News Release

Stage-Gate Inc. launches new product to help organizations manage fragile Technology Development projects.

ANCASTER, ONTARIO, CANADA – May 29, 2006 - Stage-Gate Inc., a Member Company of the Product Development Institute, today announced the release of their latest product, SG Navigator™ Specialty Edition for Technology Developments.

Technology Development projects are a special breed of R&D projects: they typically represent a small proportion of effort in a company’s development portfolio, but are vital to a company’s long term growth, prosperity and sometimes even survival.

According to Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett, companies find it difficult to manage such venturesome projects and traditional management techniques will only cause more frustration and damage.

“ The conclusion at a PDMA Conference that focused on technology developments and fuzzy front-end projects was that many companies have dramatically improved development cycle time and efficiency by implementing formal Stage-Gate® systems, but that the front end remained a mystery. The consensus was that some type of rigorous stage-and-gate process is desirable for TD projects; but the process must be custom-designed for these types of projects.”

SG Navigator™ Specialty Edition for Technology Development is Cooper and Edgett’s authentic Stage-Gate® Process – custom tailored to handle the unpredictable nature of these types of projects. “We’ve assembled a very rich collection of innovation knowledge through our best practice research, benchmarking studies and consulting experiences with leading organizations in this industry” reports Michelle Jones, Vice President of Product Innovation. “This new edition contains unique scorecards to accommodate product and process developments, non-financial evaluation criteria, and worksheets and templates to guide teams through the creation of Technology Roadmaps, Research Reports and Business Cases. Most importantly, it guides organizations through the critical Applications Path to ensure effective transfer and commercialization of technology.”

About the SG Navigator™ product line

SG Navigator™ is designed with one goal in mind – to help organizations save time and money when implementing a Stage-Gate® Innovation Process. Its intuitive web interface guides each key player (ranging from decision maker to team member) through all of the critical activities from idea through to successful product launch (ranging from marketing to technical, business analysis and financial activities), following the authentic Stage-Gate® model. This product aims to get all of the critical players on the same page and very quickly.

In addition to the Standard Edition, SG Navigator™ is available in three Specialty Editions; Food Industry, Service Industry and Technology Developments.

For more information visit www.stage-gate.com or to schedule a presentation of SG Navigator™ Specialty Edition for Services, contact Michael Booker at +1-905-304-8797 or by email at .