North America accounts for over 41% of the embedded systems market, owing to the presence of major tech giants like Microsoft and Intel. However, the local talent pool is struggling to meet the demand for engineering talent.
The primary reason for embedded technologies' rapid development is their widespread application in many industries and types of systems, including automotive, transportation and logistics, energy, and manufacturing.
The more complex embedded system development is, the more time, money, and other resources it takes to complete end-to-end delivery. That's why many businesses opt for outsourcing embedded software projects.
Keep reading to find out how embedded outsourcing will help you speed up your product's time to market without increasing development costs. You’ll also discover the reasons to choose outsourcing embedded software development services.
What is embedded software outsourcing?
If you’ve already had to hire embedded developers for your IoT software or hardware development needs, I don’t need to tell you that the talent competition is fierce. It is so intense, in fact, that some companies even move their headquarters to locations that have a larger supply of embedded development professionals. You, however, may not necessarily need to go that far. Outsourcing is one of the other, less drastic ways to fill your engineering skills gap.
Embedded projects outsourcing involves dedicating your embedded system development to an external engineering team that will completely focus on your project goals. This collaboration approach helps find the lacking expertise and resources as soon as possible and complete the project on time. Moreover, your internal team will have more time to focus on other projects and strategic business goals instead of multitasking.
So, what are the benefits of embedded software outsourcing that could become decisive for your project? Let's figure it out further.
Reasons for embedded software development outsourcing
When looking for the best approach to collaborating with embedded engineers, you should first focus on your end goal and define your expectations from the cooperation and delivery. If you are halfway through opting for outsourcing embedded system development but still hesitant about this decision, then this compilation is right for you.
We collected the top reasons for outsourcing embedded software development and explained why it is worth it.
Access to specialized expertise
Hiring an outsourcing embedded development partner gives access to a wide tech talent pool. It simplifies your search for the expertise and experience you need to complete the project. You can choose the location, rates, and embedded software engineering team that perfectly matches your requirements.
For instance, if you lack expertise and industry knowledge in your in-house team, you would spend a lot of time and resources finding and hiring an internal specialist. Outsourcing speeds up this process, as it also covers operational tasks like onboarding.
Team scalability
Working with an outsourcing embedded development partner allows you to easily scale up or down the team that works on your project.
The reasons might be different; for instance, another development iteration has been finished, and you don't need this amount of resources anymore. Or vice versa — the project scope scales, which requires extending the team as soon as possible.
Risk mitigation
Embedded development projects hold multiple risks, from setting up a team lacking expertise to delivering a product with poorly set architecture and low market demand.
The outsourcing approach opens access to experienced engineers who have relevant industry and technology knowledge for your project. If they don't match your expectations, you can simply switch to another vendor, saving you time and resources until you find the best-fit company.
Cost efficiency
If you run a service-centric startup that utilizes smart products — a personal mobility device or a home care device for seniors, for example — you will probably only need to have them developed once.
Since you won’t need to add updates and release new versions of the device on a regular basis, investing time and resources into hiring in-house engineers and buying expensive lab equipment is unlikely to be a worthwhile pursuit. Instead, partnering with a tech agency and leveraging their engineers and tools may be a wiser option.
Security and compliance
Embedded system security consists of various techniques and approaches aiming at protecting both embedded software and hardware. The variety of cyberattacks continues to grow, and it is vital to keep up to date with new ones. Developing embedded software that complies with industry standards and data security regulations will help foresee potential risks for your system during development and take measures to prevent or avoid them.
Outsourcing embedded development lets you find a tech outsourcing partner with industry know-how who complies with security development standards and follows their requirements in each development iteration.
Fully staffed team
Suppose your core business is producing electronics or embedded software development. In that case, you obviously have an in-house embedded engineering team, so outsourcing may seem like the last thing you could benefit from.
That said, occasionally, you have R&D projects with uncertain outcomes and no guarantees that the invested engineering resources will produce any tangible business value. You may also need to scale your existing team on short notice to tackle an unforeseen issue quickly — to address a critical vulnerability, for example, or to support a new version of an OS.
If these situations sound familiar, you should definitely use outsourcing to save time on recruiting and onboarding new embedded engineers in an overheated talent market.
Faster time-to-market
Imagine you have an in-house team of software and hardware developers who work on one or several internal projects at the same time. The resources may be lacking, leading to delayed delivery and late product launch. When you opt for an outsourced team of developers, they will be involved and focused on one of your projects. Thus, you can plan the product launch, ensuring the deadlines and requirements will be met.
6 tips on how to choose a reliable embedded software outsourcing company
Looking for a reliable embedded software development company that commits to end-to-end delivery might be a struggle, whether you have outsourced project development before or this is your first-time experience.
Let's find out the features an ideal partner should have to complete your project.
1. Hardware development expertise
The first option to consider is experience working with your hardware of choice. Your potential tech partner should have experience with it and licenses for all required IDEs and access to development boards. Also, learn if they have access to local hardware distributors to get the newest components fast: ideally, they are an authorized partner of your hardware vendor of choice.
2. Firmware development expertise
Firmware expertise is a must for embedded system development. Ensure your potential vendor can set up proper firmware architecture design, determine the bare metal technologies, and implement firmware features for control, like additional logging, input/output checks, LED lights, etc.
3. In-house IoT laboratory
Having an in-house lab where embedded engineers can create and test prototypes is a considerable benefit for outsourcing. It makes the development process smooth and completely managed by the outsourcing team, for example, by ordering additional hardware components to create a product prototype.
From our own experience, we know that the in-house lab also guarantees embedded system security, as only engineers working on your project can access software and hardware parts. Our embedded engineers also establish access to hardware with step-by-step guidance during working hours typical for your time zone.
4. Delivery options
Another option to consider when choosing an outsourcing partner is ensuring they deal with customs and the shipment of hardware. For instance, at Lemberg Solutions, we have our own customs broker who is in charge of customs clearance. We also have several channels for hardware delivery, including our representatives in the EU and the UK and DHL service.
5. Security policies and IP rights
Embedded system security is the core priority in the development process that requires strategic planning at an early stage. It helps foresee potential risks and prevent them in the next engineering iterations. It is also vital to determine if your vendor will transfer all product IP rights to your company.
At Lemberg Solutions, product development security and IP rights protection are our core values. We follow ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, and other industry standards and guarantee that you are the only legal owner of the IP rights after product delivery.
6. Post-delivery manuals
As soon as the product is delivered, ensure your tech partner provides understandable manuals for using their solution on your hardware — in both text and video formats. This will simplify the integration process and give your employees a clear understanding of how the product works.
Our expertise in embedded software development
For over 15 years of developing and delivering embedded computing solutions, we managed to allocate the best practices and approaches that we apply in our projects. Further, we would like to share our clients' success stories who sought a trusted embedded software development partner.
- MVP development for the TCC electronic nurse device
TCC is a healthcare provider based in Germany that offers digital medical services, particularly intensive care, using AI predictions on disease courses.
They requested MVP development for their electronic nurse device as we wanted to validate the solution's technical feasibility. Our embedded engineers created an industrial product design and developed an IoT-based prototype that provides efficient remote patient health monitoring functionality.
See more details about the development process.
- IoT data logger for Voltfang's energy storage systems
Voltfang, a company that produces stationary energy storage systems, wanted to build an IoT data logger device. The main purpose of this device is the efficient collection of real-time data from battery management systems implemented into energy storage systems they create.
We started by tech consulting on their product prototype development, including selecting major hardware components, architecture design, and cloud integration.
As a result of the cooperation, our embedded team delivered cloud-based firmware with OTA updates functionality and enhanced hardware performance.
Find more details about IoT data logger development here.
- HMI development for electric vehicle supply equipment
EDS-Development, a company that produces innovative energy solutions, requested the development of a human-machine interface (HMI) for one of their products — an electric vehicle charging station.
While discovering requirements for the UI part of HMI software, we also agreed on additional functionality, including communication with a charging station and charging controllers to provide their customers with real-time charging status.
We developed an HMI solution for the EDS-Development e-vehicle charger and assisted the company with its smooth integration.
More on how we collaborated at the link.
Partner with Lemberg Solutions for embedded software and hardware development
If you have any further questions related to outsourcing embedded development or want to discuss cooperation with Lemberg Solutions, feel free to contact us. Our experts will process your request and get back to you with a response and the next steps as soon as possible.
FAQ
How will my embedded development partner ensure smooth communication?
A dedicated code repository, well-developed documentation, and robust communication that includes regularly scheduled meetings will ensure that you, your in-house team, and your remote embedded engineers are always on the same page. For instant communication, you can use apps like Slack, while tools like Jira, Codebase, or similar will help with project management.
Should I be concerned about my IP rights when outsourcing embedded development?
It is only natural to worry about your intellectual property staying secure when dealing with an overseas agency. However, any reliable partner will sign all the contracts and NDAs necessary to guarantee that your data is safe with them.
For an added level of safety, you could also opt to work only with agencies that hold ISO or similar certifications proving their high-security standards.
What is so challenging about embedded software outsourcing services?
It might seem to be difficult and time-consuming to choose an embedded software outsourcing partner to meet your project requirements. There are hundreds of available tech vendors with embedded expertise in the market. You just need to take your time and research each company that could potentially become your outsourcing partner, including their experience, client feedback, success stories, and expertise.
