This page provides additional information to
better understand the capabilities of the CERTES GROUP. Included here is a
short white paper on Product Lifecycle Management and
a few case studies.
Case
Studies
"e-Services" " Internet " " Software " "
Systems "
Article on the founding of TENET and
the design of the TENET 210 computer
Product
Lifecycle Management (PLM)
INTRODUCTION
Organizational
stress and rapid change brought on by broader product lines and increasing competition,
complexity, and customer expectations have caused many companies to become
bogged down by long, painful product cycles that fail to meet goals. Some
industry sources estimate that product development project failures are running
as high as 50%.
The bottom
line impact of these failures can be staggering. Industry sources estimate poor
quality costs the average
- Lack of competitive and customer
information paralyzes decision-making.
- Projects are started prematurely with
only a very fuzzy idea of the desired outcome.
- There are no clear goals for determining
if the project is successful.
- The ultimate customer cannot be
identified and is not adequately represented in the front-end process.
- Surprises when important tasks are
forgotten or not identified.
- Miscommunication - "Nobody told
- Marketing, product development, manufacturing,
and the customer have different, conflicting agendas.
- Communications among distributed
development teams is ineffective.
- Adversarial we/they relationships,
finger pointing, blame, and lack of cooperation.
- Lack of visibility on cost of goods,
expenses and schedules.
- Buying and integrating quick solutions
costs more and takes longer than expected.
- Sales and profits short of goals due to
late, cancelled or prematurely announced products.
- Quality, service, support, feature, or
performance failures causing customer defections.
- Products are inconsistent with company
strengths and strategy.
- Lost momentum due to low morale and the
loss of key people.
- The product is forced out of the
developers into the hands of the customer with inadequate testing, training
and support.
You are not
alone if you are encountering some of these problems. We have seen various
combinations of these characteristics in many companies. These problems do not
need to be overwhelming. There are techniques and approaches that are quite
effective in providing workable solutions to these problems. They can be
readily adapted to a specific situation and do not need to incur a lot of
overhead.
WHAT IS NEEDED
Your company
needs the certainty of attaining marketing, financial and technical goals with
its product programs. Individuals contributing to the programs need experiences
they would willingly repeat on future programs - autonomy and freedom from
bureaucracy, cooperation, communications, support, flexibility to make rapid
mid-course corrections to meet goals, and the satisfaction of winning.
Real-world
experiences with start-up, growth and transitional organizations have taught us
a lot about what it takes to produce successful products. Working harder is
only part of the answer. It is also necessary to work smarter, and this
requires a company wide way of thinking, behaving, and executing. Some
characteristics of 'working smart' are:
- Products are market driven - there is a clear
vision of the customer and his requirements. If a customer cannot be
identified, the project is not ready for development.
- Customers, direct and indirect, are part
of the team from the beginning. Everyone understands that their output is
directed to a customer.
- Component level thinking is replaced
with product level thinking, as all activities affecting the success of
the product in the customer's hands are considered.
- Strategic information is gathered on
competitors, technology, standards, and regulatory trends that may impact
the project.
- Company vision, strategies, and tactics
are actively communicated to provide a common agenda for execution.
- Plans throughout the organization are
aligned with the common agenda.
- Planning is heavily weighted toward the
front-end of the cycle. Top management and all affected departments are
involved.
- The project's success factors are
identified. Critical path items are identified and constantly reviewed.
Both are used to focus priorities.
- Communications and reviews are frequent,
timely and relevant. Information and decision meetings record critical
decisions and the reasons why they were made. Summaries are widely
communicated.
- Guidelines are developed to describe the
tasks in each phase of the life cycle and the method for progressing from
one phase to the next. All parties understand what they are to produce,
when they are to produce it, and to whom they are to deliver it.
- Life cycle processes are constantly
improved to eliminate time consuming steps that contribute no value,
empower decision making close to the affected process, obtain parallel
execution of departments, save time in and smooth hand-offs.
- Lines between departments are blurred
and members cooperate rather than engage in time-consuming, arms length
stimulus-response negotiations.
- Program/project management methodologies
are based on team-member participation, buy-in, measurement and
accountability.
- Goal setting and results measurement,
while the product is developed and after it is shipped, are established to
provide feedback for quick corrective action.
HOW WE CAN
HELP
The CERTES
GROUP can help establish a smart mode of operation. We blend marketing,
operational, and technical management experiences to provide a corporate view
to managing all phases of the life cycle - idea, feasibility, development,
introduction, and maintenance/support. With a global, top management
perspective we area able to work with personnel throughout an organization to
review its current needs, design pragmatic programs to meet those needs,
implement them in pilot tests, and guide them through general deployment.
Complementary hands-on experiences allow us to zoom in on the details and ask
the right questions when required.
The programs
recommended are unique to specific circumstances and directed to solving
specific problems. Based on the organization's values, environment, methods and
procedures, skill sets, and the resources available, they will address any
and/or all aspects of the product life cycle - from the product idea to the
delivery:
- Defining strategy, markets, customers,
products, distribution channels and support programs
- Determining product function,
compatibility, performance, reliability, support of industry and
regulatory standards, cost of goods and ROI
- Requirements for manufacturing, support
and maintenance
- Development, prototype construction,
testing, pre-production runs and beta shipments
- Training of factory, support and sales
personnel
- Third party management, documentation,
sales/marketing literature and media/promotion materials
- Program and project plans, on-going
sales, delivery and support
- End of life planning and execution
The client's
staff will generally carry out the implementation. We participate as advisors, facilitators
or hands-on managers to achieve optimal product life cycle results. Whether
formulating and initiating new product programs or revitalizing existing ones
we are dedicated to the client's success, the success of their people, and to
their self-sufficiency.
HOW THE CLIENT BENEFITS
A properly
applied PLM process uses pragmatic solutions customized to your specific needs
to achieve tangible bottom line results. Adopting a low overhead PLM process
can significantly improve your operations by:
- Improving communications
throughout the organization.
- Defining the role of each
organizational element during each phase of the process – each knows what
they are to deliver and to whom as well as knowing what they are to
receive and from whom.
- Defining the criteria for
moving from one phase to the next – what must be accomplished and who must
approve it has occurred.
- Improving product and market
requirements.
- Improving product
specifications.
- Identifying the few critical
tasks that have maximum schedule impact.
- Identifying indeterminate
tasks that can be schedule killers.
- Eliminating time consuming
handoffs.
- Eliminating tasks that do not
add real value.
- Shortening development
cycles.
- Lowering development costs.
- Lowering organizational
stress.
- Improving on-time delivery.
- Increasing product quality.
- Increasing customer
satisfaction.
- Lowering maintenance costs.
We can help
you achieve the confidence and certainty of being in control and to develop the
skills and experiences that can be applied to future programs.
Requirement
The founding
team's business model of selling banner ads with the delivery of Yellow Pages
was not meeting goals and the company needed to be re-started with a new
business model.
Solution
CERTES GROUP
was engaged to replace the COO and build the operations team required to
execute the new business plan.
- Developed a plan to implement new
business model.
- Identified source and negotiated
acquisition of new accounting system.
- Identified source and negotiated
acquisition of software to manage multiple-level sales organization.
- Identified source and negotiated
contract to place Internet servers with co-location service.
- Defined production flow and tools needed
for producing large number of web sites.
- Identified outside resources to assist
with web site production.
- Defined processes for billing and
collections.
- Recruited web site production staff.
- Recruited staff to support sales
organization.
- Recruited IS staff.
- Assisted with recruiting of CTO, CFO, VP
Marketing, and VP Operations.
- Made monthly presentations at board
meeting.
Requirement
The founders
of this privately held software company wanted to change the focus of the
company from custom software development to standard products for popular
industry platforms, but needed assistance in making the transition.
Solution
CERTES GROUP
was engaged to analyze existing sales/marketing teams, define changes to them,
and provide the VP Marketing role.
- Developed re-organization plan and
gained board approval.
- Reconciled revenue with expenses leading
to downsizing.
- Established budgetary and expense
control procedures.
- Improved P&L procedures for revenue
and expense forecasts.
- Surveyed market and identified need for
new, complementary products.
- Initiated relationships to acquire
complementary products and improve time to market over in-house solutions.
- Replaced ad agency and hired PR agency
to align MARCOM efforts with product direction.
- Improved the communications to the
developer/reseller channel.
- Increased support of European office to
double sales.
- Instituted improved processes for customer
support and their interface to development.
- Resulting changes helped significantly
in positioning the company for sale, thereby allowing the owners to
cash-out.
Requirement
A domestic
company with a wholly owned offshore subsidiary in
Solution
CERTES GROUP
was engaged by the Board of Directors to provide the President/COO role, help
secure financing, and move the company out of its startup phase.
- Repositioned products and services.
- Developed marketing plan with consistent
vocabulary and messages.
- Developed business and operations plans.
- Developed investor presentations.
- Determined cost/pricing models for
products and services.
- Consolidated multiple offshore
facilities for greater efficiency, improved recruiting, and greater
customer credibility.
- Developed budgetary procedures which
front-ended GAPP compliant financial reports.
- Developed Product Management processes.
- Staffed CFO, VP Business Development, VP
Sales, and Director MarCom positions.
- Made investor and BOD presentations.
- Established credibility with funding
sources and gained increased commitments for funding.
Requirement
Company had
tentative agreement with partner to build proprietary hardware and software for
a secure, information metering application, but needed additional study before
committing to permanent staffing.
Solution
CERTES GROUP
was engaged to provide Program/Project management services during the
incubation period.
- Met with partner to review business plan,
market requirements, and product requirements and discovered they were
inadequate or didn't exist.
- Developed market and product
requirements leading to significant changes in the firmware and software.
- Worked with partner to define the
division of labor and the management of the program that had multiple
development sites around the country.
- Developed project plan.
- Recruited staff to implement the on-chip
and desktop software.
- Worked with partner to define the
back-end transaction processing systems.
- Effort then transitioned to another
partner wanting to use the technology in a DVD based, set-top box
application.
- Worked with them on the requirements for
their business model.
- Developed project plan to meet these
requirements.
- Received large order from them.