Burlington, MA - February 24, 2003 - Framework Technologies, the leader in solutions that increase success for product introduction projects, today announced its partnership with Integral, Inc., the management consulting subsidiary of Analysis Group, Inc. Through this partnership, Framework will provide its customers with advanced portfolio planning analytics derived from Integral's experience in providing clients with insightful tools for making optimal product and process development investment decisions. These best practices will be developed and marketed by Framework through its extended ActivePortfolio(tm) software offerings. Integral will use ActivePortfolio to further automate the strategic analysis activities within its management consulting efforts.
Using Framework's highly-configurable ActiveProduct(tm) solution suite software, Integral can automate the time-consuming tasks of creating and maintaining graphical analyses of product development activity and commitments in a variety of strategic scenarios. Consultants and clients will be able to quickly input relevant project portfolio information-such as resource commitments, strategic fit, risk assessments and market projections - into adaptable templates that display key dimensions through a rich variety of "lens" views. Because ActivePortfolio provides access to critical information, managers are able to rapidly evaluate opportunities in the context of all their other commitments with an objective apples-to-apples comparison.
"With ActivePortfolio, time-intensive custom software development and burdensome maintenance overhead have all been eliminated. Consulting engagements are now expedited through the elimination of a previously lengthy preamble -allowing us to quickly turn our attention to what clients really want - expert counsel on how to turn their product portfolio into their most strategic asset," said Integral Director Brian Gorin. "Having surveyed other offerings from various portfolio management vendors, we turned to Framework. We were attracted by the software's ability to adapt to clients' own management processes as opposed to forcing compliance to an externally imposed structure. The intuitive nature of their software--critical for us since our consultants are not IT professionals--and Frameworks' ability to do rapid deployment means we can start adding value within hours, not weeks."
Framework and Integral have already collaborated with a Fortune 100 company that produces power transmission drives to create a business process for continuous assessment of their product portfolio and track the associated project activities. The results have been substantially greater contributions of new, higher-margin products to annual sales. Forecasts carry greater integrity and new products reach the market faster with less re-work.
Framework and Integral look forward to building upon their success as companies increasingly recognize the importance of portfolio management as the key enabler of their growth strategy. Recent analyst reports have documented the growing demand for portfolio management software products and the anticipation of a continuing trend.
"New application categories, like Portfolio Management and Customer Needs Management lent some strength to software sales with growth of 32% and 57%, respectively," said Kevin O'Marah, Vice President and Research Fellow, AMR Research, in a July 2002 report entitled The Product Lifecycle Management Applications Report, 2001-2006. The report also notes that while the revenue forecast for portfolio management applications in 2002 is $654 million, by 2005, revenues are expected to grow to $1.4 billion.
"Integral's keen understanding of what companies need in terms of portfolio management solutions is unique in this industry. Together with Integral, we look forward to helping companies achieve the full promise of product portfolio management," said Donald Tomkinson, President and CEO of Framework Technologies. "Additionally, we are confident that our partnership with Integral will not only extend Framework's reach, but make our product roadmap even stronger."
