Trace One today announced the latest addition to its private-label product lifecycle management (PL PLM) suite. Packaging Manager, a collaborative e-solution for managing packaging design, is a key component of Trace One’s overall PL PLM offerings and enables each functional group involved in packaging to create the highest quality output in a significantly compressed time frame. Both the Packaging Manager product and Trace One’s PL PLM suite, which allows retailers to oversee every step of a private label lifecycle from the establishment of specifications to the product shelving, will be featured at PLMA’s 2012 Private Label Trade Show in booth #62 in the Sky Hall from November 11^th - 13^th.

Developed for Trace One’s global retailers to help drive increased efficiency, improve product quality and time-to-market, and meet dynamic consumer demands as well as current and emerging regulatory and safety requirements, Packaging Manager enables the online collaborative management of the entire packaging design process. With Packaging Manager, all professional teams involved in packaging design, using a SaaS platform, can now easily and effectively utilize the personnel, information, and logistics resources and talent to deliver the highest-quality products to customers.

“We are pleased to introduce to the U.S. market a product that has provided exceptional benefit to our more than 12,500 suppliers and 35 retail customers worldwide,” said Jerome Malavoy, founder and CEO, Trace One. “Through close working relationships with these suppliers and customers, we developed Packaging Manager to meet their very specific needs which, in turn, simplifies collaboration between stakeholders and accelerates processes.”

The Trace One Packaging Manager reduces the time dedicated to the marketing of products by more than 20 percent. The increased efficiency is a result of a decrease in stage cycle time through the product’s advanced online collaboration capabilities, allowing cross functional teams to proof and monitor, in real time, the work in progress. Time to market is further reduced when used in conjunction with Trace One’s industry leading PL PLM Suite.

“Package designing involves numerous steps and multiple disciplines. Every contribution, both design and text related, must be communicated, verified, corrected and validated, creating an intricate workload for the teams involved. These specialists in packaging, marketing and quality, legal, as well as the photoengravers and printers working on the design of the packaging must be able to quickly adapt and manage information. And, our Packaging Manager allows them to do just that,” said Marc Bonnamour, COO, Trace One.

Packaging Manager Features and Benefits:

• Management of collaborative projects through steps defined by the user;
• Automatic notifications by e-mail, for a fluid workflow;
• Media Library and Document Management;
• Embedded Web proofing tool allowing online proofing and editing and collaborative annotation models (automatic comparison and highlighting changes);
• Automatic display, high resolution, requested changes, with color separation and document assembly;
• Real-time upgrades reflecting the evolution in industrial requirements imposed by retailers and brands;
• Monitoring and reporting in real time; and
• Ability to perform certain operations, or to import certain documents once and to apply these characteristics to an entire range to facilitate the management of long product ranges.

To learn more about the Trace One Packaging Manager, the company’s full PL PLM suite,or any other products, please visit www.traceone.com.

About Trace One:

Trace One was created in 2001 and launched the first collaborative online platform in SaaS (Software as a Service) mode for managing the development and quality of private label products. The Trace One user community spans the globe from Europe to North America to Asia, and the company has offices in Boston, Chicago, Paris, London, Madrid, and Hong Kong. Its mission is to drive food and non-food product innovation, support brand protection, and accelerate time-to-market for retailers, manufacturers and food service companies. Trace One is committed to enabling collaborative processes between retailers and manufacturers thereby optimizing the sourcing, tendering, launching and development of consumer goods, while controlling product information and ensuring product and food safety. This not only supports the protection of brands, but also maximizes profitability and competitiveness throughout the product lifecycle management process.