INSIGHT NEWCASTLE OFFICE ADVANTECH
have a very good technical, hardware-based understanding whereas others are software houses that subcontract their cabinet build. Each customer comes from a different angle and background so there isn't a catch-all response. “With us, your question lands on the desk of the person who designed the product. Literally there is no better person to answer it. Customers regularly acknowledge our customer service and it's one of our USPs.”
Over 50 per cent of staff in Advantech’s Newcastle office are engineers, showcasing the emphasis the business puts on engineering support. According to Keith Watt, Global Product Sales Manager, this is a vital sales tool that can often go unnoticed. “You rarely have a customer who says I like your product and it's perfect off the shelf. It tends to be ‘I like it, but...’ or ‘can you modify X to take Y?’. Customers see the product spec, the price and say yes or no depending on what they're looking to achieve. But it's our ongoing support that truly adds value.
“In any sales function, you must always be prepared to continually support and ensure everything meets or exceeds customers’ expectations beyond the initial sale. Tat's what Advantech is all about. Our engineers give the sales team confidence to say to customers that we'll embrace the complexity of whatever you're looking to achieve.”
Advantech is headquartered in Taiwan, a jurisdiction whose expertise in the chip manufacturing field will either never be replaced or take decades to mirror elsewhere. Had Taiwan faltered during the pandemic, no new cars, mobile phones, fridges – nearly any product line you can think of – would have hit the market. Advantech's financial position as the largest IPC company in the world with a 41 per cent market share meant the Gaming Solutions division is ideally positioned for the allocation of materials – something that was particularly important during COVID.
“Troughout the pandemic we kept our customers strongly fed with products,” says Edward. “Te synergy we identified with Advantech prior to the acquisition shone through in a fantastic way and Advantech's financial strength and manufacturing capabilities enabled us to weather the storm and protect our customers.
Advantech as a group grew during the COVID period, thanks largely (and unsurprisingly) to the success of its medical division. Tis enabled us to extend significant financial support to customers in those difficult times and showcase the partnership approach we feel is so important.”
Te development team in Newcastle works closely with the manufacturing facility in Taiwan who handle the product logistics of physical board layouts. Te design and
P48 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
“The lab is busy, and it plays a valuable part in customer support and integration. Swapping between hardware suppliers is daunting enough so do our utmost to make it as easy as possible. We don't know what third party
hardware customers will be connecting so we have the popular ones here. It’s almost an expectation that we support third party hardware because invariably if there's a problem, they'll contact us and say we can't get it to talk to your motherboard. We've got a dozen or so workstations so we can handle a significant amount at any one time.” Keith Watt
component selection are done in Newcastle before samples are manufactured in Taipei. Te samples are shipped to Newcastle to be tested, integrated, benchmarked and checked with third party hardware. Short of production, the Newcastle office is fully kitted out with historical boards, test boards, connecting boards and prototypes that have been made for customers.
THE LAB
During our visit, Keith gives us a tour of the lab. Capable of testing and supporting rapid prototypes for customers whether that’s modifications of standard products or out-and- out custom designs, there are boxes upon boxes of headers and different components with 3D printers for rapid prototypes where customers require a modification. Rather than doing a full manufacturing run, the team can instead do things in-house with 3D print capability.
Tere are tools for audio, power – anything and everything that’s required to support customers with integration and ultimately get things to work. If a customer experiences challenges in getting third party hardware to work, be it bill acceptors or coin mechs, the engineering team will replicate their set-up using local vendors for rapid prototypes quick turn PCBs before assembling them in the lab.
“Te lab is busy, and it plays a valuable part in
customer support and integration,” explains Keith. “Swapping between hardware suppliers is daunting enough so do our utmost to make it as easy as possible. We don't know what third party hardware customers will be connecting so we have the popular ones here. It’s almost an expectation that we support third party hardware because invariably if there's a problem, they'll contact us and say we can't get it to talk to your motherboard. We've got a dozen or so workstations so we can handle a significant amount at any one time.”
Situated alongside these workstations is a thermal test chamber. Tis means that if a customer asks whether a particular modification can go up to 60 degrees ambient, the team can test the stability of firmware and software upgrades before it goes through the full transition to manufacturer. For display or screen testing, there are a variety of common industry displays on hand.
Should a customer experience issues running multiple displays simultaneously or asks what frame rate they’d achieve with a big, curved display alongside a much smaller one, a set can quickly be rigged on a bench and answers provided. Given the global nature of the gaming division’s business, engineers often video and photograph the setup and send to those customers in alternate time zones.
Te development kits that are distributed to customers are always tested in the lab first. “We get them here to qualify the RAM and the storage media, put Windows and Linux on, conduct a power supply test. Te out of the box experience is key in anything,” says Keith. “Customers don't want to be taking the development kit out of the box and needing to find a power supply or discovering the RAM is not compatible. Everything is checked and tested before being handed to customers.”
Te need to deliver a seamless out of the box experience is a sentiment that’s shared by Aidan. “A lot of our customers are application programmers, so they aren't driven by things like device drivers, DLLs, APIs, they just want stuff to work. If it's a software development kit they want go straight in and put the application on top of it without needing to worry about whether it's our box or another vendor's box. Tey just want to connect and go.”
Aidan’s goal is enabling this process to get things running as fast as possible. “We want to be able to make sure that all our software offering is integrated and as automatable as possible via download or code generation. Te Gaming Division has a diverse range of market offerings with differing capabilities and facilities. Each is unique and varies from one to the next so we're working on integrating elements together to make it easier for new customers to move onto our boards or for existing customers to move from one class of board to another.”
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