Press realease - September 22, 2022

CONTACT Software listed as Representative Vendor in 2022 Gartner® Market Guide for PLM Software in Discrete Manufacturing Industries


CONTACT Software has been mentioned as a Representative Vendor in this year’s PLM Market Guide. The report also provides an outlook on the development of the PLM market.


In July 2022, the analysts at Gartner published their current “Market Guide for PLM Software in Discrete Manufacturing Industries”. The report mentions CONTACT Software as a Representative Vendor.[1] 

The CONTACT Elements portfolio reflects numerous aspects that are crucial for a future-proof Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). These include the shift of PLM solutions to the cloud and the emergence of modular IT architectures that can be flexibly combined, so-called composable architectures.  

“As design, engineering and manufacturing become more global, PLM software native to the cloud makes collaboration throughout the life cycle more efficient,” says Gartner. 

CONTACT Software’s cloud solutions are already successfully used by numerous customers. The CONTACT Cloud requires less resources for system implementation, maintenance, and upgrades, so that companies can focus even more on their core business. The shift of services to the cloud is also transforming the business model of PLM providers. “By year-end 2026, two-thirds of PLM applications in use will be subscriptions, rather than perpetual licenses,” the experts at Gartner predict. 

According to Gartner, “By year-end 2025, 30% of available PLM applications will be built on top of composable technologies.”

Composable architectures give companies the ability to combine different application modules into customized solutions. As business conditions change, these can be expanded or reduced as needed. In its “Product Leader Insight: Why You Need Composable Solutions to Address Manufacturer Needs”, Gartner mentions the CONTACT Elements platform as an example of a composable architecture.[2] Our Elements platform comprises more than 50 application modules which can be freely combined. It enables customers to implement end-to-end processes along the digital thread and across system boundaries. 

Gartner’s analysts see the digital thread as the PLM approach of the future. “By year-end 2025, digital threads will replace the mainstream product data management (PDM) approach that dominates PLM investment today”. In “Innovation Insight for the Digital Thread”, Gartner sees CONTACT as one of the Representative Providers for the digital thread.[3] 

With access to Gartner, the complete PLM Market Guide is available here.

[1] Gartner, Market Guide for PLM Software in Discrete Manufacturing Industries, July 5, 2022.
[2] Gartner, Product Leader Insight: Why You Need Composable Solutions to Address Manufacturer Needs, june 14, 2021.
[3] Gartner, Innovation Insight for the Digital Thread, June 7, 2021.


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Jonas Richter
Corporate Communication