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October 16, 2000 |
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Online Project Management Planned
Dow-Andersen Consulting venture aims to simplify product-development communication
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ndersen Consulting, Dow Chemical, and Internet incubator Campsix said last week they're launching a company that will offer online project-management tools and services for the development of new products.IVenturi, named after an Italian physicist, promises to simplify communication and collaboration among product-development teams that operate across different companies, geographies, and computing environments. The service is expected to be available by next March.
IVenturi will provide an online workspace for project teams, offering document management, file sharing, and revision control. It will also offer project checkpoints to guide each phase of bringing a product to market, including business analysis, development, validation, and launch.
Dow says there's a need for the service because more companies are working with contractors and customers to build and deliver products, making efficient communication critical. Dow interviewed 130 companies in different industries and found 70% of their product launches are delayed--and that only one in seven ideas makes it to market successfully because of problems the companies attribute to project execution. "Everyone's trying to get products to market faster," says Ken Van Heel, a business manager in Dow's
E-business group. "They need fast communication about hitting milestones and resolving problems. They need a huge amount of information."
To provide that information, IVenturi will employ a staff of researchers and analysts to handle customized market research, customer feedback, competitive analysis, and technical product data. The team also will do patent searches, offer prototyping services, and provide information about contractors and other potential business partners.
The service isn't tailored to any specific industry, which raises a question: What does a chemicals giant know about product development in an area such as electronics? "We understand from spending millions on development how the development cycle occurs," says Van Heel. "Our products go into every industry, so we get insight into the processes of many industries where our materials are used."
Maybe, but IVenturi will be competing with several computer-aided design firms, such as Parametric Technologies, Structural Dynamics Resource, MatrixOne, Agile, and NexPrise, which offer similar tools. In addition, i2 Technologies, Oracle, and SAP plan to incorporate collaborative product-development capabilities into the online marketplaces they're building.
Several important details of the service--such as which applications it will use for sharing CAD files, where it will get industry-specific content about products and contractors, and the security mechanisms of the site--have yet to
be worked out. The service will be available for a monthly subscription fee of $200 to $500 per user.
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