Deciding on decision support

To ensure that the right resources are focused on the right projects, bioscience company Millipore is deploying Accolade product development software from Sopheon. The goal is to strengthen decision support for managing the company's technology and product portfolios and improving the consistency and efficiency of its product development process.

Millipore decided to re-engineer its product development process to speed its ability to respond to needs and opportunities in core markets. It also wanted to decrease the time required to make portfolio and product development decisions to near real time.

"With its automation and decision support capabilities, the Sopheon system not only suited our higher level objectives, it proved in comparison tests to be the best solution," says Steve Pearl, VP of biopharmaceutical research and development at Millipore. "It had more off-the-shelf capability and was easier to customize. We also liked the fact it could be deployed quickly and, once in place, had limited maintenance requirements. What really won us over, however, was the positive reaction of our team to its broad mix of features and to its ease of use.

Accolade will be deployed first to users in product development, research and development and marketing within the company's biopharmaceutical division. Later, it will be expanded to include employees across the company's life sciences and laboratory water divisions.

Millipore provides technologies and services to life science research, biotech and pharmaceutical companies involved in the development and production of therapeutic drugs. It has seven manufacturing plants and more than 31 offices worldwide.