The global product development industry is undergoing a transformation with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) looking for newer avenues to generate revenues in the face of growing competition. The situation is further compounded by the need to address technological obsolesce constantly and manage the dynamic digital consumer's requirements.

Products in demand yesterday are likely to become a standard today; and ultimately be out of favour tomorrow. The pace of change is accelerating as technology continues to evolve.
The objective behind Outsourced Product Development (OPD) is to enable organizations to collaborate with the experts on bringing in the best quality products to market at reasonable costs. On their part, ISVs need to be cognizant about building a differentiated product that addresses a defined business challenge.

Reading the Current OPD Scenario
The R&D product engineering services market will reach about $66.2 billion in 2017, according to a recent IDC report. The offshore software product development exports from India is expected to generate revenues of $1.7 billion in 2014, says NASSCOM. Over the last few years, I have observed some key trends in the OPD market, which service providers should be aware of:
- SMAC technologies (Social, Mobility, Cloud and Analytics) are redefining product creation (on the part of the ISVs) and product consumption (by the consumer)
- Adoption of software products is now expanding from large enterprises to their medium sized counterparts. It is these Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) that are emerging as the key Influencers
- The product development duration and release phase is gradually shrinking. The "FMCG mind-set" is now finding prominence in the software product phase, resulting in higher expectations from the OPD players to deliver a quick turnaround time.