CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

23 November 2009

Product News

Symphony Services’ Product Line Management Services Raise R&D Organizations’ Effectiveness and Profitability

Symphony Service Corp. announced its Product Line Management (PLM) services, which both extend product life and bring greater functionality to clients’ existing software products, continue to gain strong market momentum. The company’s PLM service offerings center on outcome certainty-based engagement models that deliver measurable ROI to clients, typically focusing on the management of core or legacy products. Symphony Services’ global product engineering specialists work closely with clients to manage identified products, enhance and extend product life and ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met.

Clients have found that Symphony Services’ PLM services result in better integration strategies between older and newer product versions and significantly increased revenue from older product lines. Industry analysts estimate that up to 80 percent of R&D budgets are allocated toward maintaining legacy products. When the resources of a seasoned, in-house R&D team are applied in this way, the organization’s bottom line suffers because older product lines have less functionality and, by extension, decreased support levels. Moreover, allocating too many resources to older products significantly limits a company’s ability to take advantage of high-growth market opportunities.

“From the very beginning of our relationship, Symphony Services has contributed to our success by strategically linking our R&D roadmap to our business goals,” said Dayon Kane, senior director, R&D, BMC. “The Symphony Services team has expertly managed our legacy product lines, resulting in increased customer satisfaction levels and higher revenue from these core products. Moreover, our relationship with Symphony Services has freed in-house R&D resources to execute against our future plans, ensuring BMC continues to be a leading innovator in our market.”

Breathing New Life Into Older Products

Symphony Services’ PLM services mitigate the challenge of having too many R&D resources committed to legacy product lines, when their time and expertise are better spent developing new products to ensure the company stays ahead of evolving market demand. The company has, on average, reduced clients’ product management costs by over 25 percent; extended product life related revenue by up to 50 percent; and lowered support costs by 40 percent – all without sacrificing on outcomes.

The Symphony Services development team’s patented, repeatable processes begin with a careful assessment of clients’ PLM needs to ensure its services are perfectly aligned with the organization’s business goals. And by analyzing and measuring every product function the Symphony Services team is able to recommend and build enhancements that both extend the lifespan and increase the revenue of products once thought to be obsolete.

“Many clients come to us because they know they must shift their investment toward emerging and growth segments to maximize revenue, but they just don’t have the in-house R&D resources to do it,” said Alan Harlan, president, product line management at Symphony Services. “We remain committed to providing our clients with the most innovative product line management services available that allow them to focus their efforts on high-growth opportunities while still maximizing the potential of their legacy software products.”

The rising interest among software product companies in product line management services remains linked to the value clients’ gain through reallocating their internal product engineering resources and budgets to next-generation products. And, by guaranteeing Outcome Certainty, Symphony Services has aligned its goals with its client’s business goals.

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