| | April 20158CIOReviewEmerging Technologies and Product Lifecycle Management: Enabling Smart People be SmarterBy Daniel Bender, VP - SAP PLM Solution Management, SAPEmerging mobile, Big Data, and cloud technologies are fueling a revolution in information management. In product development for process manufacturing businesses, R&D staff is moving ­ perhaps a bit reluctantly ­ from analog to digital processes. Core applications and laboratory systems are becoming accessible to authorized personnel anytime, anywhere, and on any device. You are collecting an unprecedented amount of information on market and industry trends and on customer transactions and preferences. All this data helps you understand demand and evaluate profitability. Now you can spare yourself some of the chores of application management by running infrastructure components and core applications in the cloud. Learn how you can master these trends as quickly as possible by embracing an approach that gives you, your employees, and your organization a competitive advantage.Boosting Decision Making Through Enterprise MobilityTraditional lab systems often captured only predigested research data, entered primarily for delivery downstream. Initial back-of-an-envelope ideas and unstructured data like correspondence were often lost forever, and even core data sets remained isolated from one another on individual departmental systems. Each Lab Information Management System (LIMS) and each piece of equipment stored its own metrics, making comprehensive analysis a daunting task.The evolution of mobile devices like smart phones and tablet computers helps eliminate some of these data disadvantages. As researchers become comfortable using handheld devices, they can record even passing inspirations that may trigger other creative ideas. Such transparency into the creative process vastly expands access to historical issues and opportunities.Evolving User Interface (UI) technologies support rapid development of platform-independent solutions that readily accommodate the most popular devices, including those based on Apple, Android, and Microsoft operating systems. And a flood of mobile apps helps everyone share valuable experience and information with all team members ­ whether they're at home, on the road, in the office, or in the laboratory. When all relevant details are a finger swipe or button click away, your product developers don't have to reinvent the wheel each time they design a new product. And that means smarter decisions, faster production, and better products.Mobile technologies also boost collaboration by helping stakeholders share product development data across traditional departmental boundaries. What your chemist, engineer, or food scientist thinks and does is transparent to relevant players in manufacturing, quality and compliance management, sales and marketing, and warehousing and logistics. These downstream workers ­ those responsible for the commercialization of products under development ­ can now contribute to the development process without having to learn a different application or use a tool that was designed only for product in myopinionDaniel Bender
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