congatec AG, a leading company in the production of both standard and custom embedded modules and single-board-computers, represented in Italy by Contradata, reported record revenues of 63.6 million dollars in the first half of 2018, with an increase of 31.6% compared to the same period of last year. This is the fifth consecutive quarter of record results for the company. Based on the current order book, the company expects to close the current fiscal year with a 20% increase in turnover compared to the 2017 fiscal year.
The factor behind this year's growth is the increase of the demand for congatec products in all market sectors and in all the geographical areas in which it operates, a direct consequence of the validity of a strongly focused product offering. congatec is the most important manufacturer in the embedded sector specialized exclusively in the development of module and board level solutions that allow customers to reduce the time to market, the development costs and the associated risks. Unlike many competitors, congatec does not manufacture system-level products that can compete with customers. Thanks to the constant growth in turnover, congatec is significantly increasing its investments in sales resources and technical support with the aim of further improving the level of services for OEM customers.
"The increase in investments, aimed at expanding our offer of services and sales for customers - explained Jason Carlson, CEO of congatec - is an element that clearly differentiates us from the competition. Faced with increasingly complex requirements, customers want to have ways to simplify the use of embedded processing technology. The acquisition that took place earlier this year by Real-Time Systems, which specializes in software hypervisor development, is one of these investments. Thanks to this operation we can have all the services necessary to provide the resources required by the hard real-time applications for the embedded sector, which is destined for significant growth in the years to come. We have also made significant investments in our Technical Solution Center (TSC) in order to expand our range of services for embedded and non-embedded processing modules and single-board-computers".
The investments in the TSC center allow OEMs to concentrate resources on their key competences, with a consequent increase in the outsourcing of many engineering activities related to the hardware component. "Congatec wants to offer itself as a 360 ° service provider able to satisfy all the OEM processing needs" - said Carlson explaining the company's strategy regarding the services offered by TSC. The major investments for the Technical Solution Center were concentrated in measurement and testing equipments, such as for example devices for testing high-speed signals, necessary for compliance testing.
A look at technical services:
The technical services offered by the TSC (Technical Solution Center) assist developers at every stage, from the initial requirements engineering, to the project and subsequent validation, up to customized modifications of standard products in series productions. The services of this center begin as early as the project evaluation phase, with consultations that allow the identification of the most suitable form factor and with training courses regarding the integration methods (design-in). The technical staff of TSC provides suggestions about the improvement of the design guidelines and provides reference circuit diagrams for the integration in the board of specific features such as USB-C.
During the design phase, customers can obtain useful information regarding the choice of the most suitable components for the carrier board, as well as a revision of the circuit diagram and the layout of the board. This type of service extends to BIOS / UEFI customization and more generally, to custom firmware engineering, which includes simulation of signal integrity, thermal simulation and MTBF calculation to ensure project compliance from the early stages of development.
In the case of customer-made prototypes, TSC provides measurement and testing services to verify electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), compliance and signal integrity, as well as debug services for any problems that may arise at a later stage . Thanks to this range of services, customers can have efficient and cost-effective technical support to assist them in all stages of the development cycle, from requirements engineering to mass production.
