Historically, technology has dictated the way we do business. When we price our products and calculate our margins, we must factor-in the cost associated with this technology overhead. This overhead includes things like sending EPROMs with new software loads to the field, sending field service personnel into the field to diagnose problems and upgrade hardware. Our customers (dealers and OEMs) also incur cost to support this technology overhead. The dealer receives the EPROMs or upgraded hardware and travels to the customer site to perform the upgrade. When we designed our phone systems ,we looked for a way to minimize this overhead:
- First, we designed each product around a DSP, to eliminate the need for a huge amount of hardware. In addition, we chose a DSP that can be completely modified with a new software program. In other words, there’s no need to take down the system to perform any modifications
- Secondly, we added a built-in modem to the system to allow remote program loads and full diagnostic capabilities.
In summary, we have minimized the hardware (which is very inconvenient to modify) and maximized the software (which can easily be modified remotely). This approach is unique in our industry, and gives us a substantial competitive edge.
 
|