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Propel Furthers Unique PVM Solution with Agentic AI (Tech-Clarity)

Leading PLM analyst Jim Brown unpacks why Propel鈥檚 intelligent single-platform strategy is unmatched.

This article was originally written for and published by .

Tech-Clarity鈥檚 Jim Brown had the opportunity to join Propulsion 2025, 鈥檚 sixth annual user event and its second in-person conference. It was exciting to share in the energy from the manufacturers using Propel as they gathered to learn from Propel leaders, partners, and especially their fellow customers.

Propel continues to grow in both core PLM capabilities and further their unique Product Value Management (PVM) strategy under the leadership of CEO Ross Meyercord. In addition, they continue to leverage the capabilities of the Salesforce platform to bring new value to their product and customers. This year, Propel announced significant plans for AI with a robust approach that would likely be out of reach for most vendors their size, but is accessible to Propel and their customers through their relationship with Salesforce.

Tech-Clarity's Jim Brown attended Propulsion 2025
Tech-Clarity's Jim Brown attended Propulsion 2025

What Makes Propel Special

Let鈥檚 step back to discuss Propel鈥檚 unique scope. Their PVM (Product Value Management) platform integrates elements of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Quality Management Systems (QMS), and Product Information Management (PIM). We鈥檝e and believe it鈥檚 a compelling approach for companies looking to better streamline product innovation, product development, and product commercialization. Salesforce also provides the ability for Propel to extend into the product service lifecycle.

Beyond the functional strategy, Propel is interesting because they inherit extremely robust and capable technology underpinnings from the Salesforce platform. Because of this, Propel was cloud-native from the start and can take advantage of Salesforce鈥檚 product roadmap investments. This showed up at Propulsion this year with the introduction of Agentic AI.

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Product Value Management (PVM) Platform

The Strategic, Transformative Power of AI

To get people thinking strategically about AI, Propel brought in R "Ray" Wang of Ray gave an energetic, well-researched presentation on how companies can leverage AI to redefine and transform their businesses. He discussed examples where new technology opened the door for brand new business models, using CocaCola and Sam鈥檚 Club as examples. His talk set the bar for strategic changes similar to what Amazon did to redefine buying experiences as the internet and the world wide web gained traction. It was great food for thought.

Practical and Accessible AI

Following Ray鈥檚 talk about strategic, fundamental shifts that are possible by rethinking business were other presentations about how AI can help with more everyday, practical tasks. There was an interesting contrast in the presentations. Because the audience at the event was not necessarily those who could fundamentally change the business, we were encouraged that the following use cases presented by both Salesforce and Propel were approachable, practical, and achievable for the participants.

VP Solutions Marketing Kevin Crothers and Senior Product Marketing Director Jill Mueller demonstrated some of Propel鈥檚 current AI offerings such as extracting engineering specs to create PIM data, reading through product documentation to create quiz questions for field service teams, and summarizing product thread information about a serialized asset to create a unified digital thread from engineering and service data. These may not reinvent the business, but they can certainly improve efficiency, quality, and time to market. Although these tactical changes taken individually may seem small, they are achievable, can add value quickly, and in aggregate they provide very strategic improvements.

The Strategic Value of Salesforce鈥檚 Agentforce

Salesforce also presented practical examples, including asking questions in Spanish for AI to find and summarize information from English documentation, proactively noticing errors on an asset using real-time data, and providing a 24x7 agent on the website. These capabilities from Salesforce come from Agentforce, Salesforce鈥檚 AI platform. Propel is embedding Agentforce capabilities into their platform to create their AI offering, . Propel currently has two agents available on Salesforce App Exchange: Propel One for Product 探花精选 and Propel One for Product Information, and plans to ship a series of packaged agents with Propel One, and also allow customers to modify them or create their own to meet their unique needs.

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Propel One Agents Roadmap

Senior Product Manager Steve Toukmaji and Jill Mueller also presented on AI advancements. They shared Propel鈥檚 guiding principles that data is secure, humans stay in the loop, and they will focus on high value 鈥渏obs to be done.鈥 They also went into detail about the Agenforce Trust Layer, a very mature approach to managing AI inherited from Agentforce. It鈥檚 another example of where Propel gains significant value from Salesforce R&D investments.

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Propel One Inherits Capabilities from Salesforce's Agentforce

Furthering PLM Capabilities

Propel is what we typically call a supply-chain-centric PLM solution as opposed to an engineering-centric PLM. In this way, it serves manufacturers in fast-moving markets who typically procure elements of their product, such as high-tech, electronics, MedTech, consumer goods, and other related industries. Deep CAD integration, in this form of PLM, is a lower priority. Having said that, Propel鈥檚 customers are asking for more and Propel is responding. Propel plans to release DesignHub this fall with integration to 10 mechanical and electrical CAD solutions.

Chief Product Officer Eric Schrader shared further product roadmap plans, including demonstrations by Kevin Crothers and Director of Technical Product Marketing Michael Prom. These included trace matrix enhancements, visual communication improvements, and component insights to evaluate BOMs with help from their partner SiliconExpert. One of the more interesting concepts highlights the comprehensive nature of the combined Propel Salesforce offering, connecting product and customer thread in a holistic 鈥淧roduct Graph鈥 that extends fully into the service lifecycle. There is much more than we could cover here, but the key takeaway is that Propel continues to invest across their PVM footprint in addition to introducing a robust AI strategy.

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Propel's Product Graph Framework

A Unique Opportunity with Agile Customers

There were a number of customer presentations, too many for us to detail here. We do want to mention one interesting trend we heard across the presentations. Several customers mentioned transitioning from Agile. As Oracle is no longer supporting Agile, many diehard companies are being forced to choose a new solution. Given the shared history and deep Agile expertise through Founder and Chairman Ray Hein and Eric Schrader, it鈥檚 no surprise they see Propel as a logical replacement option. Propel is not the only choice, nor the only vendor offering a safe haven to these manufacturers. But they are a logical consideration based on the history of the company, the PVM approach, the QMS capabilities built with traceability and compliance in mind, and the customer base.

Key Takeaways

Propel put on an energetic event and customers gained a lot from it. They highlighted key advancements in the product as well as their AI strategy. We look forward to following Propel鈥檚 progress and growth.

Thank You

Thank you Propel for including me in your user event. It was educational and enjoyable. We really appreciate events like this where you can see the enthusiasm of the customers and see them eager to learn from their vendor and fellow customers.

Stay up to date on vendors making a difference in the industry and find Tech-Clarity's research on our .


Propulsion 2025 was packed with news of Propel innovations, the latest demos, and breakthrough industry strategies. See for yourself what all the fuss was about鈥

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Jim Brown
President and Founder, Tech-Clarity

Jim Brown founded Tech-Clarity in 2002 and has over 30 years of industry experience in the manufacturing and software industries. He began his career in manufacturing engineering and software systems at GE before pursuing management consulting at Andersen Consulting (Accenture). He subsequently served as a strategy, marketing, and product development executive for software companies specializing in ERP, PLM, Supply Chain, and related manufacturing solutions.

Jim is actively researching the impact of digital transformation and technology convergence in manufacturing. His research analyzes the business value available from new initiatives and technologies including cloud computing, advanced analytics, AI, product innovation platforms, service transformation, augmented reality, the digital twin, and the digital thread.

Fun聽Fact: He is a scuba instructor and plays in an old guy ice hockey league.

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