Earlier this month, I went over the top three PLM offerings according to the recent Forrester 2023 Wave report, which examines the positioning of various PLM systems in terms of their leadership. Though achieving fourth place, Aras is one of the more interesting entries in the report due to its green focus. So interesting, in fact, that it warrants its own spotlight here.
Aras develops the low-code platform Innovator, and has already been ranked as one of the PLM industry’s so-called “Mind Share Leaders” by CIMdata. In Forrester's new 2023 Q1 Wave report, Aras ended up in the leader wave—a position which means it is back in this elite group after the 2021 Wave report, where it was evaluated as a “Strong Performer.”
Today, Aras is generally seen as one of the strong suppliers of PLM software due to its Innovator platform and its applications for designing, building and operating complex products. Forrester describes its decision to place Aras in the "Leaders Wave" in the 2023 Q1 evaluation, saying, “Aras appeals to manufacturers with a strong interest in exploiting a low-code platform for their own specific approach to managing the digital thread, from as-designed to as-manufactured and as-maintained.”
In the Aras blog, CEO Roque Martin commented on Forrester’s ranking, stating, “Yesterday’s rigid technologies are no longer appropriate for today’s businesses—they need an adaptable, open and flexible platform. We reimagined PLM to be purpose-built to deliver impact wherever and however it’s needed—as a holistic platform, a point solution or a flexible overlay to existing systems. We believe being named a leader in the Forrester Wave evaluation validates the way we’re transforming product lifecycle management.”
In the Forrester Wave report, Aras received a high ranking for compliance, sustainability, green PLM support, performance and its innovation roadmap.
How Big is Aras?
One question of specific interest in this context is: how big is Aras? The company generally doesn’t reveal any official figures regarding revenues, but claims that their annual growth is and has been significant during the past decade. According to Forrester’s research, we’re talking about annual revenue growth of around 30 percent. This indicates that we can assume total revenues are presently at a level surpassing $100 million.
A fact that stands out in this context is that the open, or free, version of Aras has, “more that 1 million license-activated downloads over the last 10 years,” according to the Wave report.
Moreover, if we look at the company’s customer list, it contains around 450 enterprise clients globally, including many well-known companies such as Airbus, BAE Systems, GM, Toshiba and Microsoft.
Forrester’s Four Wave Levels
Going back to Forrester’s latest PLM Wave, one of the report’s main points is the graphic illustration of how the analyst positions the actors in different layers, or waves:
- “Leaders,” where Aras Innovator is now located, is the highest ranking in the report.
- “Strong performers” is the level closest to the leader’s wave.
- “Contenders” is the designation of the third wave.
- “Challengers” is the lowest wave, where the analyst placed more risky solutions.
In the report, these “Waves” are positioned in a graphic illustration where the vertical left side depicts strength in terms of current offerings and capabilities, and the horizontal illustrates strength in terms of future strategies.
Generally, the report is based on a 22-category evaluation of the most prominent PLM players, where the top score in each category is 5 (“strong”) and the lowest score is 0 (“weak”). Clear leaders in Forrester’s latest Wave are Siemens Digital Industries Software with the Teamcenter/Xcelerator portfolio and PTC with the Windchill platform. Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE is placed third with Aras Innovator close behind.
Aras Innovator’s Top Ratings, and Some Less High Ones
For Aras PLM, the promotion to the top wave means that it is now considered one of the industry leaders. According to Forrester, Aras’ Innovator solution demonstrates strengths in ideation, data sources, risk management, digital thread, extended Bill of Materials, software bill variants, compliance sustainability and “green PLM.”
Aras’ earned its best scores in a number of evaluation criteria:
- In terms of current offerings, Innovator received the top score (5.0) for “Compliance, sustainability, green PLM support.” This criterion considers how a supplier's solution helps customers meet sustainability goals and manages the entire lifecycle of product assets and components from collaborative procurement and design to disposal of hazardous elements and reuse or recycling of other elements.
- On the strategy side, Aras got the top score (5.0) for “Performance” and its “Innovation roadmap.”
In its comments, Forrester mentions Aras’ roadmap that enables its customers to upgrade on average every 18 months—which has positive implications regarding the clients’ abilities to exploit modern technologies. It also supports Aras’ strategy to fully support the digital thread and digital twin capabilities for manufacturers.
This is high praise for Aras’ digital thread and their extended BOM capabilities. The digital thread, according to Forrester's parameters, provides answers to questions such as, how does a vendor's solution follow open standards and support the digital thread from an “as-designed” to “as-manufactured” to “as-maintained” perspective? And how does the solution support track and trace?
The extended BOM parameters reflect how a supplier's solution helps manage data from all relevant disciplines (mechanical, electrical, electronic, embedded software) in a single BOM.
Having said that, Aras also received a slightly lower score (a 3 on the 5-point scale) in the following criteria regarding existing solution offerings: design, test, risk management and certification, short-term product life cycle design and supply chain use cases.
On the strategy side, the same rating, 3.0, applied for product vision, execution roadmap and market approach. But overall, these are decent ratings with some important peaks, as mentioned above.
The Forrester report also notes that, “reference customers noted the solution’s superior ability to manage multidomain data, upgrade experience, strategic partnership, roadmap and support for accelerated development of high-quality products.”
In short, these are top reviews for green PLM.