Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

European embedded systems distributor SDC Systems has announced the launch of SDC Professional Services, a new facility that is geared towards integrating their leading technologies into their customer’s development environment and the embedded applications that they are developing. The new Professional Services department will be managed by Andy Pont, a highly qualified and well respected engineer who has a wealth of real world experience, working with such technologies as embedded BIOS, embedded Linux, Windows CE, GUI development, software analysis tools and software-hardware integration.

Over the past 5 years SDC Systems has established itself as a leading source of innovative and powerful embedded development tools and technologies. Its broad range of products includes the Tilcon IDS for rapid GUI development, the MontaVista real time embedded Linux product range, the Rapita software analysis tool suite and the General Software range of embedded BIOS products. SDC Systems currently supply many of Europe's major technology developers and has gained a reputation for responsive and capable technical support.

"In many ways we have been providing Professional Services from the start," said Stuart Parker, Managing Director at SDC Systems (pictured). "We have always worked closely with our customers, helping them to adopt the technology quickly and making sure that they get the full benefit of the products that we supply. Increasingly we have been taking on specific development projects as well as working on-site with key accounts, to help accelerate customer projects or to bring additional expertise into their team. Over time we have developed an impressive capability and have enjoyed a great deal of success. We have now decided to develop this side of the business to enable us to tackle the larger projects that our customers have wanted us to undertake previously."

Areas of expertise for SDC Systems are the integration of Linux on to custom hardware, Windows CE driver and BSP development, Windows XP Embedded configuration, high quality graphics for GUIs used on industrial control systems and the adaptation of the standard BIOS to a new x86 platform. SDC Systems has considerable resources and experience in these fields and with the increasing growth of their business SDC Systems is confident that there are many projects that would benefit from their Professional Services.

"In recent customer projects our role has been extended from helping to install development systems and provide training, to assisting the engineering team with the integration of new software IP into their design," said Stuart. "Customers are recognising that it is best to utilise their engineering talent to work on their application as it’s the final product that matters to the company’s success, and bring in our services to accelerate the project development overall.

Andy Pont studied Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Aston University in Birmingham prior to taking up employment working with ICL developing boot firmware and diagnostics software for both Intel and Sparc based server platforms. This was followed by 12 years working for a UK designer and manufacturer of embedded hardware starting as a BIOS developer then moving up to the management of the software development team through the creation and implementation of an embedded software strategy along with driving the feasibility and design of both generic and customer specific projects.

Having worked with a huge and varied number of suppliers and customers in a wide range of markets, Andy has a unique insight into what makes a product work and how to make best use of the technologies available. Andy is a full member of both the Institution of Analysts and Programmers and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

About SDC Systems Ltd

SDC Systems Limited is a leading distributor of embedded development software, tools and hardware and a provider of professional services to the European embedded systems sector. Focused on innovative and leading-edge technology, SDC strives to provide ‘technology that makes a difference’, technology that will accelerate the development process and/or improve the quality and functionality of the final product. With many years' experience and talented engineering support, SDC Systems work closely with their customers to provide an important source of embedded systems expertise and products.

For more information please visit www.sdcsystems.com - or call Peter Heyes on +44 (0)845 658 8554