What is the advantage of outsourcing product development and engineering services?

Typically, product development schedules are driven by market demand or revenue goals. Most companies have more projects than their current engineers can handle given the pressure to deliver. By outsourcing their product development, companies gain third-party perspective, vision and experience, increased project accountability and can design and deliver a project on schedule. Our clients benefit from our extensive experience in embedded system development and time-tested processes to deliver high-reliability boards that work the first time and are production ready within two spins.

At what point in the development process should you engage an outsource engineering firm?

Ideally, outsourced engineering includes the entire product development process from Start to Success™ - to a complete documentation package ready for manufacturing. Outsourced engineering is a broad collection of services, not limited to schematic capture and software development. To receive the maximum benefit from your outsourced partner, involve them in the very early steps of your new product.

What should you look for when choosing an engineering partner?

It is paramount to review your proposed outsourcing partner‘s written engineering process standards and understand who owns the intellectual property (IP). At Paragon, you gain and retain all IP rights, unless negotiated otherwise. We provide the IP in terms of the product developed, as well as step-by-step documentation so your IP never walks away. When choosing a partner, review samples of project documentation from projects completed by the provider. Additionally, meet with the staff that might be assigned to your project and determine how they communicate their progress. Make sure your provider has formal status reporting, email, and videophone capability.

Who owns your design?

You do. As the customer, you gain all IP rights. Paragon not only provides the IP in terms of the product developed, but also offers step-by-step documentation. At Paragon, client-owned IP is our standard practice and a critical tenant of our business.

How long does a typical project take and how much does it cost?

There is no “typical project”. We welcome a discussion about your project to determine how Paragon can best serve your development needs. We can provide estimates of time and budget once we have a good understanding of your requirements.

What should I be worried about?

Hardware development can be difficult to predict, including changing technologies, parts availability, manufacturing costs, protection of intellectual property, copyright infringement, hitting the right market, and getting to market on time, to name a few. With over three decades of product development experience, Paragon Innovations can help you navigate this field to come out on top.

How do I know who to trust?

Trust is the most important aspect of any relationship, particularly between a client and a service provider. Paragon Innovations works hard to maintain the trust of our clients. We live by our core tenants and actively practice integrity and courage. We have courage and commitment to do what‘s right, even in the toughest of situations.

What is Paragon‘s development approach?

Paragon has a tiered product development process that aims to meet your requirements at every stage of development. We support anything from a proof of concept device to our Big Bertha plan for medical device development and FDA approval. Contact us to discuss what we can do to meet your project goals.

I‘ve been burned by another product development company/individual, what now?

Hardware development can be difficult. Our three decades of service and “repeat clients” is our strongest endorsement. Large companies often fail in pursuit of new devices. Startups underestimate the effort required to develop an embedded device. If you don‘t have a realistic expectation of what will be the cost to develop your device, lower tier engineering companies will look appealing in their initial bids. This approach is often fatal to many startups. Paragon is not the cheapest option for development — we are professionals with values who care about our customers and what they pay for. We care about getting your product to market and yearn for the opportunity to do something new. In hardware development “getting what you pay for” is unconditional. We work hard to keep our customers coming back for decades.

I‘m ready to develop my product today, what‘s next?

Contact Paragon, let us be your partner! We can take drawn up requirements and build your device or work with you to develop your specifications. Especially if you do not have experience putting together specs, reach out to us — we are eager to help.