International Business Environments and Operations 16th Global Edition test b...
Product Lifecycle Services- Meeting Challenges of Modern Business
1. Product Lifecycle Services- Meeting Challenges of Modern Business
The present day consumers look forward to engaging with brands through various touch points. In an era
of aggressive competitiveness in business, enterprises need to manage a coherent brand experience and
this is possible when they understand customer requirements and connect to them in more personal and
immediate ways. However, technological enhancements and innovations have facilitated present day
enterprises with ways to offer their customers integrated experience across devices and platforms.
Further, by providing tangible goods along with intangible experiences the brands facilitate services with
strategic advantage.
Moreover, since customer loyalty is dependent on good service offered by enterprises, services
becomes the key differentiators between competition and income generator. The products have a
number of stages to pass through and its life cycle is determined by the length of marketable state.
Product life cycle refers to the stages through which a product passes right from its introduction into the
market till lack of demand in the marketplace and can be enumerated as:
· Introduction- where profits are low and production and marketing costs are high
· Growth- demand for the product brings in high sales, improved cash flow improves and good
returns
· Maturity-Even though sales increase, there is a decrease in profits as prices are lowered to meet
competition
· Decline or innovation- As sales drop and profits become extremely low, enterprises tend to re-
introduce the products with new features and new benefits.
Irrespective of the industry, product life cycle services facilitates the management of the various stages
of the life cycle through continuous monitoring of the same. This helps enterprises in understanding the
position of products in its life cycle which further enables them to align these to their strategies and
vision. Effective PLM facilitates enterprises to meet the challenges of increasing engineering
complexities while effectively meeting the demands of a globally competitive market.
However, in the present day business scenario, with technology enabling the e-commerce an edge over
the physical and retail store solutions, product life cycle management has become the corner stone.
While globalization has paved way for an increased customer base, it is imperative for enterprises to
manage information exchange between the stakeholders and understand their resources. The traditional
product life cycle management services uses tools that are implemented more towards the end of the
product life cycle towards the decline phase. The modern day PLM includes services such as product data
management, portfolio management, system engineering, product design, manufacturing process
management. The product life cycle services offered by the leading service providers benefits
enterprises with :
· Minimal time to market
· Refined product quality
· Reduction in wastage
· Reduction in prototyping costs
· Ability to recognize potential sales and revenue contributions
Further, the centralized product information facilitates a comprehensive assimilation of
engineering work flow even while working with distributed and offshore teams.
Check out - product R&D services, Enterprise Software