Lifecycle Perspectives on Product Data Management

The Enterprise Impact of IT-Enabled Product Data Management
The economics of the world have been swiftly changing due to increasing distribution of work. Technology-enabled communication and collaboration has allowed companies to be in multiple places around the world, taking advantage of the best combination of foreign and domestic conditions. As technology has enabled communication and collaboration, it also has allowed an explosion of information and data to be shared almost instantaneously and in large quantities. The combination of these changes, while beneficial in several ways such as reduced costs and better products, has created its share of challenges as well (Deshmukh and Patil 2002; Goh 2003). One of the major challenges for companies that produce hardware and software has been to effectively manage product data: where, when, how, and by whom. Questions are being asked as the need for access to the right data at the right place, right time and right quantity becomes increasingly important.