail, footwear, and apparel,” explains Mark Harrop, CEO of WhichPLM, and founder of The Interline. “This year, PTC has listed a roster of new customers that includes some of the world’s most recognizable brands, and further growth to an already iconic and market-leading user base.”
An impressive 22,000 of PTC’s active software licenses were sold in the 2021/22 financial calendar year alone, representing a double-digit increase in users year-over-year, providing further evidence of PTC’s position as the preferred PLM partner for global retailers and brands looking for a truly scalable, secure, easy to use PLM platform with a brand-new, eComm-like, fully-responsive user experience that’s supported by a suite of DPC (digital product creation), sustainability, and value-chain solutions.
Speaking about the new user experience in FlexPLM V12, Leith Irvine, Director of Product Development at lululemon said: “The UX design is second to none. That’s going to revolutionize the lives of our product developers.”
Furthermore, a product development manager at another long-time PTC FlexPLM customer, Ralph Lauren, said: “Congrats to the PTC team on the launch of FlexPLM V12! It's exciting to see the evolution of this product.....PTC's powerful PLM engine, now with a new and more sophisticated and facilitative user interface.”
While some PLM vendors chose to keep their user figures private, we've openly revealed how our record total of users is split between internal teams (74%) and supply chain partners (26%) – a balance that reflects the trust customers have in FlexPLM, and the rate at which our customers are digitally connected to their colleagues and suppliers, delivering new levels of collaboration, traceability, and visibility in a complex and strained global supply chain ecosystem.
“Put simply, FlexPLM is known throughout the world as the most widely-used PLM platform in the retail, footwear, apparel and consumer goods industries, and we’re excited to report on our record growth,” says Bill Brewster, Senior Vice President and General Manager of PTC’s Retail Business Unit. “I’m thrilled that quarter of a million users from the world’s most iconic brands and retailers are gaining competitive advantage from our latest FlexPLM V12, and our other best-in-class supporting ecosystem technologies. Users of our FlexPLM platform can connect and collaborate internally and with their extended value-chain, which is critical for getting products to market at speed and scale. It’s what we call working at digital speed. I believe our incredible growth is a testament to the confidence that new and existing customers have in FlexPLM V12 and our long-term strategy and commitment to the retail industry, and the great women and men that use our software.”
In addition to the user numbers published by us in The PLM Report, we're also upgrading many existing customers to the latest version of the FlexPLM platform as part of a global upgrade program designed to provide long-term users of FlexPLM with access to the latest innovations to effectively manage today’s market pressures and support the post-pandemic way of working.
