There are different phases of product engineering from inception to the end of the lifecycle of a product. Read this blog to get a step-by-step understanding of Product Engineering Services.
It’s a deeply held belief among entrepreneurs as well as established industry leaders that early adopters of any new technology trend are more likely to succeed in that space later, as they have already worked hard to create innovative offerings that can disrupt, and dominate afterward.
We all may agree that timely investment in the right business technology, for example, Internet of Things (IoT), is a recipe for long-term growth and success. However, many companies are hesitant to explore new technologies, as they do not have the required experience.
On the other hand, getting engineering teams onboard with new technology adoption requires work. As soon as the rubber hits the road, there will be a lot of uncertainty factors that can create challenges and slowdowns, discouraging even the most ardent, techno-enthusiast companies from making their mark in a given technology arena. It’s a path laid out with plenty of obstacles in terms of resources, cost, time and business priorities.
The trick to climbing a building is to move up one rung of the ladder at a time. Smart organizations realize that in order to switch their technology roadmap from wishlist to reality, they need to elevate their capabilities at a rapid pace.
This includes gaining platform expertise in new tools and software, introducing accelerators and frameworks, getting proper guidance in terms of skills-sets evaluation and upgrades, studying commercial viability and long-term feasibility, taking “make or buy” decisions, evaluating the implementation and operational costs, and so on.
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The Role of Product Engineering Services in Modern Technology Space
Thankfully, not having the right domain experience and technical expertise is not that great of a barrier anymore when it comes to building profitable products and leaving behind a legacy for years to come. So, instead of relying on homegrown talent and resources, which requires high investment in time and money, companies can still leverage the expertise of product engineering service (PES) providers like , who are helping technology-intensive companies across various industries to hit the bull’s-eye each time when it comes to leveraging new technologies to build outstanding products.
A cursory glance at our success stories page would reveal the extraordinary lengths the right PES partner can go in helping clients find the right technological solution tailored according to their needs. All you need is an understanding, motivated, skilled and committed team of professionals to migrate your ideas from concept to reality.
Apart from leveraging the skillsets, many companies are looking for ideal partners who will help them to transform their legacy systems and help sustain their core business strengths. This is an important aspect for any company when it comes to working with a PES vendor.
What is PES? How Does It Help?
As buyers continue to insist on latest features and functionalities with quick turnaround time, businesses push for superior quality and cost benefits from product manufacturers. This has led to the creation of a completely new engineering service by vendors like eInfochips, which is dedicated to launching products faster into the market.
Product engineering service can be defined as an engineering consulting activity, which uses various hardware, embedded, software and IT services solution for the designing and development of products.
There are different phases of product engineering from inception to the end of the lifecycle of a product. Therefore, when we talk about product engineering, it is also important to know about different phases of product engineering. Let’s look at the different phases of product development:
Concept (conceiving the idea): This is the initial stage, which involves conceiving the idea and at the same time documenting it in terms of specifications and requirements. Then the idea is further scrutinized to know whether it is worth pursuing or not. Though a concept may seem exciting at the first glance, it may not always be worth pursuing.
Design: Once the concept is finalized, the next phase is to bring the concept to life by creating engineering designs. Any improvements and changes are also made in this phase before the design is finalized.
Development: The next phase is about developing or assembling of the product. A lot of attention is paid to implementing the project and managing and optimizing costs.
Testing: A developed product always has to go through stringent quality checks to validate that the developed product is fault-free and can be used as intended. Any faults need to be identified during this phase and then required changes, modifications or rectification is done in order to release the product.
Release: Once the product is developed, it is then released into the market. Feedback has to be collected from users to further improve the product in the following versions. It can also be given to external product testers to understand the user experience.
Continuous maintenance and support have to be provided until the product reaches the end of lifecycle and is replaced by another product or variant.
Sustenance/Re-engineering: Once the product is released into the market, periodic updates and enhancements will be pushed with time along with maintenance. A support system also needs to be established to meet customer grievances and to rectify those issues in a timely manner. Sustenance has to be provided for the intended lifespan of the product.
Re-engineering is an important part as well because products have to be designed in such a way that they can be scaled to meet customer demands in the future. This not only helps cater to the customer needs, but also allows the products to evolve.
According to Markets and Markets (Markets, 2016), the product engineering services market is estimated to reach USD 1,003.12 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 8.2% from 2016 to 2021. Consumer demand for outsourced product engineering services is growing at an unprecedented pace today because the aim of these services is to help customers focus on their core business processes. Such services also help customers avail substantial advantages gained through low-cost technological leadership.
Step 4: The Role of Accelerators and Incubators
Accelerators/incubators are becoming popular with global enterprises struggling to ship new products and create innovative business ecosystems on their own. Small companies interested in creating a physical product require hardware and product accelerators to help them succeed in the business.
What is an accelerator? What is an incubator? Differences.
The best way to determine if a program is an accelerator or an incubator is to find out if there’s a scheduled end date for the entire program. If the program ends after 3-4 months, it’s an accelerator, but if the program does not have an end date and offers to mentor, it is an incubator/innovation lab.
Step 5: End-to-End PES Services like DevOps etc.
Grand View Research forecasts that the concept of DevOps is expanding. It is not just a QA concept, but is now a centerpiece of enterprise growth strategy. It is being adopted widely: the DevOps market size in 2018 was USD 2.77 billion and it is expected to grow by CAGR 18.6 to reach USD 12.5 billion by 2025. What is fueling DevOps adoption? “Increasing digitization of enterprises to automate business processes, rising adoption of cloud technologies, soaring adoption of agile frameworks, and need for better collaboration between IT teams to enhance operational efficiency.” Technology trends like the Internet of Things and cloud computing are playing a key role in the sustained growth of DevOps.
eInfochips has extensive experience in product engineering and leverages this expertise to provide customers with comprehensive DevOps/CloudOps services spanning DevOps/CloudOps consulting, DevOps end-to-end implementation, tools evaluation and infrastructure monitoring (application, network, cloud and device.) Leveraging the DevOps Assessment Framework, eInfochips delivers strategies and solutions that help clients maximize the benefits of their DevOps investment.
Step 6: Support and Maintenance Services
Support and maintenance in PES should not be just a cash cow stage for the PES vendor. It should be a source of competitive advantage for the growth through superior customer connect and synthesis of data to discover new customer needs. It should be a space to identify insights to improve the product.
The main objectives of Product Sustenance Engineering are as follows:
- Maintain/Increase customer loyalty
- Meet functional and non-functional needs
- Install/configure, use, integrate, upgrade & replace
- Analyze and fix defects for unperturbed use
- Redirect focus and resources from existing to the new products
- Increase ROI
- Reduce cost
- Optimize investment in enhancements of existing products
- Improve productivity / operational efficiency with a high degree of automation in processes, testing and elsewhere
- Focus more on core competencies
- Gain customer insight
- Extend the life of the product
- Improve next-generation product definition
- Manage resources effectively
- Deliver competitive advantage
- Transform sustenance through DevOps
- Drive Business Intelligence for customer insights
- Customize delivery and financially engineered commercial models
eInfochips works as a strategic partner for product and solutions companies around the world. We help Startups & Enterprises achieve faster time-to-market and optimize cost with innovative products and solutions. We help you think beyond transaction-driven growth strategies and start creating real value. Schedule a call with our experts to know more about our product engineering services.
