BetaSphere Debuts Software to Maximize Forecasted Revenue During New Product Development.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 2002 Product Definition Server Integrates the Voice of the Customer into the Early Stages of Product Lifecycle Product lifecycle or product life cycle is the course of a product's sales and profits over time. The five stages of each product lifecycle are product development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Management BetaSphere, the leading provider of customer-centric Product Lifecycle Management solutions, today announced the launch of its new Product Definition Server(TM) (PDS (1) (Processor Direct Slot) A single expansion slot on certain, early Macintosh models that was used to connect high-speed peripherals as well as additional CPUs. Providing a channel directly to the CPU, the PDS coexisted with NuBus slots on some models. ). Designed for product marketing, product management, and executive teams, PDS is a customer-facing enterprise software solution that addresses the early stages of the product lifecycle. PDS provides a collaborative, Web-based environment that enables companies to build better, more profitable products by gathering and validating the voice of the customer during the Ideation ideation /ide·a·tion/ (i?de-a´shun) the formation of ideas or images.idea´tional i·de·a·tion n. The formation of ideas or mental images. and Concept phase of the product lifecycle. "Aberdeen is witnessing a trend in next generation enterprise software that is architected to better address companies' needs to optimize profits and revenues across the value chain," said Jack Maynard, research director of Collaborative Business Solutions with Aberdeen Group Aberdeen Group is a provider of business-related research services. It has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and belongs to the Harte-Hanks group. Founded in 1988, Aberdeen's research is used by over 2. . "Furthermore, Aberdeen sees the same momentum surfacing much earlier in the value chain process, with companies such as BetaSphere offering software designed to help companies understand the real product demands of customers and the market. BetaSphere's Product Definition Server is providing assistance for companies to generate revenue the old fashion way, offer products that someone really wants to buy. Doing so means that companies can define and build the right product that will maximize forecasted revenue." PDS features configurable workflow, wizards and agents to automate key Ideation, Concept and Product Management processes across the enterprise, allowing companies to quickly and easily collaborate with customers on product development efforts. Several existing BetaSphere customers and early adopters have already begun actively evaluating PDS, including DirecTV Broadband, Federal Express, Nokia, Toshiba, and AppStream, among others. These companies have identified expected return on investment Expected return on investment The return one can expect to earn on an investment. See: Capital asset pricing model. in several areas including increased revenue and profits; improved product quality and reduced risk; better visibility into the translation of feature sets to customer-validated forecasted revenues; and increased customer satisfaction and market acceptance. "With fierce competition and high product failure rates, it's no wonder that we're seeing great demand for solutions that not only reduce the risk of product failure, but help companies forecast revenue streams for the products they are developing," said Aylon Engler, BetaSphere's president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. . "With BetaSphere's customer-centric approach to Product Lifecycle Management, we provide executives with better visibility into revenue streams and profitability, which increases shareholder value." Highlights of the Product Definition Server: Customer-Centric Collaboration BetaSphere's PDS provides a Web-based environment to help companies build communities of customers, prospects, product teams and other internal stakeholders including marketing, engineering (R&D), sales, finance and executive management. Multiple Customer Input and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. Touch Points PDS features automated workflow for gathering and validating ideas, suggestions, concepts and requirements from customers through a variety of collaborative input channels. These can include such inputs as e-mail, Web forms and surveys, online focus groups and discussion threads, as well as data integrated from existing CRM applications and offline market research. PDS also features templates and wizards based on BetaSphere's best practices and core competencies in customer-centric product development. Secure, Central Repository for "One Version of the Truth" Its secure, personalized workspace provides a central repository where team members and other internal stakeholders can easily manage customer inputs and perform key product management processes at project, product and portfolio levels. Rich security administration provides access level controls so users see only the information that they have permission to view. Feature Prioritization & Revenue Maximization With PDS, product teams can prioritize product features to meet customer requirements and optimize the feature sets that will drive maximum forecasted revenue or other business metrics. The software enables product managers to run what-if analysis reports to determine which features sets will maximize forecasted revenue after setting cost constraints. Executive Dashboards and Decision Support PDS provides visibility into the status of product and portfolio lifecycles through executive dashboards that track key performance indicators Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are financial and non-financial metrics used to quantify objectives to reflect strategic performance of an organization. KPIs are used in Business Intelligence to assess the present state of the business and to prescribe a course of action. and other configurable business metrics. Team members and executives can also drill into analytics and detailed reports to make better, more profitable product decisions. Market & Product Definition Documents PDS supports the generation of product definition documents such as Market Requirements (MRD MRD or mrd abbr. minimal reacting dose ), Product Requirements (PRD PRD progressive retinal degeneration. ) and Concept Bill of Materials The list of components that make up a system. For example, a bill of materials for a house would include the cement block, lumber, shingles, doors, windows, plumbing, electric, heating and so on. (c-BOM), which can be provided as outputs to the development team. Product teams can easily run approval processes and revision control Revision control (also known as version control (system) (VCS), source control or (source) code management (SCM)) is the management of multiple revisions of the same unit of information. to improve team efficiency. Availability BetaSphere's Product Definition Server will be available in August 2002. For more information, please contact BetaSphere's Sales Department at 888/238-2243 ext. 850. About BetaSphere BetaSphere is the leading provider of customer-centric Product Lifecycle Management solutions. BetaSphere's Customer-PLM Suite, including the Feedback Management Server(TM) and Product Definition Server(TM), enables companies to collaborate with their customers throughout the entire product lifecycle. Over 100 market leading companies including Cisco, Federal Express, HP, Intel, Lexmark, Motorola, Palm, Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. , UPS, and Xerox use BetaSphere solutions to develop and deliver better, more profitable products. BetaSphere was named a Top 10 CPC (1) (Central Processing Complex) An IBM mainframe that has two or more central processors (CPs) that share memory. It is the collection of processors, memory and I/O subsystems manufactured with a single serial number, typically all contained in one cabinet. Vendor by Aberdeen Group in 2001 and recently won the 2002 Crossroads A-List Award. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., BetaSphere is a privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. backed by JP Morgan Partners and GE Equity. For more information, visit www.betasphere.com. BetaSphere is a registered trademark, and Feedback Management Server and Product Definition Server are trademarks of BetaSphere,Inc. All other products or company names are the property of their respective owners. |
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