Product Lifecycle Management Blog

One of Selerant’s most recent global product lifecycle management customers can trace its history 150 years into the past. At the 2019 Selerant User Conference in San Diego, the company’s R&D director shared the vision for the next 150 years by outlining their PLM rollout strategy.

Selerant's Product Portfolio Management solution, the Innovation Process Management Suite (IPMS) allows organizations to manage the entire product portfolio, and individual projects, start to finish. It serves up real-time project and portfolio data that allows project teams and management the tools to effectively make decisions and keep within strategy. 

Consumer packaged goods companies typically have 400-500 projects or products open at a single point in time. Without the right tools, tracking and visibility across an entire portfolio becomes a constant challenge. 

People have to collect data across multiple siloed departments, from off-line folders, documents, and dashboards, to answer their most pressing questions – Do we have the resources required to support the projects? Are we getting the ROI we need to meet fiscal goals for the year? Are we on track to meet our hurdle rates? Do we need to add more projects? Can we redirect the ones that aren’t on track? 

A PLM system, implemented well, has the potential to significantly impact key performance indicators. It can help companies reduce time to market, improve product delivery and success rates, mitigate risk, improve margins, and boost productivity. However, choosing the right PLM provider requires smart teamwork and careful consideration. 

We interviewed our Senior Solution Consultant Dr. Keith Smallwood, who has been on both the client side and the provider side of PLM solutions, to draw out best practices for choosing the PLM solution most likely to deliver the success buyers want to see. Below are six questions buyers can ask to compare solutions and vendors, and pinpoint an ideal fit.

When it comes to selling products to millennials, food quality management is an absolute imperative

As the largest segment of the global labor force, millennials are leading the charge in demanding comprehensive distribution of information. 

According to Selerant COO Sunil Thomas, “The level of information that consumers want has changed drastically. It’s not just ingredients on a label, they want to know that the product does not violate their principles or beliefs. If you say that your product is organic or sustainably sourced, can you prove it?”