Burlington, MA May 17, 2002 Framework Technologies has released two new modules for its flagship collaborative project management suite, ActiveProduct, adding new capabilities for automating manual product introduction processes, as well as new reporting and project oversight functionality.
Built on top of Framework's ActiveProject solution, the new ActiveProcess module automates and formalizes a product introduction team's manual product introduction process, helping to shorten introduction cycle times and to standardize product introduction efforts by consolidating key information from development, marketing and manufacturing activities coordinated by ActiveProject.
ActivePortfolio, which also is built on top of ActiveProcess, provides reports on an organization's entire product portfolio, including information about the cost of projects under development, projected profitability and the likelihood of customer acceptance. Framework said that ActivePortfolio "bubbles up" key information originating from other suite components to provide executives responsible for product introduction with the information they need to effectively manage the growth and risk of their entire product portfolio.
Rich Gardner, vice president of product development at Framework customer Amerock, a division of Newell Rubbermaid, predicted that the new modules would help his company automate its manual product introduction processes. "The paper-based process we had in place simply did not allow our globally dispersed product introduction teams access to the key data they needed to make efficient and effective decisions," Gardner explained. "Using ActiveProcess, we were able to take our paper-based process and automate it in less than a day. Framework's solutions will also provide a window into our product development processes, letting us identify opportunities and problems earlier, and enabling us to take appropriate action at whatever stage we are in."
Cumulative pricing for ActiveProcess is $95,000, and $130,000 for ActivePortfolio. The new software is due to be available June 1.
