What does that mean for PLM? PLM is not dead, as many doom-mongers have claimed, but is instead more important than ever – here I agree completely with Karl Heinz Zachries, managing director of the sponsor CONTACT Software. However, in my opinion, it is not enough to simply keep repeating this mantra which, for engineers like us, is perfectly self-evident. Instead, we need to convince the new stakeholders in the value chain – managers in the software development, production planning, service fields, etc. whom I wish I could see represented in greater numbers at the Symposium – of exactly where the value proposition of PLM lies.