What do medical device makers require from vendors to ensure successful outsourcing?

Industry executives interviewed for the survey conducted by Knowledge@Wharton, the online business journal of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), and HCL Technologies (Pune, India) emphasized the following practices to ensure productive communication in outsourcing partnerships:

• Be sure to schedule face time. In-person meetings – especially during the early stages of a relationship – are important

• Develop a clear and complete set of project specifications. Clarity in communications is important, in part, because the costs of indirection are more apparent with an outsourced project.

• Articulate team structures and roles. It’s often important for the manufacturer to understand exactly how the outsourcing provider plans to work. For best results, make sure that at least some members of the outsourcing firm works on the project 100% of their time.

• Plan beyond the project. Technical support after the project is completed is another important element to clarify in an agreement.

— Lynn Yoffee