embedded products, Avnet

Avnet Embedded Strengthens European Position with New Structure

News Release from: Avnet
01/07/2009

Avnet Embedded has announced a new corporate structure. The company has successfully completed the integration of Abacus Embedded, part of the Abacus Group that Avnet acquired earlier this year. Headed up by Martin Brooks, Avnet Embedded now has over 100 employees and has extended its activities to cover the whole of Europe.

The European embedded sector is highly competitive and is being driven by time to market pressures and a significant refocusing by the end equipment makers on their own core values. Be that the application software, integration know-how or even the biochemistry behind a medical device. An increasing number of customers are choosing to select standard or lightly customised off the shelf embedded computer hardware, which when combined with a commercial operating system allows them to focus more of their resources on their core intellectual property. This shift in focus has enabled many customers to make smarter more efficient devices and get them to market much faster than if the device was built from discrete ICs from scratch. This system-level integration philosophy applies to medium and high volume OEMs and there is equal value-add opportunities in display and connectivity products, which are increasingly designed to standards which make them easier to integrate with each other.

This trend has led to a requirement for distributors of embedded technology to scale up the quality and quantity of sales and applications engineers who can provide expert pre sales advice on selection and use of the best systems and modules to fit customers’ exact needs. Having local labs to assist in customers` integration and to produce product demos and design references is now a necessity in this fast moving and growing market space. Avnet Embedded’s new structure is designed to help customers to meet all these challenges and boost their competitive advantage.

“Our new structure delivers a larger pool of technical specialists, an expanded line card, and enhanced system integration expertise. Supported by local product laboratories for our customers across Europe, Avnet Embedded is ideally positioned to help our customers choose the right solution for their specific needs. The additional benefit of Avnet’s world class logistics capabilities makes our value proposition extremely compelling,” says Martin Brooks, VP Avnet Embedded. “By combining the strengths of both Avnet and Abacus Embedded we have created a new organisation which is a big step toward our goal of firmly establishing Avnet Embedded as Europe’s number one distributor of embedded solutions and services.”