- Forrester’s Q3 2025 PLM Wave ranks Siemens Teamcenter as the top platform for discrete manufacturers, with perfect scores in 11 criteria and “Customer Favorite” status.
- ABI Research also rates Siemens #1, citing market share, partner ecosystem, transparent pricing, and AI momentum (e.g., Teamcenter Copilot).
- PTC Windchill (and Arena) scores highly for innovation and implementation, especially in digital thread, real-time product tracking, cloud readiness, and support.
- Aras Innovator and Dassault Enovia remain leaders, with Aras strong in traceability/requirements and Dassault notable for MBSE and 3DEXPERIENCE-based digital thread.
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The PLM software landscape for discrete manufacturers has solidified around a core group of leaders—Siemens, PTC, Aras, and Dassault Systèmes—each differentiating with balanced combinations of enterprise-scale capability, strategic clarity, and evolving technology trends.
Siemens’ dominance comes not just from its breadth of functionality—digital thread, embedded software, interoperability, multi-domain BOM support—but also from execution: high customer satisfaction, transparent pricing, and strategy credibly delivered via its Xcelerator portfolio. Its recognition as “Customer Favorite” and perfect scores across 11 evaluative criteria in the Forrester Wave™: PLM for Discrete Manufacturers Q3 2025 demonstrate both current leadership and innovation velocity.
PTC continues to execute strongly as well. ABI Research ranks Windchill and Arena among the top offerings, with leading marks in digital thread, real-time tracking, and cloud readiness across their PLM suites. It also benefits from its robustness in service-related use cases and post-sale support. However, PTC lags Siemens narrowly in strategy criteria—such as pricing flexibility and partner ecosystem reach.
Aras’ rise into the leadership tier reflects deep strengths in newer strategic domains: traceability, ideation & requirements management (including AI/text unstructured inputs), sourcing intelligence (supplier & alternate component visibility), and support for configure-to-order and reuse. These are increasingly critical to manufacturers facing supply chain volatility, sustainability mandates, and customer demand for variants. Aras’ lower dependency on system integrators or VARs for deployment adds to its appeal.
Dassault rounds out the leadership group in ABI Research’s rankings. While its strength in model-based systems engineering (MBSE), modular purchasing, and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform remain compelling, it faces the same cross-industry pressures: aligning cloud deployment options, embedding AI, flexible licensing, and maintaining partner ecosystem momentum.
Strategic implications are substantial. For buyers, the current differentiation is shifting from “can I manage BOMs and design data?” toward “how well can this vendor enable AI, reuse, sourcing visibility, sustainability, and composable deployment?” For investors or boardrooms, the winners will be those that can navigate regulatory and environmental demands, supply chain risk, and customer expectations for digital twin and inclusive data traceability. Open questions remain: how will pricing and licensing models evolve, especially as SaaS and subscriptions dominate; how well can vendors integrate generative AI without compromising validation or compliance; and which platforms will best enable interoperability or modular integration across legacy systems?
Supporting Notes
- Siemens Teamcenter secured the highest possible scores in 11 criteria in Forrester’s Q3 2025 PLM evaluation, and was also recognized as a Customer Favorite with reference customers unanimously endorsing its support, security, usability, and stating they would buy again.
- ABI Research placed Siemens in first for large discrete manufacturers, citing its large partner ecosystem, strong AI positioning (e.g. Teamcenter Copilot), highest market share, and transparent pricing and licensing.
- PTC’s Windchill and Arena platforms earned top scores in both innovation and implementation in the 2025 ABI PLM competitive assessment; specific strengths include digital thread creation, real-time product tracking, and an efficient support model.
- Aras Innovator was named a Leader in the 2025 Forrester Wave PLM Platforms evaluation. It received top scores for traceability, ideation & requirements management, value-network sourcing intelligence, part/subassembly reuse/configure-to-order, bill of process, and demonstrated above-par adoption.
- For Dassault Systèmes, ABI Research calls out its strengths in MBSE capabilities, modular and role-based purchasing, and digital thread with strong integration via its 3DEXPERIENCE platform.