Working with third party developers

Alan Hayward at SEH Technology explains how choosing the right development partner can yield significant benefits

 

For businesses, a competitive advantage is what makes their customers choose them over their competitors. That advantage can vary between businesses but for some producing high-quality products makes all the difference. Numerous academic studies cite the link between quality and long-term business profitability. 

 

The temptation is certainly there for businesses to cut product costs, particularly at the moment, with PwC finding that 52% of CEOs are reducing operating costs and 51% are raising prices.  Some of the most renowned companies in the computing and wider electronics industries do not manufacture or design their own products but leave that task to their development partners who are specialists in their respective areas. 

 

Selecting the right partner can yield immense benefits for many organisations, however, for some, it is an area that is in need of significant improvement and external expertise - it’s crucial to understand the benefits that they can bring to the table. 

 

Implementing individual requirements

Development partners in addition to producing their own proprietary products can also develop specific products for their customers, using existing knowledge bases to help build bespoke products to cater for various different niches and use cases.

 

Partners often possess many years of experience when it comes to product development and as a result, have excellent contacts with both suppliers and manufacturers. 

 

Technology companies today have the added pressure of ensuring that their hardware and software products are produced to the highest standards. Hardware development is an area that is frequently left to external companies rather than being ‘in-house’, the largest technologies companies in the world have outsourced production for some time.

 

From hardware adaptation to housing construction, handbooks, packaging and approvals - development partners can allow companies to focus on what they do best. 

 

Unique solutions

Some customers need custom-made interfaces and partners can assist with the development of these, in addition to providing comprehensive standard interfaces. Having a high level of integration between specially developed hardware modules and specially adapted software components results in excellent price-to-performance ratios being achieved, within short development cycles.

 

Not only does this result in the development of high-quality products but ones that are able to go to market more quickly and potentially improve commercial success. 

 

While development partners focus on the task of producing bespoke solutions, their clients can then use the resources that otherwise would’ve been deployed to keep customers satisfied, developing new products for example and undertaking other projects.

 

By leaving areas of development to their partners businesses can ensure that they don’t spread their efforts too broad and focus specifically on the things that drive business growth and create a real competitive advantage. 

 

Quality management

When it comes to quality management, the “zero defects” approach (part of the Six Sigma standard) is used as a North Star to improve the production process. It’s important to note that zero defects does not mean getting everything right the first time and striving for absolute perfection but rather aims to improve quality and the costs associated with waste. 

 

Specialist development partners in some cases have had consistent quality management at a high level in their production processes for many years. They achieve this through the use of their own production facilities, high-quality production equipment, trained employees, multi-stage quality control and through the complete documentation of the manufacturing process.

 

Through using their own facilities and having complete oversight of production processes, development partners can ensure that manufacturing efforts only foster the best results for their end clients and customers. 

 

Businesses that produce excellent products have better reputations in their respective markets and retain valuable customers. After all, it’s cheaper to retain customers than acquire new ones. They can also charge more for higher quality products that last longer as well as deal with fewer aftermarket issues related to poor quality products. 

 

Quality during times of uncertainty

During times of economic uncertainty, quality can help to boost profitability by reducing manufacturing costs, as a result helping to maintain market share and position. Quality demonstrates to customers and clients that the priority of a business is more than simply turning a profit but also underlines that they value others in all that they do. 

 

When choosing the right development partner, it’s important to consider the benefits that they can bring, not just through the creation of high-quality products but in the other areas where businesses can gain a competitive advantage, particularly during these challenging economic times.

 

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Alan Hayward is Sales and Marketing Manager at SEH Technology

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com