Five Steps To A Successful R&D Outsourcing

Five Steps To A Successful R&D Outsourcing: "You’ve made the decision to outsource all or a part of your R&D function – and probably have an agreed partner in mind.  What are the key areas to consider to make this a success for you and your business?

1. Understand your objective

It is really important to understand and be honest about why you want to do the outsource.  Is it to drive cost savings or is it because you cannot ramp up the skills quickly enough with your existing teams?  Is the outsource going to be time-bounded – or is it a fundamental shift in your business model?  Is all of the R&D being outsourced as part of a company-wide strategy?  There may be more than one objective but be clear about the real reasons why you want to do this – which will then help you define the following steps.

If one of the objectives was to fix performance problems with the effectiveness of the current R&D team, then be really careful to ensure that you understand the root causes and are not just shifting the issue.  If there are serious issues with the internal processes or the management, transferring a broken function will almost certainly take problems with it, which need to be understood and addressed prior to concluding the deal."

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