A major player in the global embedded and industrial computing manufacturing industry, EVOC Group has its service and R&D centres in many countries. With the Indian hardware market growing firm, the group plans to cater to its demands by providing customised solutions through investments in R&D facilities and other infrastructure in the next few years. Raymond Bu, manager business development, EVOC Group, speaks to Saurabh Sharma of Electronics Bazaar about its investment plans and marketing strategies for the Indian market.
EB: What makes you a leader in the domain of embedded system?
EVOC has the capability to serve all sectors where automation is required. We have the largest manufacturing capacity in the world and produce more than 10,000 industrial PCs every month. We can also manufacture a million motherboards per month. We have the widest product range and can provide one-stop solution to our customers. Currently, we rank third in the world but our growth rate is as much as twice than the company ranked second. We are aiming to reach the top in next 5 to 6 years.
EB: Which sectors are you focusing on and which areas are you looking forward to venture into?
We cater to sectors like telecommunications, power, sports, gaming, medical care, aerospace and aviation. We would like to serve transportation and banking sectors as well as these sectors have huge scope of automation. EB: Tell us about your operations in India? EVOC is present in India through its two channel partners who have seven offices across India. They provide good services to the customers through their network. But we would like to have about five channel partners in the coming year to strengthen our presence in India.
EB: What kind of revenue are you expecting to generate from the Indian market?
We are expecting to generate a revenue of US$ 20 million from the Indian market. India has huge demand for automation solutions and EVOC is fully equipped to cater to that demand.
EB: What are the advantages of operating in the Indian market? Do you see any scope for embedded systems in India?
India is a big market and growing very fast. Its software and hardware markets are growing strongly. The country has a well developed outsourcing industry and has a lot of potential.
Besides developing a solid infrastructure, the Indian government is making efforts to encourage foreign investors. We would like to invest considerably in the Indian market as we expect to do good business here.
EB: Tell us about your investment plans in India.
We are planning to invest US$ 200,000 during this year and will continue to invest such amounts in the coming years as well. We are also planning to open an R&D centre in Bengaluru to cater to the Indian demands. Every year we spend more than 12 per cent of our revenue on R&D.
We will provide customised solutions to the Indian market through this centre. We are also looking forward to open a warehouse and maintenance house in India next year. We will also open three service centres in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
EB: What are the challenges you face in India?
Requirements of the Indian customers are different and we need some time to understand them to provide customised solutions. We will have to undertake research activities to understand the Indian customers and the market better.
EB: What is your future growth strategy with respect to the Indian market?
We will provide customised products according to the Indian requirements once our R&D centre in Bengaluru is functional. We will also invest in marketing and promotional activities. This year, we are participating in more than 10 exhibitions and plan to continue doing so in future as well. Along with our channel partners we have devised special promotional schemes for the market. Currently, we have about 1,500 employees who are all engaged in R&D.
FactFile
Founded in 1993, EVOC is one of the major embedded and industrial computing manufacturers in the world. As a high-tech company, EVOC provides embedded products and system integrated solutions for various applications such as traffic system, power supply, telecom, sports, banking, gaming, medical care, aerospace and aviation, energy, manufacturing and networking, etc. The group has established longstanding ties with many well known corporations such as Siemens, Huawei, ZTE, Sinopec and Samsung. In 2003, one of EVOC’s subsidiaries was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (stock code: 8285).
By the end of 2008, the group had 44 wholly owned branches and subsidiaries around the globe, with nearly 4,000 employees. EVOC is planning to set up physical distribution centres and product demonstration centres in Germany, India, Russia, US, Israel and many other countries. In 2008, with its sales reaching US$ 600 million, EVOC ranked third in the global IPC industry, emerging as one of the most competitive brands in the field.
The group has the largest R&D centre for IPC in Asia, boasting of the largest R&D team (1,500 people) in the global IPC industry. EVOC possesses a full range of product lines and some 1,500 types of products, including fan less systems, ETX/com-express, full size CPU card, half size CPU card, 3.5inch single board, 5.25 inch single board, EPIC board, industrial panel PC, workstation, PC/104 product, CompactPCI, network application platform, rugged laptop and OEM/ODM services. Cooperating with Intel, EVOC has developed hundreds of embedded and industrial computing products. Many of EVOC’s patents are first of their kind.
Our engineers will visit India regularly to attend to the queries of our customers here. We will also train our channel partners to handle the customers so that they can take care of their problems on their own.
EB: Tell us about the latest embedded system technology that your company is developing?
We have come up with many new products with latest technologies for the telecom sector. Idea and Airtel are currently using our products. We have developed solutions for the power industry like RTO systems. We have also developed data systems along with our partners. They are very cost effective in comparison to our competitors. For the Indian market, we have developed solutions like GPS systems and handheld devices.
