12: SaaS Product Development Model

1. Product Development Model Overview

The product R & D model is the focus of the enterprise strategy. The product R & D route determines a series of management methods and team building issues. It is also an enterprise's organization strategy and business philosophy. The product R & D model runs through the entire product lifecycle, from the traditional software engineering ideas such as market research, project initiation, demand analysis, design, detailed design, development, testing, release, and maintenance to the current popular IPD, market-oriented business models are all changing the traditional R & D model. The new idea centered on service experience is the essence of the SAAs model. We do not develop with product R & D. We must develop for market value.

2. Several mainstream Product Development Modes

L development by project management role

This is a product development model generally used by enterprises. The general manager or marketing department determines the idea of new products and determines whether to establish a project. The R & D/Technical Department is responsible for designing, testing, and forming a product prototype or service solution, it is then transferred to the production department for bulk manufacturing, the marketing department for sales, and the customer service department for after-sales service. Each functional department is only responsible for the content of a certain stage of new product development and develops the Business Operation Procedures of the Department. Although there are project managers or formal project managers and product managers, however, they are not responsible for the success of the final market.

Under such a management system, we are concerned with the vertical management of various departments and lack of management over the horizontal relationship between profit models, product concepts, research, production, supply, and sales, as a result, the product development process lacks attention, and few people fully view the product's market value, product strategy, development methods, and marketing combinations, the heads of functional departments often make new product development decisions without looking at the entire picture. They only care about how to smoothly deliver the product to the next stage and often complain about the quality of work in the previous stage, the company's top management should conduct a lot of coordination, communication and decision-making work. When enterprises develop to a certain scale, especially when multiple products are under development at the same time, the general manager will often take care of this problem and make decisions on the details of product design and internal management.

　　

Figure 1 Project-managed career development

L pace: product and cycle optimization method

PACE (product and cycle-time excellence, product and cycle optimization method) was proposed by prtm, a US management consulting company, in 1986 and used by prtm to guide enterprise product development process improvement, it provides a complete general framework, elements, and standard terminology.

1. Basic Idea of pace

(1) product development is driven by the decision-making process. It is a process that can be managed and improved, rather than relying on talents and luck.

(2) The product development process must be defined and implemented to ensure that relevant personnel of the enterprise have a common understanding and know how to coordinate and cooperate.

(3) product development is a structured process with four levels and three levels of progress tables. It should be included in a logical process framework and considered that the problem must be solved through a comprehensive approach, isolated and fragmented improvement methods are not advisable.

(4) Every stage of four Process Evolution requires steps. It is meaningless to introduce a certain element of the next stage to this stage too early, just like adding a supercharger to a bicycle, it does not help increase the speed, but increases the weight.

(5) product development should be managed in a public decision-making process. The management focus of senior managers is the key point of decision-making and balanced development.

(6) A new organizational model (core group method) should be established between the product development project team and the management team. The product development team should have an authorized product manager and several cross-functional members, the management level is changed to the product approval/Management Board.

(7) Emphasize that the design means and automated development tools must have a supporting infrastructure to make full use of them and improve the product development process, it cannot rely on design methods and automated development tools known as "Silver Bullet.

2. representative works of pace

In the book "pace-product and cycle-time excellence", prtm founder Michael E. mcgoras comprehensively and systematically introduces the theory and knowledge system of pace.

One of the founders of pace, Michael E. mcGrath also believes that product development is the main commercial battlefield of the 21st century. In the future, it will be the era of R & D productivity, that is, new products can be developed in batches, the company will pay more attention to resource management, project management, technical management and product strategy of new product development.

3. Main core content of pace

Pace believes that product development should focus on seven core elements, including stage review and decision-making, establishment of cross-functional Core Groups, adoption of structured development processes, and use of various development tools and technologies, in addition, we need to establish product strategies, perform technical management, and perform pipeline management for the input of multiple products and resources.

L IPD: Integrated Product Development

The idea of IPD (Integrated Product Development) comes from pace. On this basis, companies such as Motorola, Dupont, and Boeing continue to improve and improve in practice, it was created by IBM in learning and practice and successfully helped Huawei implement the system. The IPD integrated product development process is summarized as "one structured process, two class cross-department teams, three system framework sets, four major decision-making review points, five core concepts, six important stages, seven associated elements and eight positioning Tools ", its core idea is process reorganization and product reorganization.

　　

Figure 2 IPD Development Mode

L SGS: Door diameter Management System

SGS (stage-gate? System) Door diameter management system, founded in 1980s by Robert G. Cooper, and applied to enterprises in the United States, Europe, and Japan to guide new product development. (Cooper: a long-term commitment to product innovation (Development) management research, especially empirical research, he believes that through extensive surveys and statistical analysis, we can find the laws of product innovation (development, many of its empirical research reports have become an important basis for the theoretical and business circles to analyze the success or failure of new products)

1. General idea of SGS:

(1) Correct the project-listen to consumers' opinions, make necessary preparations, and adopt cross-functional teams

(2) Make the right project-strictly screen and manage projects in combination

2. Works on behalf of SGS:

Professor Cooper detailed various aspects of the door path management system in his book Winning at New Products: accelerating the process from idea to launch, and provides a large number of research results.

3. Main core content of SGS

New product development process-portal management process. Its model is as follows:

　　

Figure 3 SGS Development Mode

SGS is very concerned with effective portal decision-making and portfolio management. In every stage of product development, policies should be made to generate and kill, so as to prevent valuable products from wasting more resources, in addition, priority sorting of multiple products is required to give full play to the combined advantages of Enterprise Resources.

At the same time, SGS emphasizes the marketing work before launching the market, and the product value is ultimately achieved through marketing. Therefore, from the initial stage of development, we should consider how to conduct marketing, complete market analysis, product goals, core strategies, and marketing solutions before development.

SGS recommends that enterprises develop product innovation strategies. For enterprises, continuous competitiveness is manifested in the continuous release of successful new products, developing a visionary product innovation strategy and product plan will facilitate the development and decision-making of each new product.

L PVM: product value management model

The idea of product value management (PVM) is based on the profit model, D. lehmann and Crawford's product management, as well as the SGS door diameter management system, the latest product development and product management model created in 2002, it has been adopted by many small and medium-sized enterprises and world-renowned brand enterprises in Europe, the United States, and Japan. PVM details the profit model and its design methods, focusing on customers, needs and markets, guided by competition and profit, this paper discusses the entire process from conception to commercialization of new products, from enterprise vision, strategic implementation to product planning, emphasizing value chain and Value Stream Analysis Based on business models, reasonable strategy and strict evaluation procedures are reliable guarantees for Product Innovation (development.

1. Basic Idea of PVM:

(1) Do the right thing-the strategy determines the direction, the model determines the performance, and emphasizes product planning and product management.

(2) do things right-process decision methods, focus on product demand analysis, product planning, technology development, and marketing portfolio management

(3) make the right thing correctly-the ability determines success or failure and regards project management as a guarantee of success

2. Main core content of PVM:

(1) PVM attaches great importance to profit models and value chain analysis, and believes that "success is based on excellent organizations and excellence stems from extraordinary profit models ". Emphasize product planning and product management, and increase the focus of research from the specific product development level to the product value and strategic level.

(2) PVM also believes that effective product development process Entry Management and Decision-Making reviews are required to organically integrate the product development process and market management process, to reduce the waste of limited enterprise resources for non-valuable products.

(3) PVM highlights the coordination of product demand analysis, product concepts, and marketing combinations to Realize Customer Value and give full play to the combined advantages of Enterprise Resources.

(4) PVM emphasizes the core role of project management in product R & D, and advocates the product management system.

(5) PVM focuses on the construction of technology development platforms, core technology development, and cost value projects. It holds that systematic thinking is the correct way to improve R & D performance, rather than KPI + BSc.

(6) PVM also believes that an enterprise is the core competitiveness of business operations and advocates R & D strategic alliances. competition between enterprises will turn to product management competition.

3. Product Development and Technical Development

L differences between product development and technology development

The most important thing for product development is to focus on the customer's needs, and to use technologies or skills to achieve this demand quickly and at the bottom of the cost, not all of these technologies or skills are created by yourself. Product development is market-driven, and product development cannot fail.

Technology development is a process of personalized creation: In the early stages of product development, we often first conduct market research, then make technical predictions, and then make product plans for product development. This is a typical technology-driven development process. Focusing on technology and principles is a process of creation, and its risks and cycle are unpredictable. Technology Development allows failure.

Product development and technical development are mutually input and output.

For a start-up enterprise, capital investment is insufficient. At this time, the survival of the enterprise is the first. In order to survive, you can choose whether to accept product development or technical development flexibly. For an enterprise that intends to develop for a long time, we should try our best to develop technology. We should focus on product prediction and new technology development, and strive to make industry-leading products. If you can lead the market, the profits will be generous, so that enterprises can continue to develop.

L three times of Product Development

1. Product age

Technology-Based Product Era: product-centric

Traditional production process: starting with resources and technologies

　　

Figure 4 product-centric Product Era

Market Environment: product shortage, in the era of seller market where products are sold!

Applicable companies: mature products of universal service! In the age of fierce competition, technology must be irreplaceable and disruptive, and technology can form barriers.

Risk: after entering the competitive age, R & D will become a huge cost pressure.

2. Personalized service Era

Customizes personalized services based on customers' personalized needs: customer-centric

Current and future output processes: it is best to outsource or lease resources and technologies from both the customer and market.

　　

Figure 5 customer-centric personalized service age

Market Environment: customized buyer market!

Applicable products: companies with good channels and real system integration capabilities! The marketing department is the largest department in the company, and the technology and marketing and sales are olive-shaped.

Risk: if you do not have the technical and product management capabilities, you may lose all of your profits when developing your own products.

3. The marketing age

Integrate customer needs with existing technical platforms to launch the marketing era of business: profit-centric

Current and future output processes: Starting from customers and marketing, products are developed based on shelf technology. product development and technology development are separated.

　　

Figure 6 Profit-centric marketing age

Market Environment: Technical shelves and product platforms have been initially established, with diversified customer needs!

Applicable companies: semi-mature products with improved functions or partial innovations or products with platforms. The marketing department is very important. The company's R & D, sales, and marketing relationships are in a bell-shaped architecture.

Risk: if you do not have a dedicated person to create a product platform and the demand cannot be controlled, You need to perform a lot of repeated development, the development cycle is uncontrollable, resulting in loss of the company.

4. Product Version

Product: the version that is delivered to the user. There are three definitions:

V version: The Platform version. R version: the product that is finally delivered to the user. M version: Based on the R version, it is a personalized version for specific customers.

Differences between product (R) and product platform (V:

Table 1 product version

Product (r) Product Platform (V)

Market scope, market segments, overall market

Development object product package technical package

Plan Business Plan R & D Plan

Short release interval (month) Long (year)

Targeting external customers inside the company

Establish an SaaS Product Platform

Develop R products on platform v

Based on the R product, you can customize the M version through configurable and scalable SAAS.

V, R, and m constitute the product development structure tree

　　

Figure 7 structure of VRM Product

Studies and practices show that the process subordinate model determines the process, the mode subordinate strategy, and the strategy determines the mode. They are also a typical collaborative supply chain relationship.

The business model exists in the whole process of enterprise production and operation management, which is related to enterprise operation performance and supports the realization of enterprise strategic objectives. At present, we have thoroughly studied the objectives and methods of BMR (business model restructuring), the basic relationship between BMR and BPR (Business Process restructuring), and have implemented this practice to promote enterprise management innovation, it is essential to improve the competitiveness of enterprises.

Next, we will take product R & D as an example to analyze and explore the objectives and methods of product R & D model restructuring.

Status Quo of product R & D: authoritative data shows that 80% of R & D and 71% of technological innovation are created and owned by the world's top 500 enterprises. The core technologies of many industries in China are still dependent on foreign technologies. In 2004, the average R & D investment of the top 500 enterprises in China's manufacturing industry was 0.19 billion yuan, accounting for only 1.88% of the sales revenue of these enterprises.

At present, there are many problems in our enterprise product R & D system, which seriously restricts the effective improvement of Enterprise R & D capabilities and the rapid launch of new products. Most enterprises are not aware of R & D innovation, lack of R & D capabilities, improper R & D strategies, imperfect R & D institutions, fewer expert R & D talents, low R & D investment, long R & D cycle, and high R & D costs, unreasonable R & D processes and insufficient customer needs. The core is that no enterprise independent innovation R & D system has been established.

Product R & D model restructuring goals: based on the current situation analysis, the goal of product R & D model restructuring is to quickly establish an enterprise's Independent Innovation R & D system, improve R & D capabilities, shorten R & D cycles, and reduce R & D costs, in this way, we can develop new products with real customer needs and independent intellectual property rights and core technologies.

Product R & D model restructuring method: based on the enterprise development strategy and restructuring objectives, we first need to formulate the enterprise product R & D strategy. The core is to quickly establish an enterprise independent innovation R & D system, improve R & D capabilities, and develop more products with independent intellectual property rights and core technologies.

Second, develop R & D strategies. That is to say, whether to adopt independent R & D, domestic R & D cooperation, or domestic R & D entrusting strategy, or adopt foreign core technologies through joint venture projects, and directly purchase foreign core technologies through foreign currency, or by implementing the "going out" strategy and acquiring foreign companies to directly obtain core technologies and excellent R & D personnel. The goal is to effectively track the world's cutting-edge technologies, obtain foreign core technologies, and quickly improve R & D capabilities.

Third, the top 500 enterprises in China's manufacturing industry should establish and improve their technology R & D centers, expert R & D workstations, and post-doctoral R & D workstations. Create multi-level and multi-form R & D institutions.

The fourth is to establish a scientific employment mechanism to hire experts at home and abroad, especially professional leaders. At the same time, we must train our R & D personnel to form a reasonable R & D personnel echelon structure as soon as possible.

Fifth, the top 500 enterprises in China's manufacturing industry need to invest more in R & D. Every year, we strive to invest an average of 3% of the main business sales revenue into the establishment of an Independent Innovation R & D system.

The sixth is to establish a collaborative product R & D system based on information networks. Integrates R & D, management, and information technologies to drive innovation in product R & D models and product design concepts.

The seventh step is to speed up the design and implementation of relevant processes and their supporting systems during the establishment of the Independent Innovation R & D system, and improve the role and efficiency of the process.

5 Summary

This article introduces the development mode of SAAS. Through analysis and introduction of several mainstream product development modes, we can clearly compare and reference the product development modes to find a development mode suitable for ourselves.

At the same time, through comparative analysis of product development and technology development, we can clarify the differences and key points of product development and technology development, and finally form our own product version, create appropriate products in the model structure of MVR and understand their respective relationships and locations.