Since we have developed many products for clients in the US and other countries, we identified 5 reasons for outsourced product development: Lower costs, offshoring production benefits, faster times for development, software innovation, and high-quality products. We will go deeper into each one of these benefits of outsourcing.
What is outsourced product development?
Product development Outsourcing means a business or startup contacts a specialized company for the design, development, maintenance, or upgrading of products, hardware, software, firmware or services.
This is necessary when the business or startup doesn’t have an engineering team with the capabilities to work on design, electronics, firmware, software, or hardware.
There are several industries that can benefit from outsourcing product development companies in any country of the world:
- Consumer electronics.
- Retail.
- Health.
- Industry.
- Agriculture.
- Waste management.
- Car manufacturers
- Services.
- Startups.
- Logistics.
Product development outsourcing explained
Product and hardware development can be outsourced. If you don’t have the resources or the team to develop a new device for the market like a wearable tech on an IoT product. You can get help with third parties to develop your business idea.
What is the benefit here? You get a dedicated engineering team that can develop your product and with the best results; they will be completely focused on your project.
Software development is another service many companies are outsourcing, since they have specialized engineers to build any platform.
It is important to distinguish between software product development and outsourced projects. The first is the design and creation of a platform that allows to measure, process or gather information of a specific device or to complete a task. And outsourced projects refer to an entire process. That is, developing a product from the concept to its final production. This may require the programming of a software or app to connect with the product.
Outsourced product development benefits for companies
Let’s go deeper into the reasons for product development outsourcing and how that can benefit your startup or business (if you are for example located in United States):
1. Lower costs (the best benefit of outsourced product development)
Many companies used to manufacture their own products in the past. It used to be seen as a competitiveness factor. However, today it is better to differentiate with other aspects like service, marketing and price.
Companies understood the product development benefits by hiring smaller teams, which tend to be more efficient than big engineering teams.
The smaller teams that can be hired from other companies represent lower costs. Since the organization that needs to develop a new product doesn’t need to buy expensive machines or big facilities to store them. Also, you pay less in hiring new engineers, and you only pay for specific services.
Also, there is another cost that needs to be considered. We mean the workload that your employees would have if they had to develop a new product, and at the same time, they need to fulfill their daily activities.
As a result, you would have stressed employees that probably won’t be efficient in what they normally do. That’s why a good outsourced product development process should have an established collaboration and communication plan between the company and the third party.
This will help to focus resources perfectly. And avoid misunderstandings from the initial concept requirement to the final delivered product.
2. Outsourcing development means offshoring production benefits
Offshoring is the possibility to hire manufacturing or services in another country. Let’s say your company is in the United States, but a third-party in China manufactures your products.
This saves a lot of money for companies since it is cheaper to produce in countries where the labor is not too expensive. And they have the specialized machines for mass production.
The outsourced product development trends are to produce massively in industrialized countries, because the final product will have a low production cost. Therefore, the price will be competitive in the market in comparison to other similar products.
Another way is to think in countries that align with your time zone, for example, if you need outsourced product development and want constant communication with the project management team, think of places like South America. There are companies like DeepSea Developments that count on engineers in different places of South America, and we have managed to deliver outstanding results to our clients.
It is worth mentioning that outsourcing product development and getting a good offshoring partner for this task is not as easy as you think. You have to investigate deeply the company you want to hire to avoid giving your product development process to inexperienced or unprofessional teams.
Also, think of language barriers that may appear. Consider the options you have and if they align with your communication style.
3. Reduced product and hardware development time
Some people may think that outsourcing hinders the development of new products or hardware. That’s not true. When you get the services of a third party that specializes in developing products, you get reliable engineering teams that deliver outstanding results; dedicated teams have better performance and the development process works better.
They create new products all the time, and this experience adds up to be faster and more efficient any time a new process is carried out. Therefore, your company will reduce time-to-market, and you will enter the market quickly and with faster returns.
4. Outsourced Software Product Development
Outsourcing a product is not the only service you could get for your company. You can also get software product development outsourcing; it fosters software innovation.
This is a significant benefit since they can also handle the technical support and future updates of firmware and software. Therefore, you probably won’t need to have an expensive IT area inside your company in the US.
The outsourced software product service you hire will adjust your platform or embedded firmware, and integrate that with your product, since the outsourcing development team knows how it works and its main functionalities.
5. High-quality products
There is a saying, “practice makes perfect.” Specialized companies in product development grow because they love to build new technologies for the market.
These devices could also be improved when an upgrade is needed to maintain the product active in your business sector. The market’s feedback and your knowledge will allow your outsourced product development team to make incremental improvements according to the product development cycle.
We invite you to consider these 5 reasons to outsourcing product development. If you want to get great results with your business idea, don’t underestimate the power of outsourcing the development of your software, product, hardware or device. Our world is now more connected than ever, imagine what you could achieve in a short time.
When to get outsourced product development companies
Here is a short list to understand when you should get a company to help you develop your product:
Insufficient In-house expertise:
Effective product development demands a diverse skill set, encompassing ideation, prototyping, deep scanning, documentation, testing, and more. If your in-house team lacks proficiency in any of these areas, consider outsourcing to experts.
Meeting tight deadlines:
When strict timelines loom, employing remote developers from an outsourcing company can accelerate progress. Delegating specific tasks allows for concurrent work on multiple stages, expediting the overall development process.
Non-core business focus:
If your primary business isn’t centered on product development, outsourcing becomes a logical and productive choice. Software development requires specialized knowledge and expertise that may not align with your core activities.
Crafting original products:
Enlisting a remote team can infuse creativity into your projects, fostering unique product designs. The diverse perspectives of skilled professionals can invigorate your development process, offering fresh ideas and energy to your endeavors.
Get outsourcing product development services today
DeepSea Developments has experience in bringing concepts to life, we have some recognitions and awards regarding innovation in the IoT sector. Our resources and talented engineers make a powerful combination to design and develop high-quality devices that bring the best product development benefits for entrepreneurs, CEOs and startups in the United States, and around the world. These are some examples of products and services that can be outsourced, and which we have provided to startups:
- Drones
- Tracking devices
- Speakers
- Customized PCB boards
- E-health products
- IoT devices
- Portable chargers for EV
- Thermal cameras
- Agrotech devices
- Firmware
- Software
We have been providing outsourced product development services for companies and startups in the US, Canadá, Colombia, and Spain. Our customers have been satisfied with the results, and they continue working with us on mid-term and long-term projects.
Outsource product development steps
Is outsourced product development worth it?
To answer this question, you need to think about the benefits we outlined in this article. If you are looking for lower costs, offshoring production benefits, faster developments times, software innovation, high-quality products, and a good product development process, you should think of outsourcing your product development; we also provide great hardware product management.
Also, bear in mind that we have experience in developing products for clients in the US, and other countries. If you decide to work with product development consultants like DeepSea Developments, you get a high-quality team, and the best resources to make your project stand out from other startups.
We have some final recommendations for you. For ensuring a good outsourcing product development process you need to be clear about the goal you want to achieve, also, analyze the background of the potential partners you want to team up with. Find out how they charge for the services (fixed-cost, dedicated hours) and identify the different communication channels they use with their clients.
If according to that elements you find a good partner for outsourcing your product development, you are on a good track to getting a successful project.
Do you need outsourced product development services?
Contact DeepSea Developments by clicking on the button below and get a free consultation. We have great experience in remote work, and we have successfully developed several IoT products, PCBs, software and firmware.
Other services that may be of your interest
Do you need to plan the budget of your prototype?
Download our Prototyping Costs Quick Guide, analyze in which stage your product or device is, and plan your budget for product development accordingly.
