Facebook is making changes again -- and this time it is targeting small business owners. "The social network launched an initiative called Facebook Fit, a series of 'boot-camp' like events to help smaller business leverage online tools including Facebook Pages," USA Today announced on Tuesday, May 6. Facebook is not just blowing smoke; key technologies can easily guarantee the ongoing success of small businesses. What exactly is Facebook proposing, and what are some similarly essential technologies?

It's important to constantly re-evaluate your business to see what can be improved for profit longevity and future growth. "Business has only two functions -- marketing and innovation," Czech writer Milan Kundera once said. It's true that marketing and innovation are the heart of what makes a business relevant to consumers, and therefore successful. How can you continue to innovate your company? Here are three possible solutions.

Over the past 20 years, it seems that technological improvements have been occurring at a constantly increasing pace. As soon as you finally learn to use all the features of you new smartphone or table, its already been rendered obsolete by a sleeker, faster, smarter, "easier to use" version with twice or three times the memory.

Product lifecycle management programs are essential for companies interested in compiling data on product creation, development, and marketing that can be used during the production of other products, to reduce both time spent on production, and the costs associated with production. The software associated with PLM solutions utilizes engineering tools to allow several processes to take place simultaneously, making product production as much as 70% more efficient. It's hardly surprising that the product lifecycle management industry is worth about $25 billion. There is little argument to be made about whether PLM solutions are worthwhile. Instead, we're going to focus on PLM implementation plans for businesses that are ready to take advantage of quality PLM programs.

The reality of the business world means that companies have to invest in the future of their products as much as they invest in their various marketing efforts. After all, what good is a product to potential consumers who don't know why they'd need it? But in order to get your goods into the hands of these customers, you have to first ensure they're being manufactured at highest level of quality they can be. This is where product lifecycle management can play a huge role.

What are product lifecycle management systems?

Think of your company as Santa's workshop, consistently pumping out toys to bring cheer to children all over the world. At some point in the process, there's likely an elf who goes around ensuring quality control and making note of any products that simply aren't up to the high standards of the Santa Claus brand. This is what a PLM consultant can do for you. By recording specific data for a product to reduce its development and launch time, it leaves the workshop and lands under the tree at a much quicker rate.

Why do I need outside PLM tools to help me improve my product?

Remember back to your high school days, if you can. Say you spent weeks crafting the best English essay you could, comparing Arthur Miller's  The Crucible  to McCarthyism and the Red Scare. After starting at it for so long, your eyes essentially stop working, and you're more likely to skim over glaring mistakes. A PLM consultant can be an outside editor for you, helping your company keep your products user-friendly and safe, which can, as a result, heavily reduce liability risks.

What does the timetable look like for PLM systems?

You're probably a business of great ideas, as every good business should be. But where most companies run into problems is turning those ideas into viable, tangible and marketable products. This is where PLM consultants can help cut down the time it takes for ideas to become realities -- by as much as 70%. Additionally, you might have huge ideas but a tiny budget. PLM tools can also help reduce product implementation costs by up to 65%.

What does the future hold for PLM strategies?

Projections from TechNavio market research show the product lifecycle management industry growing at a 9.5% rate every year. That's good news for both PLM consultants and the companies they're in business with. Today, it's simply not enough to have a high-quality product -- it's barely enough to market it online and in print media. Consumers tend to reward innovation in both ideas and the delivery of those ideas, so get in touch with a local PLM consultant if you want to find your reward.

The PLM Innovation Americas 2012 is North America's only independent and technology agnostic PLM event. Bringing together 300 senior end-users, thought leaders and select PLM vendors, the conference aims to leverage the collective wealth of knowledge and experience to identify and encourage best practice. The combination of a world class speaker roster, cross-industry case studies, targeted Think-Tanks and pre-qualified networking opportunities make this North America's must attend PLM gathering.

When building your Quality Management System (QMS) for your Medical Device Company, use this simple guide to develop the foundational three-legged-stool.  Realize that building an ideal QMS takes more than a good quality manual.  We must consider people, processes, and tools as critical components of a system that comes together in harmony.

I had the opportunity to return to a client which I worked with over three years ago.  My first contact with this multi-billion dollar Medical Device Company was to develop a PLM strategy for the R&D organization, mainly focused on the early design experiments.  At the time, they were already leaders in their market but still used paper lab notebooks for their initial engineering design and experiments.  Over the course of the project, I found that they understood the need for change but many felt that they were being forced to update a process that had worked well for them and had made them industry leaders.  After working with them for nine weeks, the strategy finalized and delivered to them which lead to a three year series of project that I was not involved with, but others in Integware worked on the implementation.

PLM is not a new concept. It has expanded well beyond the industries where it started.  A question that we at Integware continue to hear from most companies, and in particular the visionaries within companies new to product lifecycle management, is “how do I show the business value of product lifecycle management?”