Have you got the desired resources or a robust team that can come up with some creative new ways to develop innovative products and conquer the competition?
If not, then getting help from third parties could aid you to do it!
Nowadays, Businesses seek ingenious techniques to develop futuristic products and overwhelm their competitors; which often leads to switching their minds to Outsourcing Product Development.
Let’s get a deeper understanding of the term ‘Outsourcing Product Development (OPD)’.
What Is Outsourced Product Development?
Outsourcing development or software outsourcing is the process of assigning specific tasks to a third-party provider that possesses incredible expertise and a sound experience in that area.
Basically, an organization or a company engages that external vendor for developing or maintaining products and services, and even for idea generation in numerous fields (like IT, Business, Communication, etc). This process involves implementing software development projects, their testing, support, and maintenance that will be executed by that specific team hired by business owners.
Without getting into their technicalities, Outsourcing enables founders or product managers with less or no technical knowledge, successfully launch software products! How your business succeeds, will be entirely dependent on your planning, the team you recruited, keen communication between you and the third party, and so on. These factors result in bestowing companies with outstanding quality products and amazing customer satisfaction.
Companies Getting Benefitted With OPD
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, outsourced product development services have been the trend. Now, it has become a common practice for tech companies. Globally recognized brands such as Microsoft, Google, Opera, Skype, and Whatsapp outsource their software development requirements when they feel the need for upgrades or maintenance.
Let’s take the example of one of the global brands, Whatsapp. For its app, the company hired Eastern European developers. Besides, by extracting global talent, the search engine giant, Google is able to provide support for its in-house employees. Aside from that, Slack is one of the notable corporations that have outsourced its IT development too.
In addition, there are a variety of industries worldwide that can get benefitted from the OPD, including Health, Agriculture, Automobile, Retail, Consumer electronics, Waste management, and more.
Around 15% of the ODP market is dominated by IT companies (such as offshore branch offices of major companies like Adobe, Cisco, and Microsoft).
What Made Companies Switch To OPD?
With its epidemic, restrictions, and remote jobs, the year 2020 has changed the landscape of product development. In banishing the concept of a close-knit working environment, and the pre-requisite of on-site resource availability for an unwary and productive business, the COVID-19 pandemic played a stupefying role.
Since office-based work has become a home office, businesses have been compelled to transition to remote working and hinge on digital technologies to the hilt. With time, many have welcomed and espoused remote working. Due to this acceptance, eleventy organizations plump for outsourcing.
Loads of firms have already realized the many merits of outsourcing product development, including faster outcomes and lower expenses. Following are some factors that are sufficient to compel the remaining ones to consider outsourcing product development for their project or organization.
Outsourced And In-House Product Development
Earlier, the majority of companies used to create their products in-house. For market research, conceptual design, prototyping, product engineering, and other purposes, they were at risk. They had to make do with the employees they already had on the payroll or find people with experience in each of these crucial fields in order to complete all of this. Additionally, this does not even take into account the extra money and time needed for the installation and upkeep of equipment or other tools.
Now, the majority of these problems are resolved by outsourcing. Employing a third party to assist companies in developing new goods is known as outsourcing product development. It may cover anything, from improving the original product concept or design to producing the finished item for the market. To assist clients in transforming their ideas for a perfect product into reality, each product development supplier has a variety of services and expertise to offer.
Every employer should give outsourcing a try since it has become widely available and more dependable than in-house product development. The countless benefits of outsourcing will surely make you comprehend the reason why it is usually preferable to seek outside help rather than design everything in-house.
Outsourcing Product Development Differs From In-House Product Development
In-House Product Development
When it comes to in-house development, your company will effectively engage full-time employees for its business. You will be filling jobs on the basis of skills and knowledge necessary for product development. Recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding are all the stages you’ll go through while building your own IT team from the ground up.
For a variety of factors, a lot of businesses prefer to develop products in-house rather than outsourcing them. Those factors might include:
- The feeling of being unable to control and manage the development process.
- The fear of losing intellectual property rights and security.
- Fretting that external agencies might overlook the innate company’s perspective and culture that gets baked into products.
Positives & Negatives Of In-House Product Development
Recruiting an in-house product development squad has both positive and negative aspects.
Positives
- In-house squad is aware of company’s aims and culture
- Regular direct connection with the team
- Assistance is provided on-the-spot
- Team members are able to communicate more conveniently and simply face-to-face
Negatives
- In-house teams are a bit expensive
- Turnover rate is high
- Team upskilling is required
- Lack of knowledge and expertise
Outsourced Product Development
Traditionally, company employees carried out the services and developed products in-house. But outsourcing allows them to do this outside of the company. The services include establishing product and technology strategies, UX design, custom software development, and ongoing product iterations. Different parties provide clients different services and specialties to turn their ideas into realities.
Positives & Negatives Of Outsourcing Product Development
Outsourced product development has both positive and negative aspects.
Positives
- Access to modern technologies and a large pool of resources
- Availability of talented workforce
- Much Enhanced control over costs
- Superior knowledge and expertise
- Best quality assurance
- Minimized product and hardware development time
- High-quality products
- Saves time on hiring and onboarding
Negatives
- Communication is the main obstacle
- Distance
- Trust issues
- Transparency is also questionable
Why Should You Outsource Your Product Development?
When starting their groundbreaking ventures, entrepreneurs frequently have to decide between recruiting an internal team and obtaining outside help for product development. Working with an outsourced product development business instead of recruiting has many advantages for founders.
Although an internal staff gives you more control, the outsourcing model benefits founders even more. With the latter, they may maintain a lean team structure while keeping overhead low. Plus, you don’t even have to wait for days, weeks, or even months on the recruitment process to build a team of technology geniuses.
These are the main factors that can influence entrepreneurs’ decisions to outsource the creation of software products in the future.
What Does The Future Hold For Outsourced Product Development?
According to a report by GlobeNewswire, by 2026, the IT outsourcing market worldwide will be worth $425.19 billion. The STX Next’s 2021 Global CTO Survey showed that approximately 89% of the CTOs have plans to outsource product development in the coming years. Another survey by Deloitte Global Outsourcing Survey reveals that outsourcing business processes have immensely affected IT product outsourcing. Around 57% of firms reckon that outsourcing empowers them to completely focus on the core activities of their businesses.
These statistics exhibit that there are scores of companies that gravitate to entrust fixed duties to third-party providers. As a result, most firms, especially those involved in product development, outsource SaaS product development.
Closing Thoughts
Outsourcing product development has become pretty popular in recent times. Now, it’s not just a trend but has become a present reality.
Opting for outsourced product development might be one of the greatest favors you would do for the ultimate success your business demands! Time is money, so if startups and business giants wish to save time and funds, and get access to a worldwide talent pool, we recommend they should be wise enough to make the right decision of preferring OPD for their businesses, as not only the process is speedy, but within the budget, too!
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