Contract Win
Embargoed Release: 0700hrs 27 March 2007
Winbond Israel Advances
New Product Innovation with Sopheon's Accolade®
Semiconductor Maker Strengthens Innovation Processes and Enhances Team
Collaboration with Product Life Cycle Management System
Sopheon, the international software and services company, announces today
that Winbond Israel Ltd., a developer of semiconductor integrated circuits and
software, is implementing Sopheon's Accolade to support the automation and
management of its product development process. The software system is being
deployed in the organization's Israeli research and development centers.
Winbond Israel is a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Winbond Electronics Corporation,
one of the world's leading producers of semiconductor solutions. The Israeli
operation specializes in developing and marketing products for personal
computers, including Super I/O embedded controllers and security devices. In
recent years, the semiconductor industry as a whole has continued to grow, but
the rate of expansion has slowed. This trend, combined with emergence of
non-traditional applications in such areas as Trusted Platform Modules and
SideShowâ„¢ controllers, has heightened the need for both process and product
innovation.
Winbond Israel's implementation of Accolade is central to the organization's
strategy for enhancing its innovation process and increasing the business
return on investments in new products. The system will be used to collect and
manage new product ideas, and to enable online collaboration among project
teams working on product concepts selected for development. Executives, process
owners and team members will benefit from on-demand desktop access to a central
repository of the data needed to review and assess the status and value of
projects in the developmental pipeline. At the same time, Accolade's resource
planning capabilities will help ensure that team efforts are properly aligned
to support successful completion of priority project work.
"One of the primary reasons we chose Sopheon as a solution provider is their
domain expertise," said Yoram Avigdor, program management officer and security
product manager at Winbond Israel. "Their support helped to ensure that the
innovation process we put in place is grounded in the latest best practices.
Accolade's ease-of-use and simple configurability were also important. But what
ultimately sold us on Sopheon's system was the fact that it matches up well
with our culture. Winbond's business creed is to deliver what we commit.
Accolade's capabilities are a glove-fit with the emphasis on innovation,
teamwork and accountability upon which that creed is built."
"In the semiconductor industry, a supplier's capacity to respond quickly to
custom, end-user requirements is essential to business success," said Nigel
Cordery, European director for Sopheon. "Accolade not only gives Winbond an
automated best-practice process structure, it provides them with the kind of
strategic oversight and agility needed to quickly deliver solutions that
customers will value."
Accolade® is a registered trademark of Sopheon plc.
SideShowâ„¢ is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.
AboutWinbond
Winbond Electronics Corporation, a world-class leading supplier of IC product
solutions, was founded in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan in 1987. The Company has
first-rate capabilities in product design, research and development,
manufacturing, marketing and sales. Winbond has two business groups:
* Logic IC Business Group handles µc-based consumer ICs and computer logic
ICs.
* Memory IC Business Group is dedicated to Mobile RAM and Flash memory. Its
major products include low-power DRAM, specialty DRAM, Pseudo SRAM,
commodity DRAM, and low-density Flash.
Winbond operates one 300 mm wafer fab, two 200 mm wafer fabs and one 150 mm
wafer fab. The company currently has over 5,000 employees and holds more than
2,500 patents worldwide. Winbond has subsidiaries in Mainland China, USA, Japan
and Israel. For more information, please visit www.winbond.com.
About Sopheon
Sopheon (LSE:SPE) is an international provider of software and services that
help organizations improve the business impact of product innovation. Sopheon's
Accolade® system automates and governs the innovation process, enabling
companies to increase revenue and profits from new products. Sopheon is listed
on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange and on the Euronext in the
Netherlands. For more information, please visit www.sopheon.com.
For further information contact:
Barry Mence, Chairman Sopheon plc Tel : + 44 (0) 1483 685
735
Arif Karimjee, CFO
Andrew Tan Hansard Group Tel : + 44 (0) 207 245
1100
+ 44 (0) 7957 203 685
Floor van Maaren Citigate First Financial Tel : + 31 (0) 205 754 010