Take the time to identify the work to be outsourced

One of the challenges of outsourcing is identifying the projects that will deliver the greatest return on your outsourcing investment. Straightforward projects with clear processes and objectives are good candidates for outsourcing, although the impact likely will be short term.

Additionally, the person responsible for scoping the project must thoroughly understand the business objectives, project/product requirements, customer expectations, as well as the material, time, and people resources available.

Is it IT or R&D?

Embedded product research and development is not the same as IT development. IT development projects are targeted at a company’s internal customers. R&D product development is end market-driven and focuses on quality, time to market, feature sets, and cost of production. As a rule, an embedded R&D outsourcer should have expertise in embedded Linux, digital signal processors (DSP), FPGA, ASIC, communication stack, or mobile platforms and applications. Choose your outsourcing partner carefully After all, you’re considering putting your valuable intellectual property in the hands of an outsourcing vendor. Here are some of the things to look for:

• Ironclad intellectual property safeguards • Attrition rate • Expertise and experience in hardcore embedded R&D according to U.S. standards • Best practices in communication protocols • Corporate culture centers on quality, with methodologies such as Six-Sigma • Corporate culture that encourages innovation • Top employees and a corporate culture that respects and values them • Vendor’s business processes align with yours • Vendor demonstrates stability and inspires trust

Conclusion

For the early adapters, outsourcing – especially offshore –- was uncharted territory and many lessons were learned. The benefits of outsourcing are many and are available to the R&D departments of the enterprise, but will only be fully realized by those companies who take the time and steps to prepare themselves.

About Long Circle

Long Circle provides outsourced engineering services to companies whose products and services rely on embedded software and hardware technology. Long Circle and the Long Circle China Center of Excellence enables U.S. companies to reduce costs, increase engineering bandwidth, and broaden market reach by providing low-risk, strategic access to China’s engineering talent, manufacturing industry, and emerging markets. To learn more about Long Circle, visit http://www.longcircle.com.

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