Testimonials from Clients using our Project Portfolio Management Software
“We are very satisfied with PD-Trak. It has a simple user interface and is highly configurable. It is a well organized system with tremendous flexibility. That said, we needed a customized model for capturing the financial contributions for the new products being developed and a key factor in selecting PD-Trak was their ability to offer cost effective customization. There is great reporting capabilities at both the project and portfolio level. It is configurable to the needs of the individual business. PD-Trak Solutions is knowledgeable and responsive in their service, both in design and configuration as well as troubleshooting. We find that it is excellent value for the cost. One more important point is that the vendor of PD-Trak stays with client every step of the way.”
“PD-Trak has been a successful tool for us at Taco and especially in Commercial Pump Sales and Marketing.
It has had a unifying effect for our project data – all the info for the project is in one place. It has created a method for visibility of all of our products under development.
It is important to note that for something like this to be successful, it requires broad-scale group adoption and really integrated into the culture. This of course takes time. PD-Trak was initiated by QA. Then in Commercial Pump Sales and Marketing, it was accepted and adopted by senior management from the get-go. We had good success with it even in the first few years. Commercial Engineering was a slower adopter of the process. Once we achieved 100% buy-in from senior management in Commercial Engineering, we achieved better product delivery efficiency. Now there are three organizations key organizations (Marketing, Engineering, and QA) all dancing to the same beat. Before we had this, the dance is not so smooth.
PD-Trak has also been a tool to help Taco integrate a gate process. As this evolved, so has the language we use when talking about our projects, i.e. what phase are we in, stakeholders, etc. and I think the use of this project management language has created awareness of best-practice concepts that were not on our radar before. This is not a destination but a journey and I think we are always improving.
I have now been a part of many successful projects that I believe would not have gotten to market as quickly had we not been organized by a good process and tool.”
PD Trak has many benefits but most importantly it allows organizations to get their hands around their New Product Development Programs. What I find most rewarding from a personal note, is seeing Project Managers really beginning to appreciate the financial aspects of their project. PD Trak constantly reminds the Project Manager and the team that meeting financial targets are critical to ensure a successful product launch.
“Therm-O-Disc was looking for a portfolio management software package that supported our objective to create a more robust portfolio/resource management process. We found that system in PD-Trak. It’s simple, yet elegant and efficient design was perfectly suited to our needs. The flexibility of the system allowed us to configure it so that it aligned with our existing NPD process. PD-Trak also creates easy-to-use graphical tools that help us understand our current portfolio, and do “what-if” scenarios to help us define the best course of action. Our management reviews now have the structure and the data we need to make better decisions on how (and where) to allocate our resources.
PD-Trak’s flexibility and effectiveness has actually exceeded our expectations, so much so that we recently expanded its use to include our global portfolio of company-critical projects and resources.”
“We have been using PD-Trak for almost two years now, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results. PD-Trak has facilitated a more disciplined and methodical approach to our product development activities and improved the project management capabilities of our teams. The system offers strong guidance, but also allows flexibility for organizational customization. The resource and portfolio management functions have helped ensure we are moving forward only the most impactful and financially viable projects. Finally, the responsiveness of the PD-Trak team throughout the entire process has been very impressive. I highly recommend that any organization that is looking for a more disciplined and productive product development process seriously consider the PD-Trak system.”
“When I took over the engineering department at Particle Measuring Systems I wanted to bring more structure to our development process and improve communication about our development projects throughout the entire company. We had used what I call an “experience-based” process that depends on having experienced project managers and managing a project without the benefit of a well-defined process or task list. Implementing a phase gate system provides a well defined process and everyone knows exactly what is expected.
PD-Trak has been a huge help in implementing the new process. We have used the “standard” process with only minor modifications. This has provided a very good starting point and was much easier than having to build a process from scratch. For companies that already have a well-defined process, it is relatively simple to modify PD-Trak to accommodate their process.
The tool is very easy to use. Most anyone with any familiarity with a Windows-based program and a phase-gate system can begin to use the system with little or no training. The documentation is very useful and can provide answers to most questions. When I have had questions, I have always gotten very timely responses. Training will help utilize the more sophisticated features, and Pete Cornish has been has been very helpful in this regard.
I would strongly recommend PD Trak to any company that has small- to mid-size projects and wants to start or strengthen a phase-gate process, improve communication, do resource planning, or product planning.”
“PD-Trak has been a very useful tool to support the development of a structured product innovation process. The tools available in the Help Menu are extensive and provide a wealth of information from the “How to Use PD-Trak” to methods and tools for implementation of product innovation processes in the business. The PD-Trak voting capability is structured to allow teams to review and evaluate the product idea from concept definition through to the launch. The design and management of project resources and financials can be linked to MS Project. We found that the product is excellent as both a communication and a management tool for members of the organization needing a quick status update as well as the distribution of responsibilities to teams engaged at each stage in the development cycle.”
“PD-Trak has enabled our organization to rapidly define and launch a phase gate process that has led to a very organized and disciplined product development process in a short period of time and minimal cost. I have been in NPD with four major companies ranging from $1B to $17B in sales and have found the PD-Trak tool to be the overall best tool that I have used. The shear simplicity of the tool along with the exceptional functionality has led our organization to be able to implement, modify and train our associates faster than any other organization I have been with in the past. The tool is simple enough to be used in our gate reviews to answer senior executive questions regarding technical, financial and marketing questions real time. This has demonstrated our organized and disciplined approach to product development to our leadership team. The document retention capability of the tool has enabled our team members globally to upload key information around the clock and allowed our associates to go to one spot to get an update of the project and pull key information. This greatly enhances our ability to be prepared for customer opportunities. In addition, the portfolio and resource management capability of the tool has enabled us to look into the near and longer term future of our product development activity to quantify our needs and highlight weaknesses that need to be addressed with regard to resources, capital or expenses.”