Justifying the Need to Outsource Design Work

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Matties: We do some surveys of designers and one of their biggest complaints is they don't have enough information coming back to them from their customers or their manufacturers. It's really a big issue. It seems to me that you guys might be a great conduit to help improve the industry.

Dave: Sure, with some of the more technically challenging sales, one of the things we're also doing through another business of mine is helping companies like Schoeller sell their products in the U.S. We find the best way to do that is actually through field application engineers that understand the circuit board and go work with the designers at Cisco or wherever, and educate them on better designs to make it more manufacturable and therefore cheaper and more efficient. Those are some things that I think some of our customers are doing right. In general, as I said, I think they're so hungry to get work that they're trying not to rock the boat, so to speak.

Matties: Ironically, it may help them get more work.

Dave: It would, because if you educate your customer to get better and cheaper, then of course they're going to get more work.

Matties: And they feel like you're on their side. Where do you see the future, three to five years from now?

Dave: We hope to keep growing our business. We've grown steadily over the years and it's a business that we want to keep growing. The other adjunct business to this is the CAM design business, which is what we want to expand into, and that's getting more towards what you're talking about if we start working with the OEMs and the CMs.

Matties: Then you become a design house.

Dave: Right, we become a design house and we can have a more complete vertical solution. That's an area that we want to look and expand into.

Matties: You’re a couple of years into it so far; are you where you thought you would be in this timeframe?

Dave: I think so. It's been steady growth. Obviously, we'd like quicker and faster growth, but it's been growing and that's good.

Matties: Is there anything that we didn't talk about that we should be sharing with the industry?

Dave: I think people sometimes think of the word ‘outsourcing’ as a four-letter word and I think what the industry needs to see is we're here to help them survive and do better. I believe if we hadn't been doing this service for our customers, it would have been more difficult for them to survive and thrive. I think the U.S. and Europe needs a manufacturing base and we're here to facilitate and support that and to keep that going, so I think that's a message that would help the industry.

Matties: Thank you so much.

Dave: Thank you, Barry.

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