Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Land O'Lakes to Deploy Sopheon's Product Life Cycle Management Solution
Leading Consumer Goods Company Adopts Accolade® to Automate Stage-Gate® Process and Support Focus on High-Value Products
Sopheon, the international software and services company, announced today that Land O’Lakes, Inc., a leading dairy cooperative, is implementing Sopheon’s Accolade product life cycle management (PLM) system as the technology foundation for its product innovation processes. The solution will be used initially within the company’s Dairy Foods business unit, where it will support cross-functional teams responsible for developing and commercializing new products. Plans include subsequent enterprise-wide deployment.
Headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., Land O’Lakes generates annual revenues of more than $7 billion and is one of the largest dairy co-ops in the U.S. It markets milk, spreads, cheeses and deli products to consumers, food services and food manufacturers throughout the world. Land O’Lakes also offers an extensive line of agricultural supplies and state-of-the-art production, distribution and business services. During its 86-year history, the company has established a reputation for quality, strong brands and innovation.
Land O’Lakes has stated that one of its principal strategic goals is to incorporate best practices into all aspects of its operations. This focus is part of an overarching plan for driving additional revenue and profit growth from core businesses. Actions include an initiative aimed at enhancing the company’s processes for product innovation.
Sopheon’s system will be used to automate the Stage-Gate product development methodology being deployed by Land O’Lakes. Accolade will streamline the process, making it easier to use and reducing the administrative burden otherwise associated with its implementation. Step-by-step task guidelines and Land O’Lakes’ best-practice based report templates have been embedded in the software to aid efficient process execution and successful completion of deliverables. The system will strengthen innovation process governance by providing decision support and controls that enable more informed prioritization of product development projects.
“Innovation is essential to our business success,” said Tom Gruetzmacher, vice president of research and development at Land O’Lakes. “Accolade will automate our product development process and assist us in setting project priorities. Its capabilities will help to ensure that the right new products get to market, and get there on time. In designing our system we benefited from Sopheon’s domain expertise in product-development best practices and the fact that they have installed and supported similar, successful systems for a substantial number of consumer packaged goods companies. Their industry-specific know-how gave us an important leg up in developing a process in which we can have confidence.”
“Business process improvement is a central strategic thrust for most companies today,” said Andy Michuda, chief executive officer of Sopheon. “And recent surveys consistently place product and service development processes among the top improvement priorities. The reasons are all about business. Improved innovation means substantial increases in portfolio net-present-value and, ultimately, higher profits, revenues and stakeholder returns. Land O’Lakes’ aim is to compete not only with superior products, but also with superior product development processes. We are committed to helping them achieve that goal.”
Land O’Lakes’ deployment continues an extended pattern of Accolade adoption by major consumer goods manufacturers. Ten of the 100 companies comprising Consumer Goods Technology magazine’s current registry of the world’s largest consumer goods producers are using the Sopheon system. Examples include Cadbury Schweppes, Electrolux, Nestle, and Reckitt Benckiser.
Accolade® is a registered trademark of Sopheon plc.
Stage-Gate® is a registered trademark of the Product Development Institute.
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