QuestOne Addresses Looming Product Life-cycle Management Crisis
8 February 1999
QuestOne Addresses Looming Product Life-cycle Management Crisis in Automotive, High-Tech and Pharmaceutical Sectors
Fortune 500 Corporations Embrace First New Approach to
Decision Making in 50 years
BETHLEHEM, Penn., Feb. 8 -- QuestOne, a technology company
that evolved out of enterprise research programs at Lehigh University and the
Iacocca Institute, today announced its solution to the crisis in Product Life-
cycle Management (PLM) faced by logistically and financially complex
organizations. Bringing the first new approach to PLM decision making in
50 years, QuestOne has pioneered the first proprietary analytical enterprise
application that enables senior executives to seize high-volume opportunities,
retain first to market edge, boost their profit margins, and win and foster
customer relationships.
The company's proprietary technology, ideally suited for product intensive
companies particularly those found in the Automotive, High-Tech, and
Pharmaceutical sectors, is engineered to increase corporate earnings by
enabling management to predict with unprecedented accuracy actual financial
outcomes of PLM decisions before they are made. Unlike all other approaches,
QuestOne's PLM technology quantifies the interrelationship between cash,
capacity, and time...the true drivers of business performance.
"In my years of consulting, I have observed that companies now face an
urgent need to reconstruct their metrics and modernize their strategic
planning and product life-cycle management methods to keep up with changing
market dynamics such as increasing technological advancements and shrinking
product life spans," says Geoffrey Moore, chairman and founder of The Chasm
Group, a consulting practice focused on helping high technology companies
achieve market leadership positions for their core products and services.
"Should companies ignore today's enterprise realities, their ability to
prosper and profit will be compromised. QuestOne's breakthrough solution set
has the potential to fundamentally change the manner in which product
intensive, complex organizations manage their product life-cycles and product
portfolios."
"A massive corporate IT infrastructure has been built during the past five
decades," said Barry Wilderman, vice president, Application Delivery
Strategies, META Group. "Because of this opportunity to access enterprise
transactional data, a key strategic challenge facing corporate executives is
how to evolve their organizations' product life-cycles and product portfolios
as we move into the 21st century. We believe that vendors like QuestOne can
add significant value to the relatively untapped PLM sector."
"Until now, enterprise PLM decision making has been driven by Eisenhower-
era management analysis and evaluation methods that are outdated and
ineffective. In practical terms, just imagine watching black and white
programs from 30 years ago on a high definition television." said Keith Krenz,
president and CEO of QuestOne Decision Sciences Corporation. "Effective
Product Life-cycle Management enables companies to achieve higher levels of
productivity, determine optimal product portfolios, deliver products to market
faster, allocate resources more effectively and forecast product development
schedules accurately, resulting in more stable stock prices."
Product Life-cycle Management Integrates All Organizational Functions
Modern PLM provides a strategic and integrated product and product
portfolio plan for all functions within an organization that supports research
and product concept development all the way through post-sales service.
QuestOne's PLM application quantifies and optimizes the interrelationship
between CASH-CAPACITY-TIME(TM) of the enterprise from the product and product
portfolio perspective. QuestOne's PLM application replaces today's outdated
PLM methods and provides P&L responsible management with integrated CASH-
CAPACITY-TIME(TM) strategic options evaluation mechanisms. It supports
analysis and decision-making throughout the entire life-cycle of individual
products and portfolios of products.
QuestOne Provides Companies with Solid Competitive Advantage
Today, modern companies face exploding technological advancement,
shrinking product lifespans, growing competition, evolving approaches towards
organizational structures and supplier relationships. Accelerating customer
requirements and growing expectations of the financial markets dictate a
change in the basic ways organizations manage their product life-cycles.
Nevertheless, "Eisenhower Era" PLM methods, which do not take current
realities into account, still dominate.
As the 21st century approaches, companies are increasingly missing high-
volume sales opportunities, losing their first-to-market edge, burning out
their product development organizations, having their profit margins eroded
and losing to increased competition. Companies that employ modern PLM
technology will gain a solid competitive advantage.
QuestOne Boosts Bottom-Line Profits
QuestOne's integrated technology suite has been designed to enhance a
corporation's ability to introduce new products, maximize revenue, and meet
and exceed financial expectations. As a result, its customers gain financial
perspectives of their organizations that dramatically impact the bottom-line
in areas such as product development, product life-cycle management, order-to-
delivery management, capital investment planning, outsourcing, mergers and
acquisitions, and supplier/partner relationships.
Companies such as Ford, Spectra Physics, Bayer and General Motors have
begun employing QuestOne's CASH-CAPACITY-TIME(TM)-based PLM technology,
resulting in dramatic improvements in product development times, product
portfolio line-ups in development, capital investment requirements, and sales.
Bottom-line results have exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars.
QuestOne's 3D Management Suite Drives Enterprise Performance
QuestOne delivers an integrated suite of software applications that
leverages the customer's investment in IT infrastructure by integrating
seamlessly with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as well as legacy
systems. QuestOne's 3D Management Suite is a proprietary software application
and a complete set of methodologies that senior-level executives with P&L
responsibilities need to accurately predict the outcomes of their proposed
product life-cycle actions.
The practical implications of QuestOne's discovery extend to
organizational decision making, implementation tracking, ongoing performance
measurement and management with regard to product life-cycle management
issues.
QuestOne Evolved From Academic Research Programs and is Backed by
Safeguard Scientifics
QuestOne's scientific roots evolved from enterprise research programs at
Lehigh University and the Iacocca Institute. Lehigh ranks in the top 100
national institutions and seventh in the nation in universities with alumni
serving on the board of directors of Fortune 500 companies. The Iacocca
Institute works with leading academics and corporate executives in advancing
the global competitiveness of enterprises.
QuestOne is supported by Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. , a unique
partnership of entrepreneurial companies focused on information technology
markets. Safeguard has interests in 26 partnership companies plus 8 private
equity funds. Safeguard's market capitalization combined with its affiliated
venture funds' committed capital under management is in excess of $2 billion.
Safeguard strategically invests in and actively supports the development of
its companies, then, as appropriate, brings them public through a rights
offering to Safeguard shareholders.
About QuestOne Decision Sciences
Formed in 1986, QuestOne is a decision sciences company whose technology
enables complex organizations to dramatically improve their ability to predict
financial outcomes of proposed product life-cycle management actions.
QuestOne's proprietary CASH-CAPACITY-TIME(TM) methods are integrated into a
suite of analytical business applications that are designed to increase the
value of organizations by enabling senior level executives to make better
business decisions.
For more information regarding QuestOne, please call (610) 867-3000 or
visit the QuestOne Web site at http://www.questone.com.
Based in Bethlehem, PA, QuestOne is backed by Safeguard Scientifics, Inc.,
a unique partnership of entrepreneurial companies focused on information
technology markets. Safeguard's market capitalization combined with its
affiliated venture funds' committed capital under management is in excess of
$2 billion. For more information, please visit Safeguard at http://www.safeguard.com.
QuestOne, CASH-CAPACITY-TIME and 3D Management are trademarks of QuestOne
Decision Sciences.