About Accolade

About Accolade^™

What is Accolade^™

Accolade^™ is a Web-based system designed to automate structured phase-review or stage-gate new product development processes, providing for an effective and efficient NPD process. Members of NPD teams using the web-based solution are guided through the stages of the product development process from inception to launch using a browser-based application accessible from their desktop PCs. This enables several project members to access the same information from any location. It stores all relevant project data in a central repository for portfolio analysis from an online dashboard.

The key benefit of the web-based NPD process to the new product professionals, particularly those who are members of trans-global project teams - is access to real-time information. The application manages all the projects and all the deliverables (results to metrics, reports) required for each of the stages, as well as the information on gate decisions, making the management of multiple projects and the individuals involved in those projects, easier. With the electronically managed process, product data, best practice documents, meeting minutes, reports, e-mails and other information are held centrally and are immediately available for re-call and re-use. This means that the resources that a company already has available to it for developing new products are strengthened.

Benefits of Accolade^™

Improve process efficiencies by 15-30%

Reduce wasted NPD costs from 46% to 20%

How:
Increased product development success.
Accolade's unique integration of software, allows integration with other process steps/information such as best practices, Early-stage identification of winners and losers, to help make informed process stage and gate decisions, benchmark progress and invest in products that will succeed in the marketplace.
Accelerated time to market and improved cycle time.
The software supports critical decision-making within each stage and gate of the NPD process, so informed decisions and can be executed with speed.
Idea management functionality.
Accolade enables users to easily submit new product ideas, as well as store, manage and retrieve them for review
Enhanced quality of execution.
Accolade automates the management of all related process activity, monitors process adherence and facilitates consistent execution of each step as a measure of accountability for the process deliverables.
Time saved managing portfolio activities.
Accolade's online dashboard provides a quick review of the complete portfolio to assess a project's status within the process.
Risk diminished in duplicating work.
Accolade captures project learnings as you go, helping to avoid duplication of work effort, keep from repeating developmental mistakes, strengthen processes and build intellectual property for use in future efforts.
Improved process adherence.
It organizes the predefined project deliverables and activities including team member responsibilities, so that process adherence can be assessed, which results in faster time to market and launch success.
Advance project team communication.
Accolade provides a home page for each project capturing any information and documentation for all key project deliverables, communicating team member roles and responsibilities, and facilitating team collaboration. It provides an efficient mechanism for sharing project progress/decisions/dependencies/roles/expectations across multiple functions.
Decreased time spent on administrative activities.
Accolade collects project information as you go, providing consistent formats for fast, easy generation of project status reports and presentations. It also supports detailed project planning through an interface to Microsoft Project!
Maximization of portfolio value.
Monitor, prioritize and allocate resources appropriate to projects, and ensure that projects are aligned with the latest business plans or changing market conditions. Accolade's central database of key process metrics lets you instantaneously analyze your portfolio.

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