FEI Optimizer First Solution in Market to Extend Ideation Support to Concept Development/Testing and Provide Integrated Linkage to Consumer Research

ORLANDO, Fla. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — May 16, 2012 — Sopheon, the international provider of software and services for product lifecycle management (PLM), today announced the introduction of a joint offering with Kalypso, the global innovation consulting firm, designed to help consumer goods manufacturers increase the value of new products by improving their processes for ideation and concept development. Called FEI Optimizer, the solution combines software from Sopheon—via the Accolade^® Idea Lab^TM idea development platform—with innovation services from Kalypso. The offering is being presented by the two companies at this week’s Front End of Innovation Conference (FEI) 2012 in Orlando, Florida.

Innovation is a top priority for many consumer goods organizations, but launching new products that deliver business growth is an industry-wide challenge. A recent CGT-Sopheon study found that only 18 percent of new products released by consumer goods companies are considered “highly innovative.” Very few manufacturers attribute this consumer product innovation anemia to a shortage of ideas. Most often, it is due to a lack of high-value ideas and concepts in the front end of innovation. Among the contributing factors: ideation and concept development activities are siloed by geography, brand or product line, disconnected from the needs of real consumers and shoppers, and commonly limited to recycling low-value concepts from the past.

FEI Optimizer provides an enterprise portal for global collaboration on ideas and concepts in an intuitive, easy-to-use environment. The solution serves as the enterprise repository-of-record for all ideas and new product concepts—even those created through such methods as conference room brainstorming, consumer immersion exercises, retail store visits and meetings with trade partners. The resulting, centralized access enables innovation teams to reuse and leverage high-quality ideas across the enterprise.

One of the principal differentiating features of the Sopheon/Kalypso offering is that it tightly links concepts to consumer research conducted for concept testing, typically supplied by third-party sources such as Nielsen and IRI. This integration enables innovation teams to understand how concepts have evolved over time, and to see the consumer feedback that has influenced those changes. By tracing the lineage of concepts, teams can determine why alterations were made to pricing, positioning, packaging, or to the product itself. This complete picture provides a highly valuable context for learning what worked, what didn’t, and what should be repeated or avoided based on earlier experience.

“FEI Optimizer helps consumer goods companies dramatically improve their front end of innovation process to develop bigger, better ideas and concepts,” said Mike Friedman, partner and Consumer Packaged Goods practice lead at Kalypso. “By combining Kalypso’s 150 years of consumer goods experience with Sopheon’s best-in-class Accolade software, we can help our joint clients drive new product revenue growth to deliver better business results.”

FEI Optimizer offers a range of other capabilities that separate it from traditional, standalone idea management products and enable transformation of front end processes. Among the most important is a connection to downstream execution that allows high-value ideas and concepts to transition directly from the front end into gated product development and commercialization processes. The solution is accompanied by a rich array of leading practice-based change management assistance provided by Kalypso’s consumer goods innovation experts.

“This is the first front end system that extends support beyond ideation to concept development and testing, making it a complete solution for consumer goods companies,” said Bryan Seyfarth, director of product strategy for Sopheon. “The additional advantage of integrated access to consumer research results in a self-contained virtual incubator where concepts can be enhanced and prepared for transfer to product development. When ready, the concepts move seamlessly to development and launch. FEI Optimizer allows consumer goods companies to draw a direct line between ideation, concept development and revenue and profit growth.”

FEI Optimizer is available immediately for purchase and implementation. For more information visit http://sopheon.com/FEIoptimizer.aspx and http://kalypso.com/transformFEI.

Accolade^® and Idea Lab^TM are trademarks of Sopheon plc.

About Sopheon

Sopheon is a leading international provider of software solutions that structure, align and manage innovation processes to increase profits and revenues from new products. Sopheon’s Accolade^® system enables end-to-end product lifecycle management (PLM), including innovation planning, ideation, innovation process execution, in-market product management and product portfolio management. Among Sopheon’s customers are many of the largest and most innovative companies in the consumer goods industry. For more information, visit http://sopheon.com . Follow @ Sopheon on Twitter and on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/sopheon .