Ajay Prasad, PLM process improvement expert and US patent-holder, takes a business values-based approach to designing comprehensive technology solutions for digital transformations, implementing innovation with organizational change management

Ajay Prasad is an industry process and subject matter expert (SME) for one of the world’s top three providers of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, and a Senior Member of the global Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). For nearly 25 years, his comprehensive technology solutions have enabled clients in critical sectors worldwide—including manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, industrial equipment, high-tech, energy, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods—to manage the product design and development process at every stage of the product development cycle. Among his many career achievements, he has earned a US patent for a unique digital innovation, and has another US patent pending for his original contributions to a PLM process solution. 

Throughout his career, Mr. Prasad has focused on collaborative PLM technology applications and integrations across multiple versions, channels, industries, and geographies, using a business value-based approach to solving customers’ needs. In designing and implementing customized PLM solutions, he believes that helping organizations to optimize efficiency and generate better operational outcomes requires leadership skills in organizational change management, as much as the technical skills to deploy cutting-edge technologies. 

When Mr. Prasad completed his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management, he had not envisioned a career in tech, but as an eager 21-year old, he seized the opportunity to be a mainframes programmer at a global technology leader and found that he loved the work. This led him to receive a master’s in Computer Science at The University of Birmingham (UK), which then earned him a position on a PLM project for a hi-tech company. He says he never looked back.

“PLM has such a broad scope of use throughout the product lifecycle, from requirements management through product configuration, design, manufacturing, change management, project management, quality, and supplier management leading to product launch and end of life, that no two customer engagements are the same. The business challenges that customers face during product development vary across industries and the scale of the customer’s business. Being in front of a customer, learning about their business, understanding and solving their business problems through technology and processes, and delivering value to make the customer successful is what continues to motivate me, even after twenty plus years in the PLM space,” says Mr. Prasad.

Leveraging more than two decades of experience in PLM project leadership and software development, from solution architecture, technical design, development, implementation, and testing to technical sales, Mr. Prasad has risen to the top of his field, becoming a member of an elite team of global experts who support technical sales, post-sales services, and research and development teams in helping their customers realize the full value of their PLM solutions. 

He says, “PLM is critical for new product development, but PLM isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Having worked with customers from large multi-national companies to smaller businesses, I see that the challenges and priorities vary from one customer to another. However, the end state that they are trying to realize in their product development process does share common values. It is critical to spend as much time as possible listening to a customer, understanding their business and pain points, before attempting to design the solution. Rather than leading with technology and defining the user experience, it is always better to do the opposite—lead with the expected end user experience and outcome, and then find the technology and best process to deliver that sublime experience. Having said this, implementing an enterprise PLM solution is as much about managing organizational change as it is about cutting-edge technology.”

As an SME driving complex digital transformations in PLM, Mr. Prasad has enabled customers to realize the value of a data-driven approach to their product development processes. Based on his extensive experience, he has developed best practices and key strategies for optimizing PLM processes, which he shares with clients at the outset of any project. 

“PLM transformation projects can appear to be challenging depending on the scope of the project. As tempting as it might be to quickly start using PLM software by adopting simpler product development processes, such as document management, requirements, project management, etc., that might appear to be the low hanging fruit, my recommendation has always been to start with managing the product data and then build all the other processes in the context of the product data,” says Mr. Prasad. 

“Regardless of whether you are working with larger or smaller businesses, there are some fundamental elements, such as leading the solution design with managing product data before attempting to define the other new product development processes, like requirements, suppliers, project, quality, and document management,” he adds. “As the name states, PLM is all about product lifecycle management and once the product data—configurations, 3D designs, bill of materials and change processes—have been defined and proved out, it is always easier to then build the other processes versus doing it the other way round. While it might appear to be diving in head first in the deep end of the pool, the time to value for the customer is often shorter once the product data has been efficiently managed on the PLM platform.”

He adds, “In the era of cloud technologies, customers must look to a cloud solution first, unless the nature of their business demands an on-premise solution. Adopting a cloud-based SaaS PLM solution reduces the overall cost of ownership of an enterprise PLM solution, guarantees availability of the solution across global teams on the latest version of the software, and helps align their business processes with out-of-the-box PLM processes and capabilities, thereby eliminating costly customizations. Customers need to take an approach of eliminating data replication, synchronization, and related overheads. Establishing their own team of SMEs who work along with technology product SMEs, and focus on the outcome versus replicating an existing process, often leads to simpler solutions. The goal should not be to continue the same way of working, but to use PLM and transform the way of working in a sustainable manner. Finally, in large scale PLM projects, it is quite easy to attempt to do everything in one go. This isn’t scalable. Rather, it is important to define a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that could be used by a subset of users, and then continuously add on to the MVP while increasing the user base.”

In addition to project and process leadership, Mr. Prasad believes that people leadership is equally critical to managing internal and external stakeholder engagement, and building the consensus required to drive a successful and sustainable implementation. He says, “There are often several stakeholders who have their own priorities. My approach has been to become a partner rather than a vendor, understand competing priorities and convert them into joint opportunities that are a win-win for all.”

Mr. Prasad continues: “Some of the common challenges are scope creep – translating the art of the possible into reality in a timely and cost-effective manner. Having a governance model and defining an MVP go a long way in setting realistic expectations, and not biting off more than what one can chew. I also see resistance to change, because users are comfortable doing things a certain way and are unwilling to try something new. This is more of organizational change management than technology. Having objectives and goals driven top down, working with a close set of SMEs, and building champions with a common objective across all tiers of the organization have helped me significantly in bringing about a sustainable change for end users, and leading them on a path to realize the value of their investment in PLM.”

Prioritizing the customer experience is a guiding principle that has driven Mr. Prasad’s approach throughout his career, and one that he thinks will be even more critical as the highly specialized PLM field evolves over the next decade. Whether he is working with clients, sharing his subject matter expertise at industry conferences, or training and mentoring software engineers, he advises, “Because PLM is a niche area where one gets to work with best-in-class technologies and exposure to a wide array of customers and challenges, it is imperative to listen to the customer, understand their challenges and their motivation for purchasing and using software, and partner with them. One can indeed learn a lot from a customer. While the technology perspective is something that a PLM professional brings to the table, the business perspective from the customer is equally important.”

“You might think you’ve come up with something really cool and slick, but if a customer doesn’t see it the same way, then it is going to end up on a shelf with no one using it. As engineers and technology professionals, we sometimes can get caught up in features and functions, when we need to focus instead on the values and the outcomes, because that is what drives a customer to buy and use software,” he adds. 

Mr. Prasad says that his message to PLM engineers is to lead with the customer experience, focus on becoming a trusted advisor and problem solver and always be ready for change. He concludes, “As PLM professionals, we need to adapt to change, take on something new and keep reinventing ourselves. A great example of this is the cloud and AI revolution. We need to embrace and adapt or we could become extinct.”