Case Study

We find that in some companies, particularly services companies, there is a degree of confusion between what constitutes products and platforms. Consequently, the roles of product management and platform management are not clearly defined. At MIDIOR, we associate product managers with the business of commercializing products and platform managers with managing the core building blocks or technologies that come together to form products. In the automobile industry, the distinction between piece parts and the product is easy to see. In the business of products without mass, services as an example, the delineation is not so clear. We define the core building blocks that come together to form the service as the platform, while the “product” is what the customer sees and buys.

The power of platforms: fewer platforms, greater leverage
Larger companies often have an abundance of marginal products and obsolete platforms that consume resources without providing substantial return. Not only is this costly in the short term, but lack of resources is cited as the primary obstacle to investing in the development of new products and services. The available resources are tied up in maintaining a multitude of existing systems.

Platform planning and consolidation projects can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and free up valuable resources by reducing the total number of systems, platforms or products. It’s all about getting more from less. This process of increasing leverage and reducing costs by consolidating redundant products and platforms is often referred to as rationalization. MIDIOR works with clients to identify and quantify opportunities for cost reduction, define requirements for converged systems, and create project plans for new development and migration.

Many of our clients find that platform planning and rationalization is a challenging and frustrating process. Experience tells us that the effort to stop an ongoing initiative is more difficult than the effort to get something new started. Yet it doesn’t have to be that way. In platform planning engagements, MIDIOR collects the facts and performs the analysis so that comparing platform investments and making choices about where to continue investment becomes clear. And while the term rationalization is often associated with "downsizing" and "plant closures", we see it as the path to new growth through freeing up resources to be deployed on more valuable projects.

MIDIOR delivers detailed, quantified analysis and actionable plans in support of platform rationalization, and if appropriate, MIDIOR will continue in a program management role through implementation. Specific deliverables include:

• Definition of current and future requirements for convergence
• Architecture for increased modularity and reuse
• Project plans for decommissioning process
• Financial models and pro-formas for products and platforms

Case Study