Propel, a cloud PLM software company built for the Participation Economy, released its latest annual survey of global manufacturing companies showing that the usage of cloud apps is now substantially higher in 2017. Survey respondents now feel that the cloud is paying off strategically with higher productivity and increased business agility. With modern cloud solutions like Propel helping drive closer customer engagement, manufacturing companies are now seeing the highest increase in adoption in their Engineering and Operations departments.
The 2017 Propel Manufacturing Cloud Survey involved over a hundred respondents at the recent Salesforce Manufacturing Summit, and it revealed major shifts in enterprise cloud adoption compared to last year’s study.
Survey highlights include:
- Cloud adoption is booming: About ⅔ of survey respondents have been using cloud apps for over 5 years - a 2x increase from 2016. Similarly, approximately ½ of respondents used 5 or more enterprise cloud apps - also a 2x increase from 2016.
- Engineering is on the rise: Almost ⅓ of survey respondents said that their engineers were using enterprise cloud apps, the highest yearly increase among all departments. Last year, only 25% said that their engineers were using enterprise cloud apps – among the lowest adoption across all departments.
- Cloud benefits are more strategic: While reducing IT costs remained important in 2017 (according to 62% of respondents), the more strategic benefits of higher productivity (72%) and business agility (60%) dramatically rose to be among the top cloud benefits in 2017.
- Integration is the top cloud concern: In 2017, integration remained the top challenge with cloud apps (according to 51% of respondents). Last year, survey respondents reported security as a low concern, but it rose significantly in 2017.
“Even as recently as five years ago, manufacturing companies were still hesitant about adopting cloud technologies. Fast forward to 2017, and manufacturers see SaaS as a core component of their digital transformation and customer engagement strategy,” explains Miguel Tam, VP Marketing at Propel. “Our latest survey shows that manufacturing companies are now embracing cloud technologies like Propel to better engage customers throughout the product lifecycle and achieve significant business benefits.”
To view Propel’s 2017 infographic summary, which includes recommendations for manufacturing cloud success, and to view the original press release, please click here.
