Support from distributors must go an extra mile

by James Lau, Technical Lab Manager, Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia



As demand for electronics goods continue to grow, so does the pressure on manufacturers in the world’s production powerhouse – Asia. To cope with the veritable tidal wave of opportunities and fulfill the global appetite for electronic products, multinational companies are increasingly expanding their project design capabilities in Asia, collaborating closely with both ODMs in Taiwan as well as independent design houses in India.

This development has naturally put some pressure on distributors. Some are exploiting global supply chains to address Asia’s increasing need for electronic components. Others are expanding their technical support teams and increasing design services offerings to provide better engineering support that their customers need. Some companies, like Avnet, are doing both.Technical support is critical to the success of customers in Asia, especially in China because the market is constantly changing and technologies are evolving rapidly. A distributor must provide customers with a comprehensive one-stop shopping experience, which combines best practices from its international design teams and a deep understanding of local markets and customers.

If ODMs and distributors are under pressure, so are component manufacturers. To stay competitive they must constantly create and roll out new products that deliver ever more advanced, performance-enhancing features. While a new embedded processor or SoC solution capable of supporting several operating system platforms might offer tremendous design possibilities, the downside is that the products themselves become more complicated. Experienced engineers with in-depth design knowledge are required to use them effectively and finding such people – especially in China – can be difficult, expensive, or both.

Avnet Design Services can help manufacturers resolve this sort of problem and integrate solutions quickly. The key is its group of strong application engineers - experienced and in constant touch with component makers to keep fully up-to-date with the newest products, they are also fast. For example, Avnet’s design center in Shenzhen provides HDMI switch box and cable customers with design services and total solutions that can meet customers’ specific requirements. Engineers has successfully designed a HDMI 4-to-1 switch box solution which has passed the first round of test by HDMI Authorized Testing Center (ATC), meeting requirements of audio, video and EDID in the test.

FAST-CHANGING MARKETS

The market for IP video monitoring systems is a broad and fast growing market. Last year the global sales topped the $7 billion mark, and iSuppli Corp. predicts that China’s domestic market alone will expand from $783 million today to $1.4 billion by 2011. This growth may accelerate further, thanks to major events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, and the upcoming “Peace China” projects.

With these key global events in mind, Avnet has developed video capture solutions based on the PCle interface. The solution features an FPGA at the core of the system. FPGA-based solutions can help customers develop products and solutions in the shortest time, therefore enabling rapid feature enhancements in future.

The fast-changing markets pose a challenge not only to chip manufacturers and distributors, but also to end-product manufacturers. There are more demands and higher expectations from consumers, and end-product life cycles are becoming shorter. This means that manufacturers must reduce time-to-market cycles and provide a wider range of differentiated products that come with high-performance levels and functionality in order to win market share. Manufacturers do not always have the time and resources to learn and pick up the necessary technical skills to advance further. Therefore they are becoming more reliant on the technical support provided by OEMs and distributors, and the collaboration with research and development agencies.

PARTNERSHIPS PAY OFF

In order to launch products to the market on time, it is important to have good working relationships with reliable partners. Moreover, design and application experience in vertical market is prerequisite. To date, Avnet has established six solution design centers throughout Asia-Pacific for different application markets: Shanghai Center, which specializes in digital consumer; Hong Kong Center, which focuses on FPGA and ASIC; Shenzhen Center, which concentrates on network, VoIP, power meters, multimedia, and microprocessors; Singapore Center, which specializes in WLAN and Bluetooth R&D; Bangalore Center, which specializes in home appliances, power, automotive electronics, and industrial designs; and Taiwan Center, which functions as a power product research facility.

Customers typically need application support and technical consultancy services throughout the design process, from design selection/feasibility analysis, component selection, optimization of BOM to test/inspection, and design cost efficiency optimization.

Chip manufacturers know their products very well, but a chip manufacturer’s suggestions and solutions are always limited to its own products. On the other hand, distributors have built up close relationships with local customers and are very familiar with their needs. They can offer the customers a wider choice of products and know the type of products that works best and cost-effectively to meet a specific customer's application need.

This is where a distributor like Avnet comes into the picture. Coupled with a strong design capability, it can help customers select the most suitable product from a wide spectrum of product offerings and provide development tools necessary to expedite time-to-market for customers.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Distributors should actively help customers to accelerate their success, often providing customers with technical support well beyond what is expected and delivering a one-stop service experience. They must also cooperate with suppliers, and enhance the knowledge of in-house engineers and technical staff on new products and technologies through seminars, centralized and distant training, as well as small group discussions.

To provide applied technology training on FPGAs, DSPs and embedded systems for design engineers, Avnet EM has teamed up with Xilinx, Analog Devices, National Semiconductor and Texas Instruments to organize the groundbreaking X-Fest technical seminar series. In addition, Avnet is also cooperating with Xilinx to establish a special design training laboratory at the Republic Polytechnic in Singapore. This facilitates the technical education of Singapore students to equip them with hands-on technical knowledge and cultivate them to be innovative problem solvers.

To accelerate customers’ success, it is important to enhance the local support in the Asia-Pacific region. Design chain service is one of the most important drivers in accelerating customer success.