Software User Community Success Story: PLM World®

About the Organization

PLM World® is an independent user group organization whose mission is to “be the Voice of the User in providing an open forum for the exchange of ideas within the Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software product environment.” PLM World is a membership organization that provides regional user groups and special interest groups to PLM Software users, as well as events, conferences, other networking opportunities. PLM World also helped Siemens create their Customer Involvement Process. This program allows the user community to play a collaborative role in the future development of Siemens PLM Software products.

Before Socious Online Community Software

  • PLM World’s mission was to provide a voice and community for users of Siemens PLM Software, but it struggled to get users to connect and collaborate.
  • The quality event that attendees of PLM World’s conferences experience in person was not matched by PLM World’s online experience – from the registration process to the call-for-papers to the peer-to-peer networking.
  • PLM World was unable to manage their online information and tools. Anything larger than a small change needed to be sent to IT for a time and cost estimation. This often resulted in an inability to address members’ needs in a timely and cost-effective manner.

How did Socious Online Community Software Help?

  • Membership Growth. Membership is growing due in large part to making Siemens PLM Software users aware of the access to resources and people available in the PLM World online community.
  • Member Engagement. PLM World has seen a measurable increase in member engagement. Members are excited to have the opportunity to engage year-round to get support, find answers, and send feedback to Siemens.
  • Conference Management. Use the event management tools build into their online community platform, PLM World conference attendees can build their agenda online rather than standing in line to select their sessions and tracks onsite. They can also connect with other members and speakers before, during, and after the conference.
  • Call-for-Papers. The speaker management system built into Socious online community software allows community members proposing a conference session and complete the application in much less time since much of their information is pre-populated into the speaker management process from the online community.

“I think our members are really happy. They’re just happy that they are finally able to do the things that we have been telling them that they can do. We’re giving them the ability to be engaged with other users and it is making them want to be more engaged.” – Kati Kenyon, PLM World

Video Music Credit: ACOUSTIC BLUES (Jason Shaw) / CC BY 3.0