I do agree that the connection to revenue is much clearer in other departments but that doesn't mean engineering can't impact the bottom line.
Areas where I think good engineering can help include, designing software that minimizes its support costs, attention to code quality to improve customer/users experience, improving up-time, shortening maintenance windows, metrics and telemetry that help marketing and product development understand how a product is being used.
Good product documentation (reference manuals, in-product help, etc) is difficult and often over-looked. This isn't coding but engineering input into documentation is important.
Engineers can also provide significant input into product features and directions.
Sure, we build the product. And without that product, the company is a non-starter. And if we screw it up, we can lose existing customers.
But the product by itself does not produce revenue. Only selling the product makes revenue.
So, at best, we can avoid costing the company money, but we can't make money. Even customer service can have a bigger impact on the bottom line than we do.
Areas where I think good engineering can help include, designing software that minimizes its support costs, attention to code quality to improve customer/users experience, improving up-time, shortening maintenance windows, metrics and telemetry that help marketing and product development understand how a product is being used.
Good product documentation (reference manuals, in-product help, etc) is difficult and often over-looked. This isn't coding but engineering input into documentation is important.
Engineers can also provide significant input into product features and directions.