Last month in this column I wrote about Siemens Answers for PLM and how we are helping businesses turn more ideas into successful products, regardless of their size. This month I would like to take a closer look at what that means for a rapidly growing segment of product lifecycle management (PLM) users - small to medium sized businesses (SMBs).

These manufacturers face some of the most difficult challenges of any business today, and studies by industry analysts show that SMBs are investing in PLM at an accelerating rate to solve them. Why? Because, as Aberdeen Group noted in its Product Innovation Agenda 2010 report, "these organizations are increasingly recognizing product innovation as an opportunity to grow business,"¹ and PLM offers ways to respond quickly to customer requirements and bring innovation to market faster.

At Siemens PLM Software we understand SMBs' needs to gain productivity, efficiency and flexibility, which is why we have created a new Customer Responsiveness Resource Centre dedicated to helping SMBs meet their greatest challenge: turning what customers expect into innovations that do more than they imagined.