James Zhang

Joining PTC in 2018, James Zhang, VP of Market Development, has been at the company for three years. At PTC, Zhang is responsible for the strategies and go-to-market of its smarter connected operations solutions. “This is where we help our customers to make the factory of the future a reality. So headquartered in Boston (US), we have been helping industrial companies over the world to better design, manufacture and serve their customers and their products,” says Zhang.

When it comes to his inspirations, Zhang is driven by providing value to PTC customers. “Manufacturing itself is super important to society, to human beings. So the productivity of manufacturing not only impacts the industry but the whole society. For me, the thing that inspires me most is that we can help our customers to improve their productivity, meanwhile, make their operations more sustainable.”

Over the length of his career so far at PTC, Zhang is proud of the work he has been doing with companies in industrial, consumer products, automotive and energy industries to help PTC customers unlock the business benefits of adopting new technology like IoT, AR, Analytics and Cloud.

Why Should Manufacturers Adopt Digital Capabilities? 

When asked this question, Zhang explains that for him, three things stand out: “the first is efficiency and productivity. No matter which industry you are in, no matter the market condition, you always need to maximise your throughput while keeping your CapEx and OpEx as low as possible. The second is the agility and flexibility of your operations to better meet customer demands. There are a lot of market challenges such as supply chain disruptions, customisation and personalisation, and the power of the consumers that require manufacturers to be more agile and flexible in their operations. The third one - which I think is becoming more and more important - is sustainability. Manufacturing plays a critical role in the sustainability of the world, and it is not only about compliance or regulation requirements. It is also becoming a priority for your investors and also for the customers. So this is why sustainability is really important as well, which we should be looking at carefully.”

Looking to the future, Zhang believes that a couple of trends will start to emerge. “Firstly in the manufacturing industry, for our customers, I expect to see an even further accelerated adoption of digital technologies in products, operations, people’s work. Then if you look to the technology side, SaaSification is coming. People say that ‘this may be the last corner of enterprise software’. If you look at ERP, if you look at CRM, they are all working towards SaaSification, and we feel that this is also accelerating in our industrial software world.”

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