IBM Software Laminar Medica cuts product development time and costs by 25 percent IBM Rational Focal Point software centralizes product data and competitive intelligence The need: In an increasingly competitive marketplace, Laminar Medica wanted to improve its insight into the competition to support future business growth. The solution: The company used IBM® Rational® Focal Point™ software to create a companywide resource for competitive intelligence that supports market-driven product development and more-informed portfolio decisions. “We chose IBM because of its ability to provide a complete solution with standard components that met current and longer-term strategic needs of the business.” —Mark Cooper, market intelligence coordinator, Laminar Medica Founded in 1975, Laminar Medica is based in Tring, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The company provides temperature-controlled packaging for many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies to help maintain the quality and potency of medical products that could potentially be affected by temperature variations during transit. Laminar Medica wanted to improve its insight into the competition. With the healthcare sector producing increasing numbers of novel, high-value drugs that require temperature control to remain effective, competition for packaging solutions within this niche has grown fierce. Major players from other segments of the packaging industry, such as refrigerated transport providers, air cargo operators and global logistics companies, had begun to offer competing products, exploiting their existing knowledge of packaging and global manufacturing capabilities. Using IBM® Rational® Focal Point™ software, Laminar Medica established a centralized, companywide, role-based resource for competitive and marketplace intelligence, including industry segmentation, news items, industry issues, trade bodies, customer information and prospects. The Rational Focal Point application enables Laminar Medica to consolidate various sources and formats of information into a single analysis environment, making it easier to compare and cross-reference data. Laminar Medica can then create analytical scenarios, including a single competitor or multiple competitors, and easily perform product benchmarking. The solution has transformed the way Laminar Medica makes product and portfolio decisions. Now, the company can simulate product investment decision impact, track feature and functionality requirement movement in the marketplace, benchmark competitor performance and generate proactive information that supports tactical bidding scenarios. Using this insight, Laminar Medica retired many products based on projected sales and established clear priorities for future product development projects. Finally, the company has been short-listed for or has won 10 percent more competitive tenders, compared to the equivalent period before launch of the Rational solution. The benefit: Reduces new product development time and associated costs by more than 25 percent Enables staff to simulate product investment decision impact and benchmark competitor performance Allows the company to achieve a complete ROI in less than 12 months Solution components: IBM® Rational® Focal Point™ IBM Software Services for Rational RAP14381-USEN-00