Interview
Partnerships driving Rutronik’s continuing success
The 10-year partnership between Rutronik and Nordic Semiconductor has so far led to them exceeding market growth rates for more than a decade. Now, the distributor has announced a partnership with TDK- Lambda Germany. In this article, Daniel Barth, senior marketing manager wireless at Rutronik and John Leonard, tactical marketing manager at Nordic talk about the details of how their collaboration works and about current challenges. Also, Ulrich Schwarz, sales director at TDK-Lambda and Axel Stangl, product sales manager at Rutronik explain the benefits for the customers and the goals that the two companies are pursuing with their partnership
then. Based on that, we quickly agreed to build a partnership, and pursue common goals and activities.”
Going back 10 years, Leonard talks us
Daniel Barth, senior marketing manager wireless at Rutronik.
W
hen two companies enter into a partnership, and outperform market growth rates for more
than a decade, it’s not down to chance, but rather represents the fruits of innovative ideas and well coordinated activities. John Leonard talks about some of the key ideas that ensured such success for the partnership between Rutronik and Nordic. “There have been quite a few over the 10 years,” explains Leonard. “A key one was actually over 10 years ago, when we decided to be among the first to focus entirely on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Rutronik had also already recognised the potential of the wireless technology by
12 September 2017
through some of the crucial activities that led to the progression of the collaboration. “In 2007 Rutronik took over the logistics and design-in for our 868MHz and 2.4GHz transceiver chips in large parts of Europe,” says Leonard. “The wireless team achieved outstanding results right from the beginning, so in 2011 we extended the franchise to cover the whole of Europe. Rutronik’s expansion into Asia saw China also added to the portfolio in 2015. “That steady expansion demonstrates that Rutronik is an important partner for us. The wireless team does top-class work, employing great technical understanding of our products, but also of the relevant technologies, applications and markets. That is not a trivial matter, because our products are all design-in articles which need to be properly explained. And the IoT sector in which we operate poses additional demands: it is developing technologies at breath-taking speeds; updates, or even new standards, are coming out almost every day; entirely new applications are being created virtually from thin air; and even customers with no RF experience are integrating wireless connectivity into their products. This poses a real challenge to us. After all, Nordic has established a good reputation for providing top support, to both small startups and to global players. Few companies could handle that all alone in such a fast-moving environment. What is needed is a different kind of collaboration, founded on a common understanding, to which both partners must contribute far-sighted commitment, identifying trends at an early stage and making them usable by the partnership’s shared customers.”
Components in Electronics
Daniel Barth demonstrates some of the things that help to maintain the solid partnership. He says: “Our product managers and applications engineers undergo regular intensive training by Nordic. At management level, we maintain a constant interchange, discussing the latest requirements, technological developments and market conditions. In a fast-moving sector such as IoT especially, feedback from the market also plays a key role. We pass on our customers’ requirements to Nordic so that it can incorporate them into its product roadmap.
“Exchanging know-how with our customers is also very important to us! To
do that end, we host joint seminars and webinars, and Nordic engineers are on hand at Rutronik tech fairs to engage in technical dialog.”
Barth goes on to explain some of the topics that demand the most consulting support. “They extend from technical product specifications, through protocols and application profiles, the various development environments, and high- frequency characteristics, to regional approval procedures, and the regulatory standards of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG),” comments Barth. “As full-package solutions are frequently required, we also provide our customers with recommendations for complementary products. And we support them in coordinating source code issues and EMC testing.” With its short innovation cycles, the IoT sector is challenging, not just in terms of the necessary consulting, but also with regard to product development. Leonard comments: “It can be a challenge, because we are known for bringing only thoroughly tested and verified hardware and software to market, and offering development tools and design support right from launch. “That is why we invest intensively in
John Leonard, tactical marketing manager at Nordic.
R&D. From an employee headcount of 549, no less than 418 work in the R&D department. And last year we recruited an entire group of talented and experienced wireless developers to our R&D team, and we established a new branch office in Finland specialising in the development of low-power LTE technology for the cellular IoT. We regard that as ideal for a wide range of applications, such as smart utility metering, asset tracking, building security, healthcare and medical monitoring systems, indoor and outdoor GPS
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