31 January 2006
Leading IT Market Research Firm Cites Sopheon As First-Mover In Taking Advantage of Major Market Trend
New Report Says Company Well-Positioned to Benefit From Convergence of Product Life Cycle and Portfolio Management Solutions
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Sopheon, the international software and services company, announced today that global IT research and advisory firm IDC has published a profile analyzing Sopheon and its flagship Accolade process and product portfolio management system. The report credits Sopheon with early recognition of the convergence of product life cycle management (PLM) and project portfolio management (PPM) solutions and taking effective action to capitalize on this trend, which IDC characterizes as a major, new market force. (Source: IDC, "Sopheon's Accolade Breaking out in PLM and Portfolio Management Convergence," Doc #34274.)
In an IDC Product Flash, analysts Evan Quinn and Gisela Wilson examine Sopheon's market position and the evolution of its flagship offering. From the analysts' perspective, Accolade's functional focus on improving the product development process, including recent enhancements to the solution, has separated it from traditional project portfolio management software and is positively impacting Sopheon's business outlook.
The report observes that Sopheon seems "particularly well positioned to ride the PLM/PPM convergence trend given its differentiated approach." Earmarks of that approach, according to IDC's analysis, include built-in support for the widely used Stage-Gate® product development process framework; portals and analytics targeted for process industries; integration with Microsoft® Project; and strong portfolio management features. The commentary points to Sopheon's expanding sales pipeline, increasing deal size and its stepped-up pursuit of indirect channel sales partnerships as signs that the company is moving into a new phase of growth.
"Sopheon stands out as a first mover in PLM/PPM convergence," the report concludes, "and possesses a position of leverage in Microsoft's business application partnership community. Accolade is ahead of many of its more established competitors in terms of how to leverage collaboration, portal, and content technologies for innovation management."
"Generic project management tools can provide great value operationally," said Andy Michuda, chief executive officer of Sopheon. "But they don't address the need of corporate executives for information that can help them make strategic product-development decisions. There's a growing body of evidence that one of the most important characteristics separating innovation leaders from the pack is that they put in place a strong product innovation process and support it with superior project management skills. Accolade enables organizations to quickly develop these capabilities as a sustainable competitive advantage. Our solution was built from the ground up to manage projects within the business context of the new product development process. And it has demonstrated that it can produce break-through results. Being recognized as a 'first-mover' in this emerging market of applying project management best-practices to the product life cycle management process is strong validation of our unique application and strategic focus. Having this recognition come from one of the world's top independent IT research and advisory firms is especially affirming