In a growing number of fields and industries, companies are discovering they can innovate more quickly and with more responsiveness to market demand by harnessing resources that lie outside as well as inside the firm.

One unique approach IBM is taking is the building of "service assets"—pre-built and proven solutions that use a combination of software and business consulting to solve a problem, blurring the lines between software and services.

• IBM's R&D investment is nearly twice as much as HP's, and IBM has more than five times the number of researchers (and 20,000+ software developers).
• IBM has finished first on the list of most US patents earned each year for the last 15 years. HP has seen its ranking slip from third to ninth in the last three years.
• In contrast, EDS holds 270 patents in total (or about what IBM earns in a single month). EDS has 291 published applications. This clearly shows that EDS's business model is entirely labor based, with few software or services assets.
• In addition, HP announced plans to cut back on the number of projects it plans to tackle in its labs. (Most of HP's patents are for PCs, printers, ink and displays, anyway.)