With product data management (PDM), collaboration, and sourcing capabilities well established, PLM vendors are staking out new terrain, adding product portfolio management capabilities to their overall PLM platforms.
UGS and Arena Solutions are the latest players to take the plunge. Agile Software Corp. already offers a portfolio management module, while several best-of-breed providers, including Sopheon Corp. and Integrated Development Enterprise Inc., also have stand-alone packages to address the new-product introduction (NPI) and product portfolio management processes.
UGS is pitching its new Teamcenter for Portfolio Management as a way to help manufacturers invest in the optimal mix of product development projects to maximize business growth. The software, an integrated component of UGS's Teamcenter suite, encompasses a variety of features, including collaborative workflow and approval processes, performance measurement, tracking and pipeline management functions, and integration with core business systems like ERP and SCM.
As part of its Winter `07 release of Arena PLM, Arena is offering a new Project Collaboration tool to give manufacturers a 360-degree view of product projects, from the portfolio level to the individual item level, according to officials. With the new capabilities, manufacturers can tie project plans to the product record by linking tasks, milestones, and deadline information directly to each individual item in a project.
Arena officials say the new Project Collaboration functionality is a direct result of customer requests for integrated tools for managing these processes. Through a study of 150 mid-market manufacturers, Arena found that most used desktop tools like Microsoft Excel or Project in combination with homegrown applications to manage their product-related projects. However, only 4% of those manufacturers considered these solutions effective.
"This is one of the biggest things we've done since the company got started," says Michael Topolovac, Arena's CEO. "It shows at a strategic level the value PLM can bring to the enterprise."