Event Summary
Sequencia (www.sequencia.com), in partnership with Prosight (www.prosight.com), has extended its Process PLM solution with the addition of portfolio management. Portfolio Management is an enterprise app, and this increases the visibility of PLM at executive levels.
Market Impact
Sequencia is developing a very broad product. With this announcement, they are now strong at the highest level (portfolio), adding to existing function from idea generation, through the project team (projects, collaboration), through design (R&D, collaboration), all the way to the plant floor. The power of PLM is in the integration of the business processes across the different levels. Giving greater visibility within management, we expect this to increase the acceptance of PLM in the Process Industries (see Process PLM series).
Sequencia competitors Formation Systems (www.formationsystems.com) and SAP (www.sap.com) have not entered into the area of portfolio management. Formation is strong in the areas of idea creation and R&D while SAP is just entering the market with an R&D focused announcement. At this time, only Sequencia covers the entire spectrum of Process PLM functionality.
The management of an array of projects is complex. Often, thousands of projects exist in multiple project portfolios. These projects may be in multiple semi-independent business units in multiple geographies. It is difficult to compare "apples to apples" with the projects having varying value propositions and risk factors. The projects may be supporting different business objectives and being evaluated by different people. This complex management environment can be aided with a technology-based approach.
Portfolio management is a dynamic decision process that permits the management of multiple projects. Portfolio management allows executives and management to compare and contrast their project portfolio using objective and measurable criteria. A business's list of active product innovation projects is revised and updated through integration with the remaining portions of the PLM system. Using common scoring models, portfolio management supports the process of ranking projects according to multiple project metrics, for example Net Present Value (NPV), Expected Commercial Value (ECV), Productivity Index (PI) and Project Attractiveness Score (PAS). New projects can be evaluated against both existing projects and competing new projects, selected and prioritized. Existing projects may be accelerated, killed, or re-prioritized based upon how they relate with other projects against the objectives of the enterprise. By comparing projects, resources can be allocated or re-allocated.
Portfolio Management is a natural part of Process PLM. The benefits of portfolio management to the process company includes:
- Value - Maximize Portfolio Value
- Balance - Attain the right mix of projects
- Alignment - Business Goals Reflected
- Focus - Execute the right number of projects
Unfortunately, there is often conflict between these four high-level goals. With this announcement, Sequencia delivers interactive decision support so that executives can intelligently balance these competing goals
The Sequencia / Prosight partnership makes sense for the Process PLM market. Sequencia will offer the processPoint Portfolio Management as an integrated part of the processPoint PLM solution. Sequencia is the leading provider of web-based PLM solutions for the process industries providing deep industry knowledge to develop business templates for process industry portfolios. ProSight is the expert portfolio management software, providing deep experience and expertise in automating portfolio management methodologies. ProSight has initially focused on implementing portfolio management for IT technology investments. Sequencia and ProSight have been working jointly on integration of the products
Jim Brown, Sequencia's Vice President of Marketing comments, "While working with the industry, it became obvious that a major problem was the ability to manage the wide array of projects that existed in many companies. We formed the Prosight partnership to allow the industry to automate this difficult management process. Better portfolio management leads to better decision making, increasing the power and effectiveness of innovation."
User Recommendations
Process companies with an emphasis on innovation as competitive weapon should consider Process PLM solutions in order to maintain and enhance their competitive position. Companies with many R&D projects or geographically dispersed R&D efforts should consider portfolio management as a key requirement.
About the Author
Olin Thompson, a principal of Process ERP Partners, has over 25 years experience as an executive in the software industry with the last 17 in process industry related ERP, SCP, and e-business related segments. Olin has been called "the Father of Process ERP." He is a frequent author and an award-winning speaker on topics of gaining value from ERP, SCP, e-commerce and the impact of technology on industry.
He can be reached at Olin@ProcessERP.com.