Aberdeen Group Study Highlights Best Practices in Telecom Product Development

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Aberdeen Group www.aberdeen.com, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS) and leading analysis firm for the telecommunications industry, today released its study entitled, "Partnering for Success: Best Practices in Product Development for Telecommunications Companies." This study, sponsored by Aricent®, outlines the significant benefits telecommunications equipment manufacturers and service providers receive through early and consistent engagement with strategic development partners. Specifically, Aberdeen's extensive survey of telecom companies found that the highest performers consistently engaged with development partners early in their process and, as a result, benefited from double digit percentage increases in time-to-market, reduced costs, and increased product quality and usability.

"Our latest research clearly shows the product development benefits companies experience when engaging development partners early and consistently across each phase of the product lifecycle," said Russ Klein, Vice President, Technology Research Group Director at the Aberdeen Group. "Aricent's unique combination of consulting, design innovation, and engineering services should position the company well for the growing trend of third-party collaboration in product innovation."

Aberdeen Group's July 2010 Contemporary Product Development study demonstrates a shift in how the Best-in-Class companies (benchmarked as the top 20 percent of performers) engage their development partners to drive a relationship of early and consistent collaboration across all phases of the product lifecycle, from business planning to design to product development and commercialization. Highlights for Best-in-Class companies' product development performance include:

• 84 percent of products meet targeted product launch dates;
• 76 percent of products meet development budget targets;
• 82 percent of products meet products revenue targets;
• 44 percent indicated that design and user experience have "become significantly more important" to the company strategy over the past 18 months.

Aberdeen's Study surveyed over 200 telecommunications OEMs and service providers and then ranked each organization into three segments according to their product development performance. The Best-in-Class consisted of the top 20 percent in terms of performance; the Industry Average segment was comprised of the middle 50 percent, while the Laggard Segment included the lowest 30 percent.

The delta between the Best-in-Class and Laggard segments clearly outlines the benefits from proper engagement with development partners. Best-in-Class performers saw a greater than 17 percent increase revenue growth over the past 18 months versus Laggards. In addition, this high-performing segment also hit their product development dates more than 32 percent more often than their competitors on average. Best-in-Class performers also reported greater availability of internal resources and improved design overall. The Best-in-Class performers shared a consistent engagement model with their development partners. Not only did they engage with these partners over multiple products, they brought their partners into the development cycle very early in the process.

Aricent, along with its innovation arm, frog design, is a leading provider of design and development services. The company serves as an essential partner for manufacturers looking to gain such benefits by leveraging its deep domain expertise to help organizations deliver cutting-edge products and services.

"Aberdeen's research highlights the benefits of engaging organizations like Aricent," said Tim Leberecht, chief marketing officer at Aricent. "Our deep experience with telecommunications and network infrastructure, carrier networks, devices, and services enables us to provide our global customer base with the resources and expertise they need to build innovative products and enter new markets."

You can access the Aberdeen study here: http://www.aricent.com/cpd

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About Aricent

Aricent is a global innovation, technology and services company focused exclusively on communications. Aricent combines the leading innovation capabilities of frog design with unparalleled domain expertise in communications as a strategic supplier to the world's foremost infrastructure, application and service providers. The company's investors include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Sequoia Capital, The Family Office and The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. For more information, visit http://www.aricent.com

Aricent® is a trademark of Aricent Inc., in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Aricent