Product development meets the internet--simply. (WIP).

Consider a project. How many people are involved? There's R&D and Engineering. Design and Manufacturing. Marketing and Finance. Sales and Suppliers. Then there are documents and files. All kinds of documents and files. Like CAD files and spreadsheets. And revision upon revision of same. (And do you know if you ever have the current version?) There are communications that connect people who are physically proximate or on the other side of the world--everything from telephone calls to FedEx packages, CAD files to faxes.

Sure, there are efficiencies that can get gained from the Internet. But in and of itself, it is merely like plumbing: What you put through the pipes (content, quality, speed) makes all the difference.

An interesting solution to all of this is a product called "ActiveProject" from Framework Technologies (Burlington, MA).

Before getting to the features and functions of the collaborative product development software, let's jump to the proverbial product line. Framework had some research performed on its behalf to determine what users of ActiveProject are realizing. According to the numbers it reports, there is a reduction in time to market by as much as 20%, a reduction in product development cycles by up to 22%, and a reduction in project delays by as much as 25%.

So what is it? A software tool that allows companies to build and manage secure dynamic web sites (a.k.a. "project-centric extranets"). Before you think that this is something that the people in your Information Technology Department need to be concerned with, not you, know that Russ Blaesing, Framework's director of Automotive Business Development, says that the web sites are "buildable by people without pocket protectors.'

ActiveProject is not a replacement for CAD, PDM or ERP. Rather, it serves as a means by which users are able to log onto a web site and obtain all relevant information regarding product developments, from CAD images to calendars. The CAD data can be marked up (the ActiveProject software isn't a CAD tool: the CAD can be communicated, not changed); meetings can be scheduled. All of the various elements of the project development are up-to-date (a key characteristic for those companies that are trying to achieve or working to maintain ISO certification) and accessible 24/7 by people involved in the project wherever they may be. Simply, ActiveProject is the kind of tool that one would assume that is characteristic of e-enabled companies.