“We cut development costs for our client’s client”

Berotec is a consultant company that help clients with a wide range of technology areas such as management, production and mechanic constructions. Jonas Köhler is a software architect and developer at Berotec

What was your challenge?

As consultants we were to develop a solution to transport material within a medtech factory for a client. An industry product like that will never be produced in any great volumes which means it would be costly do develop everything on our own – and it wouldn’t be reasonable for us to have all the specific expertise within the project group.

How did you solve it?

Together with the customer we decided to use a modular COM card from Embedded Artists. Which gave us a powerful Linux platform to build on.

What was the result?

The difference in time and cost is significant if we would have developed the technology ourselves. It took us 2 people for 6 months to develop the solution with Embedded Artists card. If we would have developed the electronics from scratch it would at least had taken us 5 people for 6 months.

The implementation with Embedded Artist’s card went frictionless. We first developed a prototype based on Embedded Artists developer’s kit. Then we finished the software and, when we then built the final hardware, it just worked. We had a thorough test period with great input and support from Embedded Artists.

The only initial concern we had, was to find a supplier that could guarantee a long card lifetime. Embedded have been around for a long time and could give us the guarantees in terms of life span we needed.

There is nothing I would have done different in this project in terms of Embedded Artists involvement.

“We get the power to compete with big competitors”

Influx Technology develops vehicle login data equipment for engineers that needs to access the data from an Engine Control Unit (ECU). Lance Keen is Director at Influx Technology.

What was your challenge?

Previously, we developed the card ourselves. It was a big decision to go over to buying the technology instead. We simply didn’t have the specialized expertise that was required in developing microprocessors to get the quality we want. Our own people add value elsewhere in the development process.

How did you solve it?

We turned to three different suppliers to find a card that suited our needs. We had some criteria on memory and features. But we liked Embedded Artist as we would talk directly to their engineers. In the other companies we had to go through sales or other people that hadn’t been involved in developing the board. Embedded people knew what they were talking about.

What was the result?

We are the only one in our field that use external board and that is a strength of ours. Our competitors are large corporations with 2000 employees that develop it on their own. Being a small company we don’t can’t develop it in-house. With the help of Embedded Artists it’s possible for us to compete with larger corporations.

”Industrial quality is key for us”

Novator develops portable drilling systems for the international aerospace industry. Hans-Petter Andersson is the CEO.

What was your challenge?

We were making updates to our products and needed a small card that was powerful and could handle industrial trials such as intense vibrations and temperature changes. But the cost of developing our own COM card would be too high for us to take on in the low volumes we are producing.

How did you solve it?

We used Embedded Artists’ smallest board – we really like the combination of small footprint and power. It’s really difficult to evaluate the quality of micro boards when browsing different supplier websites but Embedded Artists’ cards are built for industrial use. It’s robust. And Embedded Artist gave a really professional and knowledgeable impression when we talked to them.

What was the result?

We are still in development but so far we are pleased. Our development phase is several years – so each phase needs to be efficient. If we would have developed the product ourselves it would have taken twice the time and required additional engineers.