Research and Development (and Innovation)

In the software industry, research is a pre-requisite to any development. It is essential that the development team understand well the requirements of the client and the implication of the problem at hand. This usually leads to innovation and thus the link between research and innovation (R&I) becomes so much more than an intangible.

When such R&I is triggered by the necessities of a client, it is known as lead-user innovation and usually gives the client a competitive edge over competition.

However, there is another type of innovation which is as important and is core to the way we do things at Abakus Solutions. This happens when the research process is not initiated by a client's need but by a 'crazy idea'. By 'crazy' I mean an educated observation usually incubating in the right-hand side of somebody's brain.

Such ideas originate from one of the team members, starts gaining momentum as it is shared and usually takes shape as we enjoy a beer on a Friday afternoon, or wait for our turn to play WII in the break-out room.

We also try to have such idea-genertaing sessions in a more organised fashion and this usually happens through the annual workshops where a pile of notes are taken and help us to fuel ideas for the following year.

For 2010 we already have a number of such ideas - one of which has just been granted funds by Malta Enterprise. Read more about it here.