Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1406534
68 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2021 It's something that was not available, and so we had to build this ourselves. Matties: e speed that you're gaining is real- ly through the connection into the distributors and so on—having that instant access. Schaal: Yes and no. e BOM processing is also a very cumbersome task where our soware currently creates the most "magic moments." is is also where we could really apply our skills of language processing and data struc- turing most effectively. Unfortunately, there is a lot of chaos in the market's documents, but you can hit our tool with some random BOM, and we'll still make it work. Matties: Your uni- versal translator has s ome s ec ret sauce there to br ing in any format and put it into a useful table that you can then m a n i p u l a t e f r o m there. Schaal: I hope it can b e c o m e a n e v e n more "secret sauce" in the future. When I studied in the Valley, you are normally told to only talk about the vision and then maybe a lit- tle how you can get there. Right now, I'm back in Germany, and I'm back to saying, "Hey, let's communicate what we have today and where we want to go tomorrow." We try to not BS our way into it but be very up front. at's how we're thinking about it. Matties: What's the risk for somebody? If they're coming in, and they already have an- other tool, they're not likely to change, espe- cially with a startup. But if there's not a tool in place, that's probably a prime prospect for you. Schaal: As Clayton Christensen said, ideally, you are "competing against non-consumption." Our entry customers are the ones who are cur- rently using Excel which allow us to set foot in the industry, collect real feedback and devel- op our product further, so we can ultimately win over the companies who are currently us- ing a different tool just in our beachhead mar- ket. is RFQ and EMS space is our start. We built this in less than a year, where others have taken four years to get to this point. Matties: One of the things that we constant- ly hear is that, again, the incoming BOM data is incomplete. Whoever is creating the quote is spending a lot of time going back and a sk ing qualif y ing questions, and you can't get away from that. S c h a a l : The f inal stage in our EMS product is what we call the OEM col- laboration. For ex- ample, you have a w e b s p a c e w h e r e you could log in and start inviting your customers. You can send them a log-in key, and they can start col- laborating with you on the BOM in/out tool. en in the beginning, what this does is just like parts approval workflows. Users would say, "I have this alternative part; can you give me the approval for that?" It then continues to the consignment of parts, which always hap- pens, but ultimately, it includes all the collabo- ration or the communication that should hap- pen—collaboration is one of the biggest issues. e designers oen must talk to the procure- ment folks, and the procurement folks talk to the EMS folks. But in our tool, you can have a peer-to-peer connection. is is a very val-