Outsourcing Initiative
In the summer of 2007 it became apparent that the software and hardware teams of our company were stretched too thin productizing our UWB modem card to take on the design, implementation and testing of a networking bridge reference design that would use our UWB modem to showcase our ability to bridge the IEEE 802.15.3 protocol from coaxial cable to ethernet. As a result I took the initiative to find a solution that would enable our engineering team to focus on our core product, without slipping our schedule, adding personnel or increasing our burn rate.
Actions Taken:
The first part of the solution involved my writing a detailed Request for Quote (RFQ), which I distributed to three different contract engineering firms for their review. After receiving quotes from each of the firms, I reviewed the quotes with the Sr. Management Team and offered them a recommendation as to which one offered the best value, and follow-on support. The Sr. Management team approved the recommendation.
After awarding the contract to the preferred vendor, I initiated weekly conference calls with the US based and India based team members to review progress of the project against schedule, and to identify and mitigate any nascent issues as they arose.
Results:
As a result of these actions,
- The company saved over $600k by not having to hire additional engineering personnel to develop a network bridge reference design
- The Hardware and Software engineering teams were able focus their energies on getting the hardware and software for our UWB modem card optimized for production.
- Both engineering teams (our own and the contract engineering team) met Sr. Management's aggressive deadline for our UWB modem to be integrated with a small form factor network bridge reference design that satisfied our target customers' BOM cost, performance, and quality requirements.