Roadmapping: The First Step to Effective Product Lifecycle Management
Roadmapping: The First Step to Effective Product Lifecycle Management
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) includes three primary business processes: product planning, product development and product management through the end of its lifecycle. Planning is the last major functional area to be automated, now that product management and product development applications, such as ERP and CAD/CAM purchases, are in place for many corporations.
A core activity for planning that is vital to product success is collaborative roadmapping, an essential but missing component of Product Lifecycle Management that allows a company to map their long-term product, market and R&D requirements over time, ensuring that the products they develop meet their business expectations.
The demand for an effective product roadmapping practice is driven by industry consolidation and globalization. Because large enterprises are under intense pressure to anticipate and address the enormous opportunities and risks associated with globalization, each business initiative requires the company to be in excellent control of its worldwide planning activities. Extended operations are therefore required to communicate effectively about a common product plan, and must be able to effectively maximize operational resources of the company and its partners.
Sopheon’s collaborative roadmapping software solution, Vision Strategist™, allows stakeholders and executive management to access and integrate a central planning repository of key planning information, aligning multi-disciplinary operations and enabling an organization to reach its business objectives. Vision Strategist is used and relied upon today by leading global manufacturing companies to collaboratively create and manage global product planning roadmaps that identify, balance and closely track product plans, R&D investments, assumptions and risks related to business strategy, changing market requirements, and evolving technology.
If you’re interested in learning more about the roadmapping process or about Sopheon’s end-to-end product planning solutions, including its Vision Strategist™ product roadmapping software, click here.