SaaS Series Introduction 12: The development model of SaaS products

1 Product Development Model Overview

Product development model is the focus of enterprise strategy. Product Development Route determines a series of management tools and team building issues. is also the enterprise's collation strategy and management idea. Product development model throughout the entire product life cycle, from market research, project, demand analysis, design, detailed design, development, testing, release, maintenance and other traditional software engineering ideas to the current popular IPD, market-oriented business model are all changing the traditional research and development model. The new idea centered on the service experience is the essence of the SaaS model. We are not developed for product development, we must be developed for market value development.

2 kinds of mainstream product development models

l develop in the functional style of project management

This is commonly used by the Enterprise product development model, the general manager or the marketing department to determine the new product creativity and decision whether the project, research and Development/Technical department responsible for design and develop, test, form a product prototype or service plan, and then transferred to the Production department batch manufacturing, marketing department responsible for sales, customer service department to provide after-sales service. The functional departments are responsible for the content of the new product development and the business Operation process of the Department, although there are project managers or formal project managers and product managers, but they are not responsible for the final market success of the product.

In such a management system, the focus is on the vertical management of the various departments, the profit model, product concept, research, production, supply, sales of a one-stop horizontal relationship between the lack of management, making the product development process of lack of attention, few people comprehensively to look at the product market value, product strategy, development and marketing mix, Often do not look at the full picture of the situation to make new product development decision-making, functional department head only concerned about how to smooth the product to the next link, often complaining about the quality of the work on a link, the company's top level to carry out a lot of coordination, communication and decision-making work. In enterprise development to a certain scale, especially when there are multiple products at the same time development, the general manager will often forgotten how busy "fire", in product design and internal management of the details of decision-making.

　　

Figure 1 Functional development with project management

L PACE: Product and Cycle optimization method

PACE (Product and cycle-time excellence, products and cycle optimization) was proposed by the American management consulting company Prtm in 1986 and is used by PRTM to guide the improvement of the enterprise product development process, which provides a complete universal framework, Terminology of elements and standards.

1, pace of the basic ideas

(1) Product development is driven by decision-making processes, which can be managed and improved, not only by genius and luck.

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

(3) Product development is a structured process of four levels and three level schedules, which need to be incorporated into a logical process framework, and that the problem must be solved through a comprehensive approach, and that the isolated and fragmented approach to improvement is undesirable.

(4) At each stage of the 4 process evolution, there is a need to step in and introduce an element of the next phase prematurely to the present stage, as if it were a bicycle with a turbocharger, which did not help to increase the speed, but increased the weight.

(5) Product development needs to be managed in a public decision-making process, and the management focus of top management is the key point of the decision-making and balanced development process.

(6) Product development project team and management high-level need to establish a new organizational model (Caucus law), product development team should have an authorized Product manager and a number of cross-functional members, management senior to the product Approval/management committee.

(7) Emphasize that the design means and the automation development tool must have the support function the infrastructure to be able to play the potency, the product development process improvement, cannot rely on is known as "The Silver bullet" the design means and the automation development tool.

2. Pace's representative works

Prtm Company founder Michael · E. McGollas introduced the theory and knowledge system of PACE in a comprehensive and systematic way in the book "Pace-product and Cycle-time Excellence".

Michael E.mcgrath, one of Pace's founders, also believes that product development is a commercial battleground in the 21st century and will be the "research and development Productivity era" in which new products can be developed in batches, and the company will pay more attention to resource management, project management, technology management and product strategy for new product development.

3, Pace's main core content

Pace believes that product development should focus on seven core elements, including stage review decisions, building cross-functional caucuses, adopting structured development processes, using various development tools and technologies, as well as building product strategies, managing technology, and piping management of multiple product and resource inputs.

L IPD: Integrated product development

IPD (Integrated products development, integrated product development), the idea comes from pace, on this basis, Motorola, DuPont, Boeing and other companies in practice continue to improve and improve, by IBM in learning, practice, create, and successfully assisted Huawei in implementing the system. The IPD Integrated product development process is summed up as "a structured process, a two-part cross-departmental team, three system frameworks, four major decision-making review points, five core concepts, six important stages, seven related elements and eight positioning tools", with the core thought of process reengineering and product reorganization.

　　

Figure 2 IPD Development model

L SGS: Doorway Management System

SGS (stage-gate?) System), founded by Robert G. Cooper in the 1980s, and used in the United States, Europe, Japan to guide the development of new products. (Cooper: Long-term commitment to product innovation (development) management research, especially empirical research, he believes that through extensive investigation and statistical analysis, we can find product innovation (development) law, and its many empirical research reports become the theoretical and business community for new product success analysis of the important basis)

1, the basic idea of SGS:

(1) To do the project correctly-listen to the views of consumers, do the necessary preparatory work, the use of cross-functional work team

(2) Doing the right project-rigorous project selection and portfolio management

2, SGS's representative works:

Professor Cooper details all aspects of the gateway management system in his book, new product development process management (Winning at new products:accelerating the process from idea to Launch). and provides a lot of research results.

3, the main core content of SGS

The new product development process-the doorway management process, whose models are:

　　

Figure 3 SGS development model

SGS is very concerned about effective entrance decisions and portfolio management, making life/kill decisions at every stage of product development to eliminate wasted resources from worthless products, as well as prioritizing multiple products and taking advantage of the combination of enterprise resources.

SGS also emphasizes marketing before the market, the value of the product finally through marketing to achieve, so from the initial stage of development should consider how to marketing, before the completion of the development of market analysis, product objectives, positioning the core strategy and improve the marketing plan.

SGS recommends that enterprises develop product innovation strategies, and for enterprises, the continued competitiveness of the continuous introduction of successful new products, the development of visionary product innovation strategy and product planning will help each new product development and decision-making.

L PVM: Product value Management model

The concept of product value management (PVM) is based on the profit model, D.lehmann and Crawford's product Management, and the SGS Gateway Management system, the latest product development and product management model created in 2002 in Europe, USA, Japan is used by many small and medium-sized enterprises and global brands, PVM details the profit model and its design methods, customer, demand and market focus, competition and profit-oriented, from the corporate vision, strategy implementation to product planning, around product management and product life cycle axis, This paper discusses the whole process of new product from concept conception to commercialization, emphasizing the value chain and value stream analysis based on business model, the reasonable strategy and rigorous evaluation procedure are the reliable guarantee of product innovation (development).

1, the basic idea of PVM:

(1) Doing the right thing--strategic decision direction, model determining performance, emphasizing product planning and product management

(2) Doing the right thing--process decision method, focusing on product demand analysis, product planning, technology development and marketing portfolio management

(3) correctly to do the right thing-ability to determine success or failure, the project management is the guarantee of success

2. The main core content of PVM:

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

(2) PVM also believes in the need for effective product development process access management and decision-making review, the product development process and market management process organically integrated to reduce the value of worthless products waste limited enterprise resources.

(3) PVM emphasizes the coordination of product demand analysis, product concept and marketing mix in order to realize customer value and bring the combination advantage of enterprise resources into play.

(4) PVM emphasizes the core role of project management for product development, and advocates Product Manager system.

(5) PVM focuses on technology development platform construction, core technology development and cost value engineering, and argues that systematic thinking is the right way to improve research and development performance rather than KPI+BSC.

(6) PVM also believes that the enterprise is the core competitiveness of the business, advocating R & A strategy alliance, the competition between enterprises will be shifted to product management competition.

3 Product development and technology development

L The difference between product development and technology development

The most important thing in product development is to focus on the needs of the customer, and to bring the demand into the technology or skill quickly and cost, which is not necessarily created by yourself. Product development is market-driven and product development is not allowed to fail.

Technology development is a personalized creation process: We are in the early stages of product development, are often the first to conduct market research, and then carry out technical predictions, and then make product planning for product development. This is a typical technology-driven development process. Focusing on technology and principles is a creative process whose risks and cycles are unpredictable and technology development allows for failure.

Product development and technology development are mutually input and output.

For a fledgling enterprise, the capital investment is insufficient, this time the enterprise's survival is the first place. In order to survive the flexibility to choose whether to accept product development or technology development. For a long-term development of enterprises, should try to develop technology. Should focus on product prediction, new technology development, committed to making products leading the industry. If can lead the market, that brings the profit is relatively rich, so the enterprise obtains the continuous development.

L three times of product development

1. Product era

Product era based on technology launch: product-centric

Traditional production processes: starting with resources and technology

　　

Figure 4 Product-centric product era

Market environment: Product shortage, to product marketing of the seller's Marketplace ERA!

Applicable company: Universal service of mature products! In the era of fierce competition, technology must be irreplaceable and leading, technology can form barriers.

Risk: After entering the era of competition, research and development will become a big cost pressure.

2. Personalized service era

Customization of customized products tailored to customer needs: customer-centric

Current and future output flow: Fully from the customer and the market, the best resources and technology outsourcing or leasing

　　

Figure 5 Customer-centric personalized service era

Market environment: Customized Buyer's Market!

Applicable products: There are good channels with real system integration capabilities of the company! Marketing department is the company's largest department, technology and marketing and sales for the olive type.

Risk: There is no technical and product management capabilities, it is possible to develop their own products will be included in the total loss of profits.

3. Marketing era

Customer demand and the existing technology platform to launch a business marketing era: profit-centric

Current and future production processes: Starting with customer and marketing, product development based on shelf technology, product development and technology development separation

　　

Figure 6 profit-centric marketing era

Market environment: has preliminarily established technical shelves and product platform, customer demand diversification!

Applicable companies: Functional improvement or partial innovation of semi-mature products or platform-based products. Marketing department is very important, the company research and development and sales and market relations for dumbbell-type architecture.

Risk: If there is no special person to do product platform at the same time demand can not control, need to do a lot of repetitive development, the development cycle is not controllable, resulting in loss of the company.

4 Product versions

Product: Refers to the version delivered to the user. There are often three definitions:

V version: Refers to the platform version. R version: Refers to the product that is ultimately delivered to the user. Version m: A personalized version of the specific customer based on the R version.

The difference between product (R) and product platform (V):

Table 1 Product versions

Product (R) product platform (V)

Market-wide segment market overall market

Development Object Package Technology Package

Plan Business Plan Development Plan

Publish time interval short (months) long (years)

Object-oriented external customer company internal

Build a SaaS product platform

Development of R products on V-platform

The M-version customization is based on the R product via the configurable, extensible SaaS.

V, R, m constitute the product development structure tree

　　

Figure 7 VRM Product tree structure

The research and practice show that the process subordinate pattern, the pattern decides the flow, the model subordinate strategy, the strategic decision mode. They are also a typical collaborative supply chain relationship.

The business model exists in the whole process of enterprise production and management, which is related to the business performance and supports the realization of the strategic goal. At present, in-depth study of the objectives and methods of BMR (business model reorganization), BMR and BPR (Business process reengineering) basic relationship, and really fall into practice, to promote enterprise management innovation, enhance the competitiveness of enterprises is very necessary.

Below, we take product research and development as an example to analyze and explore the objectives and methods of product development model reorganization.

Product research and Development status: Authoritative data show that today's world research and development of 80%, technology innovation 71% are created and owned by the world's top 500 enterprises. The core technology of many industries in our country still relies on foreign technology. In 2004, the average research and development investment of the top 500 enterprises in China was 190 million yuan, which accounted for only 1.88% of the sales income of these enterprises.

At present, there are many problems in China's enterprise product research and development system, which seriously restricts the effective promotion of enterprise research and development ability and the rapid launch of new products. The main performance in most enterprises research and development innovation consciousness is not strong, research and development ability is insufficient, research and development strategy is not sound, research and development organization is not perfect, expert level research and development talent is low, research and development period is long, research and development cost is high, research and development process is unreasonable and customer demand cannot be fully satisfied. The core is not yet established enterprise independent innovation research and development system.

Product Development Model reorganization objectives: Based on the current situation analysis, the goal of product development model reorganization is to quickly establish an independent innovation research and development system, improve research and development capabilities, shorten research and development cycle, reduce research and development costs, so as to develop the real needs of customers, and with independent intellectual property rights and core technology of new products.

Product research and development model reorganization method: Based on the Enterprise development Strategy and restructuring objectives, we first set up the Enterprise product development strategy. The core is through the rapid establishment of enterprise independent innovation research and development system, enhance research and development capabilities, developed more with independent intellectual property rights and core technology products.

The second is to develop research and development strategies. That is to take self-research and development, domestic cooperation research and development, or domestic research and development strategy, or to adopt a joint venture project to introduce foreign core technology, direct foreign exchange to buy foreign core technology, or through the implementation of the "go out" strategy, acquisition of foreign companies directly to acquire core technology and excellent research and development personnel strategy. The aim is how to effectively track the frontiers of World Science and technology, acquire foreign core technology and rapidly improve research and development capability.

The third is located in China's manufacturing industry 500 companies to establish and improve enterprise technology research and Development Center, expert research and development workstations and postdoctoral research and development workstations. Create multi-level, multiple forms of research and development institutions.

The Forth is to establish a scientific mechanism of employing personnel, and to recruit experts directly from home and abroad, especially to recruit professional leaders. At the same time, we must cultivate the enterprise research and development personnel, as soon as possible to form a reasonable echelon structure.

Five is located in China's top 500 manufacturing enterprises to increase research and development investment. Every year strive to use an average of 3% of the main business sales revenue into the enterprise independent Innovation research and development system establishment.

The sixth is to establish a product collaborative research and development system based on information network. Integration of research and development technology, management technology and information technology, drive product development model and product design concept innovation.

The seventh is to speed up the design and implementation of each related process and its supporting system in the process of establishing independent innovation research and development system, and improve the function and efficiency of the process.

5 Summary

This article introduces the development model of SaaS. Through the analysis and introduction of several mainstream product development models, let us clearly compare and reference the product development model, from which we can draw a suitable development model.

At the same time, through the product development and technical development of the comparative analysis, clear product development and technology development of the differences and key points, and finally form their own product version, in the MVR model structure to establish their own products and clear their relationship and location.

SaaS Series Introduction 12: The development model of SaaS products