Enterprise resource planning (ERP), product life cycle management (PLM), and customer relationship management (CRM) systems were transformative when they were first developed. They made it possible for businesses to establish centralized data repositories for customer, product, or financial information, and to use these hubs as a foundation for expansion.

When managing products that can be configured in multiple ways to meet customer requirements, configuration life cycle management (CLM) systems are the logical next step. CLM elevates data from ERP, PLM, and CRM silos so the entire business can view product configurations and collaborate on them across systems in real time, using only 100-percent trustworthy data.

Configuration life cycle management involves effectively managing and controlling the entire life span of a configuration item for a product, from its initial planning and design to its deployment, maintenance, and eventual retirement or disposal. It involves ensuring that configurations are properly created, monitored, updated, and retired throughout their life cycle.

But how do you begin this journey? You need to create a road map for configuration, which involves several steps.

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