Here's advice on understanding thestrategic impact of Product Lifecycle Management technology on building a private label brand.


For many retailers, successful development and introductionof new Private Label products has grown increasingly important. As consumershunker down in a tough economic environment, PL brands offer retailers anattractive path to higher gross margins and stronger profit contributions. An April 2008 report by AMR Research noted that PL marketers plan to grow PL sales by more than 10%in the coming year-a handsome growth target in the midst of a slow down.


However, if not managed carefully, PL products can introduceserious risk to the business. Poorly managed product introductions willdisappoint consumers through delayed PL product availability or poor quality.Supplier irregularities or badly managed compliance programs that result inpoor quality or recalls can be devastating in the court of public opinion andextraordinarily costly.


Most authoritiesand some of the most successful PLmarketers in business todaybelieve that product lifecycle management (PLM)technology delivers key benefits to PL marketers by enabling best practices for managing collaborative new product introduction and sourcing processes. Additionally, PLM helps PL marketers manage the product quality and compliance issueswhich are so critical to a successful PL brand strategy.


Formula For Pain


Formula for Pain: Change the Product Portfolio Mix. ChangeNothing Else.


Even as they attempt to dramatically grow the numbers of PL products in their portfolios, many PL marketers have changed little else in their businessoperations. Suppliers are still held at arms-length, and asked only for price and availability data as though they have no other knowledge to contribute. Most PLmarketers still manage their new product development and sourcing processes through an antiquated system of emails, faxes, and spreadsheets, despite the fact thatthese processes can't scale to accommodate aggressive growth plans.


Managing product quality is equally challenging. Suppliershave limited means of providing critical information about quality orcomparable substitutions. Because a "single version of the truth"about the product is unavailable, incorrect decisions are often made and leadto product errors and delays, or to poor quality product making its way toshelves.


Elegant Simplicity


So how does product lifecycle management (PLM) solve theseissues? The answer is elegantly simple: PLM allows PL marketers and theirsuppliers to easily access a single version of up-to-date product information so that decisions are made quickly and accurately.


Importantly, a new generation of web-based PLM solutions is now available to specifically meet the requirements of PL marketers. These solutions include strong functionalities for managing processes of importance to PL marketersincluding product specification, global sourcing, line planning, and calendarmanagement, and for enabling global collaboration among designers, suppliers,manufacturers, and PL marketers. In fact, the ability to 'tie the whole teamtogether' and unite geographically and functionally separated groups is animportant capability of these new solutions.


The Pitfalls


Beware the Ides of March or, what to watch out for.


PL marketers who seek a PLM solution will want to be awareof two important considerations: the length and cost of implementation, and theease of integration to existing data sources.


Data integration leverages existing investment in existingsystems and data, and how easily a PLM system integrates to other data in theorganization is another vital consideration. Difficult integrations frustrateteam members, build added expense into the overall cost of a PLMimplementation, and undercut the potential value to be realized from a PLMsolution. PL marketers should insist on solutions characterized byarchitectures that emphasize ease of connectivity to data in other systems as amajor feature.


 

The Recap


As long as PL marketers push to expand brand equity and overall profitability by growing their portfolio of PL products, product introductions, sourcing, and product quality will remain critical business processes. To be successful, designers, suppliers, manufacturers, and PL marketers need access to up-to-date and accurate product information. PLM technology delivers the accurate information and secure access that all parties require.


Important considerations include: Was the solution designed to optimize the business requirements of PL marketers, or was it designed for other industries with little in common with PL business processes? Does the solution typically implement in a few months and return value to the organization quickly, or are average implementation times in the range of 9-12 months or more? How readily can the solution be integrated to data within the organization, so that existing investments in data and technology can be leveraged? With the right answers to these questions, and the right focus on key business processes, PL marketers can be assured of improved profitability of their PL brands.


About the Author:


Ray Hein is Executive Vice President of market strategy and business development at &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1662)%>" target="_blank">Centric Software, Inc. His career has led to deep expertise in the area of product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions and how PLM best delivers value to customers in many businesses including PL marketers.