Innovation Technology Used in Mobile Knowledge Transfer

Summary

"Symbio has been a great partner for us over the past few years. Their ability to quickly ramp-up and deliver new product features and meet the needs of our product requirements have been instrumental in our roadmap and success. I would not hesitate one bit to refer Symbio to other technology companies looking to innovate."

Being a provider in the mobile/embedded field, Sparktech wanted to set up a team at an offshore development center (ODC) to create a mass market consumer friendly product, Swizzlestik, along with a PC application, Central, with the aim to save and restore vital content on mobile phones from multiple carriers and mobile devices. The key feature of this product was to move information seamlessly between different devices, while Central should provide a user friendly graphical user interface (GUI) to manage the content on the phone. Using ARM SoC, an embedded CPU, with USB host communication, Sparktech capitalized on the in-house expertise of Symbio:

• Product life cycle development
• Quality assurance and testing

Sparktech’s main goal was to deliver a cost-effective solution with a simple to use interface to support as many phones as possible.

Business Challenge

This project featured a wide range of expertise and knowledge of hundreds of different phones. Every phone, even from the same manufacturer or series, was different. The main challenge was to explore these protocols and characteristics of the diverse number of phones and find a solution for each one of them.

Although an overwhelming task, Symbio was able to use existing personnel who had a heavy background in the mobile/embedded field to assist in this task. With guidance from the client and a highly experienced team, the transition period and learning of protocols from all the mobile models was executed smoothly and successfully.

How We Helped

While evaluating potential partners, Sparktech believed that leveraging an ODC was the ideal way to save on both time and money. Knowing that Symbio had five development centers in Asia, Sparktech partnered with Symbio to set-up its team in Shanghai. The majority of the team was picked in-house. These team members demonstrated a deep knowledge in real-time embedded systems, C/C++ development, USB, and Bluetooth technology. Most of the team members had previously worked on projects to develop other applications and products using the same technology. Additionally, Symbio was being able to provide a fully dedicated team from day one, which allowed Sparktech to save about 2 months of ramp-up time. Having this experienced team with the correct skill sets became vital in launching a successful project from the get go.

One of the key factors in the continuation of success was Symbio’s quality of service and its time on delivery effectiveness. Symbio was able to punctually meet the demands of the client while producing high quality research and development for the application and product. The development team’s experience played heavily in exceeding Sparktech's expectations.

Business Results

This project is still an on-going work at hand, as carriers are constantly coming out with more and more models. The successful distribution of the current set of solutions on multiple carriers and models helped Symbio’s development team obtain perfect marks on technical ability, quality of service, time on delivery, and responsiveness. Capitalizing on one of Symbio’s global development centers and having Symbio develop, test, and implement the new product and application resulted in a cost savings of about 20%, allowing Sparktech to gain a high level of confidence moving forward.