Requirements & Requirements Management

Frost & Sullivan Brief: Modern Requirements Management Solutions are Necessary for Highly Regulated Industries

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Global research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan recently released a report on the product development landscape and the challenges that those in heavily regulated industries face. And while the findings were not at all surprising, they were illuminating.

The report, titled “Safeguarding Regulated Products Amidst Growing Complexity,” found that those developing products in regulated industries — such as automotive, aerospace, medical devices, industrial technologies, and semiconductors — faced many challenges to efficiency, including stringent regulatory compliance, an influx of competitors, and significant and increasing product complexity.

The Tension Between Compliance and Innovation

The report states that many organizations continue to struggle with the tension between adhering to strict regulatory compliance standards and innovating. And while innovation and compliance aren’t mutually exclusive, without a process to help balance the two, many organizations feel forced to choose.

So, what’s holding these organizations back?

According to the Frost & Sullivan report, it’s the outdated systems and processes organizations have invested in that aren’t equipped to keep up with the speed of innovation.

“These antiquated systems are often static and spreadsheet- or even paper-based,” writes Frost & Sullivan. “And while they may offer a (possibly false) sense of reassurance against the costs and risks associated with a live digital system, they end up creating more costs and causing more harm.”

Learn how Alight Solutions transformed requirements management for its clients by downloading the case study.

The Consequences of Outdated Systems for Those in Regulated Industries

In addition to throttling innovation, the report found that these legacy systems can also lead to increasing compliance costs due to the inability to stay up to speed with changing regulations. The report also details issues with version control, errors, silos, and inhibited collaboration as outcomes of using outdated, document-based requirements management solutions.

The report was clear in its solution to this issue. Teams in highly regulated industries must use a modern, platform-based solution to manage requirements, risk, and testing in product development. And in addition to risk management and accelerating innovation, the report says, the benefits of switching to a modern requirements management solution are plentiful. More efficient and smarter systems allow for cross-organizational collaboration, the ability for key stakeholders to review and weigh in, and end-to-end traceability to easily prove compliance.

Download this recent report by Engineering.com to learn more about the gap between the increasing complexity of products and requirements management.

The report not only strongly suggests that organizations in heavily regulated industries make the switch to a modern requirements management platform, but also names Jama Connect™ as a top solution. And they provide proof.

The report outlines two case studies which highlight the power of upgrading from an outdated, legacy requirements management solution to Jama Connect.

Here’s a recap of one of the case studies.

Semiconductor Company Removes Errors While Speeding Product Development

One of the oldest semiconductor companies in the world found that to remain competitive, it was increasingly building more complex solutions that integrated software and hardware. Products and projects were getting bigger and more complex, as were the teams designing and building them. Along with more complex solutions, the company also needed to be fast to market to remain ahead in an increasingly competitive space. Hence, parallel product development was also critical, though difficult, as the company had various functions spread across global geographies.

The company used Jama Connect to create a system that enabled these teams and disciplines to work concurrently, with living documents that kept the large volumes of data needed for product development constantly up to date and manageable. As noted earlier, eliminating errors is a fundamental driver for both time to market and regulatory compliance, and Jama Connect meets that need as well.

To see the second case study and access the full Frost & Sullivan report, “Safeguarding Regulated Products Amidst Growing Complexity,” download it now.

McKenzie Jonsson
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