CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
10 February 2010
Product News
Sopheon’s Accolade® Endorsed for Ability to Support Successful Stage-Gate® Implementation
Sopheon announced that its Accolade innovation-governance management solution has once again been certified as Stage-Gate Ready. The endorsement is based on the software’s having met more than 200 performance criteria demonstrating that it can provide the functionality necessary for successful implementation of Stage-Gate, the widely used product innovation methodology. The certification was issued by Stage-Gate International, the commercial arm of the Product Development Institute Inc. Principals of the Institute created the Stage-Gate process.
“Sopheon’s Accolade is most often seen as differentiated by its strategic product planning, portfolio management and executive-decision support features”
Accolade was among the first software products to qualify for Stage-Gate Ready certification when the program was introduced a little more than two years ago. It is also among the first to be recertified under the program’s requirements for a bi-annual review. Evaluation categories include the ability to support best practices in areas ranging from idea and portfolio management to the idea-to-launch process. As part of the recertification process, the Sopheon solution once again met 100% of the mandatory and optional criteria across all categories encompassed by the evaluation standard.
The Stage-Gate Ready endorsement is the most recent milestone in a decade-long association between Sopheon and the originators of the Stage-Gate methodology. Dr. Robert Cooper, president of the Product Development Institute Inc. and father of the Stage-Gate process, has been involved with Sopheon since it introduced the first version of Accolade in 2001. He and his colleagues were on the external advisory committee for the design of the software. At that time, Sopheon was given exclusive rights to embed the Institute’s official process guidelines for Stage-Gate in Accolade. The Sopheon solution continues to offer that content, augmented by advanced best practices developed by Sopheon through its experience in supporting implementation of the Stage-Gate process at more than 200 companies throughout the world.
“Sopheon’s Accolade is most often seen as differentiated by its strategic product planning, portfolio management and executive-decision support features,” said Bryan Seyfarth, director of product marketing for Sopheon. “But many of the most important advantages of our software can be traced to the fact that, unlike competing technologies, it was built from the ground up to support gated product innovation processes. The Stage-Gate Ready recertification is testimony that as Accolade has grown in sophistication and breadth of capabilities, it has continued to perform at the highest level in supporting an effective framework for innovation, and in providing the governance needed to ensure that innovation investments translate into business success.”
Accolade is widely used software for support of Stage-Gate. It is the first technology platform in the industry to provide all-in-one enablement of strategic roadmapping, ideation and innovation process execution. Its Vision Strategist™ component automates the roadmapping process, allowing users to visualize and forecast the future of products, markets and technologies. Accolade Idea Lab™ helps organizations generate, select and develop winning product and service ideas. Accolade Process Manager™ automates and governs the product innovation process.
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