Outsourced Product Development – A Trend or a Business Necessity
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Nowadays the concept of outsourcing is a new hype in the software industry and many businesses are investing billions in outsourcing all their core and non-core product development activities. Since companies are intended to bring innovative products to the market rapidly, they need a strategic model of outsourcing for their upstream functions such as product designing and product development. An external engineering expertise not only reduces operational costs but also provides long-term benefits which, in turn, help to stay abreast of the competitors.
Though reasons could be numerous, the consistently emerging marketplace competition has actually drawn companies into new markets, domains/technologies for which they require expertise and skills in place. But when a company recognizes that they lack required infrastructures or skills, they end up on outsourcing product development activities. From this, it is evident that outsourcing is just not a mere trend but a business necessity which help companies to transform their raw ideas into innovative products. Let's discuss in detail few reasons for why outsourced product development is a business necessity:
To Gain Expertise in Multi Domains
A saying states that it is always better to have more, which is true especially in the field of product designing and development. In order to build innovative and unique products, working on multiple concepts and theories is truly important. It not only helps to differentiate your product from others but also helps to determine product's viability in the market. An outsourced product engineering firm generally has a team of design experts who work collaboratively with industry experts to build a working prototype of the product.
To Focus On Other Core Activities
Other than product development activities, a company needs to focus on several other tasks including IT operations, marketing, and sales. Not necessarily, engineering requirements are the only core requirements of every company especially when most of the R&D activities can be outsourced. Cost, in-house expertise, complex development processes, and resource management are some of the key areas which a company find challenging to deal with. Also, development teams are often swamped with numerous projects that require assorted expertise. Here the role of outsourced vendors comes into play. Their dedicated resources focus on a single project while freeing-up company to focus on other activities.
To Minimize Staffing Requirements
Since different projects have different requirements, organizations consider recruiting new talents for short-term periods to complete a specific project. But is this reliable to hire full-time employees that may put an extra burden on HR department as well as can create confidentiality risks? Getting the right person on board usually requires more time, and sometimes training sessions to learn. While outsourced firm, with their full-time staff, can help in completing development projects on time, nothing could be better than applying targeted expertise at the right time.
To Meet Fixed Project Timelines
It is very usual for companies to miss their project timelines due to failing in committing resources to it. On the other hand, outsourced partners, prior to signing a contract, clearly understand a project's timeline and requirements and consider assigning their resources on it accordingly so as to ensure its on-time delivery.
To Minimize Operational Costs
High developments cost is one of the basic reasons why companies outsource engineering firms. Outsourcing helps to minimize product development costs by discussing project requirements and deciding a budget for it. Outsourced partner allocates resources and prepares regular reports in accordance to keep the company informed about the expenditures made for the changes other than the fixed budget.
On the other side, when product development is carried in-house, it becomes challenging to allocate extra resources or time for the new requirements. But outsourcing identifies the areas where extra resources are needed and sets a budget for it. With holding years of experience in optimizing product designs, outsourcing can help business to achieve their goals is shorter span of time.
To Win Over Competitors by Gaining Market Ownership
As we have mentioned earlier, businesses are striving to gain a competitive edge over their competitors, which is only possible when they would have a clear picture of the market trends and customer's requirements. Their launched products should be unique and innovative for a customer to accept. Outsourced partners with their expertise can be a great help in terms of bringing creative ideas to the table. Also, by performing a complete market analysis, they can assist with the products having higher demands in the market, customer's expectations, scope of transforming existing product, and marketing strategies for launching a product.
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Source by Andrew Hudson
