Making networked research and development pay

The idea of outsourcing offshore is synonymous with cutting costs, but organisations are forgetting that they're doing it to be competitive. As the trend to cash in on the opportunities from outsourcing to low-cost countries gathers pace, many technology-driven product companies are moving beyond traditional sourcing partnerships. An increasing number of organisations across industries are now offshoring or outsourcing significant elements of their product development work - including those capabilities that have traditionally differentiated them from the competition. This move promises to deliver more innovative products and solutions to market faster. From a financial perspective the objective is to achieve a greater return on innovation - increasing the number of new products and solutions but without a proportional increase in development costs. But the road to success is paved with difficulties. This paper discusses how companies ensure that their offshoring or outsourcing strategy actually delivers on the promise.