This CIMdata educational webinar will identify the problem and offer actionable ways to encourage executives to provide and maintain the level of support needed to ensure success.
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, USA 9 December 2025—CIMdata, Inc., the leading global research, consulting, and education firm specializing in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and the digital transformation it enables, announces an upcoming free educational webinar, “Winning the C-Suite: How to Build the Executive Case for Sustained PLM Investment.” The webinar will take place on Thursday, 8 January 2026, at 11:00 a.m. (EST) and last for one hour.
PLM initiatives routinely fail to deliver full ROI when top management does not take an active supporting role. Because enterprise PLM initiatives are inherently cross-functional, they require resources spanning disparate areas—such as finance, personnel alignment, and infrastructure—that often fall outside the PLM program manager's scope of control. Gaining initial executive approval is only half the battle; maintaining sustained, high-level sponsorship is essential for success.
This timely webinar will identify the problem and then move beyond that to offer actionable ways to encourage executives to provide and maintain the level of support needed to ensure success.
This webinar will help attendees:
- Develop a Strategic Influence Model: Master the key communication tactics required to influence and educate managers about the necessity of enterprise PLM adoption and expansion across the business.
- Frame PLM for Executive Leadership: Learn how to translate PLM not as an IT project, but as a crucial driver for revenue, market agility, and risk mitigation—the language understood by the CEO and CFO.
- Define Executive-Level PLM Metrics: Identify and select the critical metrics (KPIs) that directly resonate with management's strategic goals, enabling you to quantify and communicate PLM value effectively.
- Establish A Winning and Sustaining Business Case: Discover effective methods to quantify project value and secure sustained financial and operational support from top management.
- Navigate Organizational Hurdles: Understand how to successfully influence and align disparate organizational resources (Finance, HR, Infrastructure) that fall outside the typical PLM program manager's control.
- Build a Sustainable Center of Excellence (COE): Learn how to structure and implement a COE designed to formalize executive involvement and maintain high-level management commitment throughout the PLM initiative's governance lifecycle.
“Creating and maintaining high-level management participation in enterprise-wide PLM initiatives can be the difference between outstanding success and lackluster failure of PLM. Enterprises are complex, and assuring right-sized attention on PLM selection, implementation, and uptake is greatly enhanced when management takes an active role,” stated CIMdata’s Chairman, John MacKrell, who will host this webinar.
John MacKrell has 40+ years of experience applying computer-based solutions to engineering and manufacturing, with over 25 years at CIMdata. He has held senior positions in product management, marketing, research and development, and consulting.
Multiple levels and roles will find the information presented to be valuable: PLM planning and implementation team participants, all levels of management, PLM users (product developers, manufacturing planners, shop floor, quality teams, installation and services practitioners, IT, purchasing, and others)—anyone with a need for digitalization and PLM across an enterprise’s organization.
To find out more, visit https://www.cimdata.com/en/education/educational-webinars/webinar-winning-the-c-suite-how-to-build-the-executive-case-for-sustained-plm-investment. To register for this webinar, please visit https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9081079191154422877.
