Planisware Announces Planisware 5 Product Portfolio Management Solution

Next Generation Solution Delivers Powerful New Capabilities Including Roadmapping, Improved Performance and Usability and a Direct SAP Interface

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 11, 2008

Planisware today announced the availability of Planisware 5, a major new release of the industry's most advanced solution for Product Portfolio Management. The latest release of Planisware's Product Portfolio Management (PPM) solution is a next generation solution that was developed from the ground up. Planisware 5 offers a multitude of new functions, improved performance and usability and a new direct integration with SAP.

"Planisware 5 is a powerful next generation solution that represents the marriage of a fully featured integrated Product Portfolio Management solution with the latest web technology." said Pierre Demonsant, CEO of Planisware. "The result is a high performance, comprehensive solution that is more scalable, configurable, integrated and intuitive for those companies managing complex new product development."

Major New Functionality
Planisware 5 includes significant new functionality that addresses the challenges of managing complex portfolios with multiple stakeholders and interdependencies within programs. A powerful new Deliverables Management system allows for a real world management of complex relationships between interdependent technologies and projects. This is critical for companies trying to manage programs that are dependent upon other developing technologies or components. This functionality is managed with the new Roadmapping dashboard which gives at-a-glance information about program and project progress and interdependencies.

Other new features include the ability to define Strategic Buckets and manage the corporate strategy with investment decisions, incorporating sales and marketing forecasts, to ensure your R&D investment continues to be in alignment with the corporate strategy and market conditions. Complex sales and financial forecasting calculations are built into the system utilizing critical data points such as COGS, sales, patent expiration, cannibalization and other factors affecting a program's financial success.

Planisware 5 also includes a powerful new simulation engine, Estimation by Analogy, which facilitates resource planning and calculates required future resources using real data from previous programs. The system now offers the most powerful and comprehensive solution today to forecast, track and enhance utilization of resources within the enterprise.
Lastly, Planisware 5 now includes a robust Idea and Innovation scoring and management system as well as integrated PACE® and Stage-Gate® methodologies.

"Planisware 5 was developed in partnership with our key customers", Demonsant continued. "These customers are daily users of our solution, solving real world problems in highly competitive industries such as Biotech, Aerospace and Electronics. They face very complex R&D issues and we have worked in conjunction with them to design a system that allows them to manage their business most effectively".

High Performance Architecture
Planisware 5 was re-architected to take advantage of the latest technologies available today including Java, Ajax, XML and RSS. Planisware 5 is a truly web-based system and the re-architecture allowed Planisware to create a completely fresh and intuitive user interface and navigation. Besides the new look and feel Planisware 5 is also more powerful and more scalable leading to improved performance, particularly when deployed over a wide user base or geographical span. This geographical span is enabled by the seven native languages that Planisware 5 supports.

Multiple database support has been enabled to allow OEMs to manage their operations with their supplier's databases as well as their own. A new OLAP engine allows for ad hoc queries throughout the entire system. The capability for multiple servers enables load sharing for improved performance and enhanced localized access.

Fully aware that most of Planisware's customers use SAP in their day to day operations Planisware 5 also comes standard with a direct integration with SAP. "Deep, out-of-the-box integration between Planisware 5 and SAP is a natural evolution for PPM solutions and shows Planisware understands the IT management challenges organizations are grappling with today." said Demonsant.

The Planisware 5 release is an important event in the world of Product Portfolio Management. For the first time there is a powerful, technically advanced software solution that truly addresses the real-world needs of companies trying to manage complex new product development. Planisware 5 was built in partnership with and for new product development companies that are building the next generation of innovative technologies and products today. The pressures to get to market right the first time are overwhelming for companies that cannot effectively manage their R&D execution to be in line with their strategic goals. With Planisware 5 this highly elusive goal becomes a reality. Planisware 5 builds upon the solid foundation of the Planisware OPX2 product line which has been used for over a decade by organizations to manage their new product development. The Planisware 5 product line is fully upwardly compatible from earlier Planisware releases.

Additional information on Planisware 5 is available at http://www.planisware.com.

About Planisware
Planisware is the leading Global Product Portfolio Management software company supplying real solutions to companies managing complex R&D efforts. The acclaimed flexibility of the Planisware solution allows customers to align the software solution with key business programs and portfolio management processes. Planisware is a profitable, growing, global company with 30% annual growth, 150,000 users and 200 Global 2000 companies as customers. To learn more about Planisware, visit http://www.planisware.com or call (415) 591-0941.

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