15th July 2013

July Expert Advice- GX Group

GX Group explore ways to ensure your project leads to commercial reality by avoiding the pain points

By Claire Banks, GX Group’s Business Development Manager

Product development naturally takes time, energy and a large proportion of your budget; how can you maximise all three and ensure what you want to develop is commercially viable? Being aware of the pitfalls and pain points in a project can help to ensure that you see the project through from production to commercial reality.
Collaboration
“Most projects at some stage go through similar problems from obtaining finance to lack of ideas,” comments Claire. “We would always recommend harnessing everyone’s input from different disciplines at the outset.”
Whilst R&D departments know and appreciate who the end customer is and how they may utilise a product, they can sometimes be too close to a problem. Using an external design engineering company can allow a different perspective.
GX Group takes a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to working with their customers using in-house specialists with expertise in the key disciplines including mechanical, industrial, electronics, software and optronics. This has often led to a cross fertilisation of ideas and consequently ensured commercial success, such as in the case of AssayMetric’s Fluorescence Plate Reader.
Being a Stakeholder
Another benefit of employing a collaborative approach is making those involved in the project a stakeholder. This includes the client and end user. They are integral to the team and need to be seen as development partners early on in the project’s life.
Feasibility Studies
Product development is not a case of ‘build it and they may come’; rather early on in the process spend time and money investing in feasibility studies to understand where the product you would like to develop would sit in the market place. Quite often good products build on the platform where others have failed.
GX Group offers a fresh perspective and will invest a considerable amount of time researching the market thoroughly to ensure a product has a point of differentiation.
Finance
Looking for a partner early on to share the costs of your product development can be a benefit; as can be exploring the funding available via the Welsh Government. Keeping a handle on costs is vital, product development is by its nature expensive and in many cases can be a leap of faith. Choosing the right company is half the battle, look for one that has a history of delivering viable projects on time. GX Group has an enviable reputation in the medical and scientific industry of turning innovative ideas into commercial reality.
For further information If you would like to explore an idea with GX Group please contact Claire Banks on Claire.banks@gxgroup.com
www.gxgroup.com /Design/Home.aspx