SAP xApp Product Definition (SAP xPD)

Last week, I read an article on my morning newspaper which stated that only 3 percent of new brands have earned more than $50 million in revenues during the last five years. And introductions of new products have nearly doubled in the past decade. These companies are spending a lot of time developing new products and in the end they are having a hard time selling them. If this pattern goes on, it could mean the end of business.

Accordingly the reason for the failure of these new products is that there not enough definition. A research showed that companies introducing new products with very shard definitions of the products could more than triple the selling success rates.

With lack of precise definition of the product, the company would find it hard to capitalize on its best ideas ad promising opportunities.

The SAP xApp Product Definition (SAP xPD) can help companies overcome this particular problem – in an automated way. As their marketing punch line goes: "SAP xPD helps you capitalize on your best ideas and translate them into successful, innovative products"

SAP xPD can help a company in collecting ideas and developing concepts by reaching across the technical and organizational boundaries utilizing data processes and other existing resources. From the data, SAP xPD can give intelligent recommendation on how to produce the kind of products that the customers will want to buy.

The main features of SAP xPD are categorized into Idea Management, Concept Development and Innovation Process Optimization. If one looks at them, they seem to be activities that are hard to simulate. But SAP never runs out of innovation.

Under Idea Management category, the Idea Creation feature collects ideas from different touch points like sales, service, resellers, partners, customers, consumers, marketing and many others so new business opportunities can be triggered. The Idea Categorization helps to ensure that the business owner make follow up and assessment. The Idea Consolidation feature uses a centralized idea pool in identifying new opportunities for business. The Idea Exploration feature helps share the ideas and execute feasibility assessments with cross-functional teams.

Under the Concept Development category, the Concept Creation feature utilizes concept genealogies to share with all process participants the detailed data and explain the rationale for underlying ideas. The Concept Processing feature researches on feasibility of certain concepts based on assumed risks. The Concept Exploration feature identifies all constraints using cross-functional sharing of concept data and information. The Concept Assessment feature links concept evaluation to standardized, transparent criteria related to market attractiveness and technical feasibility.

Under the Innovation Process Optimization, the Concept Portfolio Dashboard offers easy comparison and prioritization of concepts basing on predefined key figures while the Process Analysis feature analyses and optimizes the product innovation process.

These are all the features of SAP xApp and I salute them for this innovative application which I never thought would have been possible.

See you tomorrow with my next xApp blog. If you are reading this one an evening, may good ideas come into your dreams!