INSIGHT NEWCASTLE OFFICE ADVANTECH
Customer demand is consistent but there are seasonal fluctuations with Autumn through to New Year tending to have big rushes as customers get products ready for G2E Las Vegas and ICE. On the flip side, Summer is often quieter which is a good time to work on development.
Asked about the difficulties and pressure of having so many spinning plates with these seasonal spikes thrown in for good measure, Derek says hitting deadlines and meeting expectations only comes with experience - something which the team has in abundance.
“If we’re targeting a particular show for a product launch, we establish when we need to start and the milestones we need to hit throughout the process to hit the deadline. Whether more resources need to be allocated to the project then becomes a negotiation topic. In terms of product requirements, this filters down from market reviews, feedback from sales, talking to customers. We also talk to our technology partners and look at it from an electronics perspective. i.e. what are the latest features on the chipsets we can make use of?”
Always top of mind, however, is that each product has a defined physical envelope, footprint, and mounting points. Tis is by design. “Tis means that if you purchased the very first S-Series 17 years ago and only now chose to get the latest version it can be plugged into the cabinet, and it’d work. We have forwards and backwards compatibility throughout our product ranges. We've got customers who've been with us three or four generations of a series. It’s a strong retention point and another of our USPs.”
From a software perspective, Aidan says taking effort away from the CPU - which wants to be running games and graphics – and making that experience as smooth and slick as possible is his primary concern. “Customers want a situation where anything that's behind the scenes is attributed to some other hardware tweak that can give the results when it's ready.
“We have customers who might have been running a player tracking module but it's complicated and requires some other capabilities, this is where we could come in and discuss putting in extra facility or embedding part of the machine learning capability elsewhere in the system.”
LIFERS
Having toured the HQ for Advantech’s Gaming Solutions division and observed the way colleagues interact, many of whom have been working together decades, one can’t help feeling a sense of camaraderie and companionship that only comes with time served. Tat, as well as passion and enjoyment for what they do. Tis incredibly well skilled and intelligent team aren’t short of transferrable skills and simply wouldn’t have stayed otherwise.
P54 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
“I really like the range of technologies I get to work with,” explains Aidan. “I’ve always been highly involved with customer support, the vast majority of whom are other developers. Technical queries and ideas - can we do this, can we do that, how would you do this on Linux or Windows - being able to provide customers answers to those kinds of questions on a day- to-day basis is enjoyable. My wide job remit spanning development, customer support and leadership makes every day different. I could find a different job, but it wouldn't have that mix which, for me, is ideal.”
For Keith, his professional enjoyment comes from the lack of limitation on what he can offer customers. “We’re only limited by our customers' imagination and our customers' imagination is wild. A lot of what we do stems from customers saying they have an idea but don't quite know how to achieve it. I call it embracing the complex. We’re not selling off a
"We don't lose customers. Of course, we’re always trying to attract more business, but if we continue to focus on our existing customers, I don't think there's a reason a customer should leave
Advantech. We've got great
products with all the features needed for every market, a sensible price point, a
dedicated team with lots of experience, and we own our own manufacturing. This is unrivalled in the industry.” Edward Price
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