"When I joined IBM in the 1970s, we weren't allowed to know how much a product cost or who used it. We had to ask for special permission if we wanted to talk to customers," Wardman said. Now, about half of the Silicon Valley Lab's researchers are "directly engaged" with customers, helping them while also obtaining crucial feedback to focus their efforts when they return to the lab.

"Today, we are all about outside-in design, not inside-out design," Wardman said.

Last year, IBM sent its researchers on more than 10,000 customer engagements, a 55 percent increase from the previous year.

One IBM customer, eBay Inc., said IBM researchers have helped the online auctioneer optimize its 15,000 servers and keep up with its breakneck growth.

"We give each other a hard time," said Jeremy King, vice president of engineering and application architecture at eBay. "We push them for new technology, but then we show them what problems are emerging from the customer side."