INDUSTRY

CoCreate Software, Inc., a leading provider of collaboration and 3D CAD software, today announced the availability of a new white paper, Outsourcing product design: Best practices for project team collaboration. The paper details how organizations can successfully support design outsourcing without risking corporate information assets or forcing collaborative project teams to work with complex applications. The author premises the white paper on the statement that IT companies can no longer support outsourcing initiatives that involve six-figure software commitments or lengthy deployments. Further, while management looks to IT for secure, reliable methods to support company business development processes on a conservative budget, IT often fails to understand the specific needs of engineering product development teams. A copy of the paper can be found at http://www.cocreate.com/pr_white_paper.cfm. "Many companies today are rapidly implementing global value chains in efforts to serve local markets with new products tailored to specific needs," said William M. Gascoigne, CoCreate CEO. "It's a key part of their strategy to open up global growth opportunities and drive additional revenues." In adapting to customer's regional needs, manufacturers in many cases must seek the know-how from outside their organization to best deliver products to local markets. "During the past three recession years, manufacturers focused single-mindedly on cost-cutting to stay afloat," notes Navi Radjou, Forrester Research, Inc. "But with economic recovery kicking in, these firms need to crank out innovative products and services to expand their top lines." In his June 2004 report, Networked Innovation Drives Manufacturers' Profit, he adds, "In-house R&D and existing suppliers don't always have the broad disciplines required to create multi-faceted products." However, with these new global networks of product designers, come new headaches for the IT departments that have to support them. "To effectively manage the complexity of working with expert design partners in any geography, IT organizations must embrace technologies and practices that support IP protection, lightweight processes, open standards, visualization and decision tracking," said Gascoigne. "At the same time, IT should always guard against potential barriers to technology adoption." Industry and analyst reports together with the findings of the white paper support the conclusion that while the rate of design outsourcing continues unabated, manufacturers and their IT organizations remain largely unaware of the technologies and best practices that focus on engineering productivity and promote maximum flexibility, security and cost effectiveness.