Manage your R&D Portfolio

by | Jan 11, 2023 | Blog Post

Managing your innovation and R&D portfolio in a large organization is a complex challenge– it requires combining creative capabilities with a process of governance. It requires vision and realism… a culture of reasoned adventuring coupled with good old project management. Effective innovation means doing the right projects, and doing projects right.

Large corporations cannot leave this to chance. A reliable process is required that consistently delivers innovation to the marketplace, over and over again, to drive long term sales growth and profitability. The ability to do this separates the market leaders from the rest – it requires many things.

The GenSight solution is designed to help you manage all the elements of the innovation process – to harness the full capabilities of your organization – to help you build and sustain market leadership. It is a truly comprehensive solution, configurable to your specific needs.

A COMPELLING BUSINESS CASE TO IMPLEMENT GENSIGHT

Research into best practices of New Product Development (NPD) and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) reveals that the best innovators are 50% more profitable than average on their new product portfolio.

  • The best innovators get 38% of their revenue from new products less than 3 years old, compared to just 27% for average companies
  • Faster to Market – Stage and gate style processes accelerate new products from idea to launch
  • Project delivery over-runs are reduced by 50% in successful companies
  • Kill poor projects sooner – the best companies reduce market failures by 30%
  • Keep score – R&D and NPD PPM metrics help deliver and measure success.

WHAT ARE THE RIGHT PROJECTS?

The ‘right’ projects must tick a number of boxes, including:

  • Good business case – considering investment, market need, likely return, and level of risk
  • Aligned with strategy of the business
  • Good fit with overall balance of the portfolio – not too many eggs in same basket
  • Compatible with available resources and competences of the organization.

In practice, selecting the right projects is a complex challenge, and objective prioritization is required – top down portfolio management, driven and owned by senior management, and based on realism not just gut feel. It’s impossible to accomplish this on any scale without the right processes and tools. GenSight offers you a transformational capability to success in this vital and complex function.

IMPLEMENTATION – KEY SUCCESS FACTORS

Stage-Gate is well known and accepted, but it must be done right to work effectively. The Stage-Gate process must be customized to suit the type of projects you have, and the way your organization operates. It’s important not to stifle innovation with perceived bureaucracy.

The process and the tool must be implemented in a way that is sympathetic to your culture. The GenSight solution gives you all the features and functions of Stage Gate automation, built-in, with the flexibility to tailor this all to your particular way of doing things.

It’s a tough but rewarding challenge – Driving growth on future sales success is a profound determinant of profitability.

A PROVEN SCALABLE SOLUTION FOR NEW PRODUCT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

GenSight has been implemented globally by blue-chip organizations across a broad range of industries for new product and project portfolio management. The architecture has been designed for maximum scalability to support even the largest portfolios that comprise many thousands of live projects.


The GenSight solution for new product portfolio management is custom configured to exactly fit your business requirements, with built in best-practice content and methodology for new product development. Your organization will quickly become self-sufficient and you can manage the configuration yourself using the GenSight configuration studio editor.

GENSIGHT NEW PRODUCT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT – THE COMPLETE SOLUTION

NPD FunctionGenSight Capability
Top Down Portfolio ManagementGraphically view total R&D / NPD project portfolio.
Clearly see balance by business, goal, project type etc.
Maximize ROI & strategic fit.
Visually model and explore alternative scenarios.
PrioritizationObjectively prioritize using multiple weighted criteria.
Identify projects with highest ROI and linkage to strategy.
Combine financial, qualitative and strategic criteria.
Project SelectionBetter decisions – Clear and simple criteria for feasibility, with more stringent financials at later stages.
Stage Gate ManagementClear criteria for gate decisions integrated in business case.
Multiple stage gate processes (configurable).
Integrate prioritization into each stage and gate.
Reporting and AnalysisRole-based dashboards with interactive graphical elements.
Real-time analysis to manage value, risk and alignment.
Performance tracking dashboards, by stage, business etc
Idea ManagementMaintain ideas hopper.
Capture, share and develop ideas.
Qualify good ideas to develop further.
Project ManagementPlan and monitor milestones – who, what, when
Monitor RAG status of schedule, budgets and deliverables.
Integrates with MS-Project
Resource ManagementPlan resource requirements vs capacity, by role or skill.
Optimize portfolio to maximize return within constraints.
Assign named resources to projects, time recording.
Financial ManagementFull visibility of planned costs and other financial metrics.
Monitor actual vs planned.
Integrates with ERP financial systems.
WorkflowImproves control and monitoring of gate approvals.
Defines a consistent new product stage and gate process.
Saves time of team members and project managers.
Auto alerts and exceptions reduce risk.
Deliverables and Document ManagementAll project documents stored centrally and shared globally.
Deliverables checklist for gate submissions
Builds a searchable knowledgebase.
Shared information reduces duplicate or conflicting projects

For More Information…

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