S-plm Services - Phase Out Old Products And Its Versions Effortlessly
The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute defines a software product line
as "a set of software-intensive systems that share a common, managed set of features satisfying the specific needs of a particular market segment or mission and that are developed from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way. As most businesses today consist of a mix of products and product lines, Software Product Line Management involves the elimination of products that can no longer pay for themselves. The phasing out of old products or elimination of old products known as the end-of-life (EOL) or end-of-service (EOS) initiatives are often motivated by internal economic requirements such as rebalancing resources in a product portfolio, reducing support costs, moving customers to the latest product version and so on. Enterprises must utilize Software Product Line Management services in the following situations.
1. The product has reached its EOL phase & support must be provided to the existing customer base:
Migrate customers to newer versions of the product
Support process should be mature due to the products maturity
Support ticket volume and quality are more predictable based on historical data
Level of support is more restricted to ticket type and customer level
Support costs should decline over time and be a function of revenue
2. Multiple versions of the product are available to customers
Define the product roadmap and gradually phase out older versions
Converge multiple product versions to less stable versions
Define a migration strategy for customers
Define the product version feature matrix
A smaller number of product versions will decrease the support costs
3. Professional Services has created different product versions with unique features to meet customer requests
Determine the common base product features and the customized features
Create a common base platform with easy customization techniques (without any need for programming)
Converge multiple product versions to less stable versions
Define a migration strategy for customers
4. Acquired a product through M&A that needs to be supported
Define the products lifespan
Define the migration path (if any)
With several software R & D services experts providing efficient S-PLM services, enterprises need not bother themselves when it comes to retiring old hardware platforms, software versions and service offerings. The service providers would help clients to painlessly phase out their products while at the same time provide support the end users who are still using these products.