Business Showcase : CW Applied Technology

By @SimonCocking

Describe the company – the elevator pitch …

CW Applied Technology is both a contract design and a contract manufacturing house for the electronics industry, serving everyone from the lone inventor with a product concept, through SMEs requiring an R&D and/or manufacturing department through to multi-nationals seeking innovation and/or prototype development and manufacturing.

In terms of product development, we are focussed primarily on Automotive, Agri-Tech and Telematics. We have a history of innovation and product development in GPS, Timing and telematics products and recently (June 1 2015) following an MBO, began putting our design and manufacturing skills at the disposal of a world wider than the relatively narrow telecoms world we had served previously. Since the completion of the MBO, we have begun working with academic institutions , SMEs of both Irish and international origins and major multi-national companies such as Bentley Automotive.

We are essentially a full, turnkey, R,D &D company….Research, Development and Demonstration. Customers can avail of some or all of those services. When it comes to ‘Demonstration’, we can provide contract manufacturing services from the 10pc proto-type quantities up to 5K pcs per week if required.

Our Creative Space will , on Sat see its first focus group session helping an inventor shape his idea #collaboration pic.twitter.com/KsggAbFnh2

— CWAppliedTechnology (@CWAppliedTech) October 1, 2015

How are you different?

There are many contract design houses out there and likewise many contract manufacturing houses but few if any that offer both design and manufacturing services. Customers can hire us to develop their design. We can follow through to complete a prototype build and hand the customer a working product. The customer, if he is a lone inventor /start-up seeking funding now has something tangible to show his potential investors while also an SME or multi-national looking at trying something innovative has a physical implementation of their product to ‘kick the tyres’ on and decide how they want to proceed. We can turn concepts/ideas into real products at competitive prices, enabling decision making.

Brilliant first 'Ideation' session in our Creative Space. Fantastic energy in the room #creative #peoplehelpingpeople pic.twitter.com/6oipj493a6

— CWAppliedTechnology (@CWAppliedTech) October 3, 2015

Why will you do well?

There are a number of reasons why we will be successful but I will boil it down to two.

(1). bringing together design and manufacturing services allows us to be a one-stop-shop for potential clients, with no grey areas over whether its a design related or manufacturing related fault if the product doesn’t work. The buck stops with us.

(2) Flexibility. As one of our oldest customers, an Irish, export driven company, with us since 2008 and transitioned along with us following the MBO, has said

“Since moving to CW Applied technology (or Connor Winfield as it was at the time) in 2008 our business has had substantial year on year growth. The team and their attitude at CW Applied Technology have helped us grow by providing a high quality, flexible, cost effective and professional turnkey solution for our manufacturing requirements.”

Our flexibility, our willingness to jump through hoops for the customer has ensured that we have contributed to their success and as a result, they to ours. Going forward, it is our intention to continue to emphasise service in everything we do.

Where are you based?

We are based in the Shannon Industrial Estate in Shannon, Co. Clare, with fantastic broadband and intend to continue to be based here for a very long time.

When was the company launched?

March 2014 to study the market for the concept and begin working on some opportunities. June 1 2015, following completion of the MBO, saw the full launch of the business, without a safety net!

What have been your biggest wins to date?

Our biggest win to-date, certainly in terms of household names, has been with Bentley Automotive. We have designed an electronics control module for Bentley and will also now manufacture it.

Doing our job of delivering prototypes for another inventor… #startupIRL #creativity pic.twitter.com/3vaXSaUvBM

— CWAppliedTechnology (@CWAppliedTech) September 30, 2015

Who are you trying to attract to your product?

We are seeking two types of people..those who want to launch an innovative product and need design and/or manufacturing support to achieve that and also those that want a high quality, competitive, flexible manufacturing ‘department’ for their products, close to home.

Tell us about your team?

We have a highly experienced and very energetic team. Josephine Lynch has worked with a number of multi-nationals over the years and knows exactly what she wants from an efficient and responsive manufacturing site, as well as having a very clear understanding of what we want to achieve for our customers. Josephine heads up our manufacturing function and as customer service is a key part of everyones role here, she liaises directly with customers to ensure they get exactly what they need. We constantly emphasise to customers that we want to work in partnership with them and while anyone can say that, it is something we genuinely want to work . It is fairly unusual that a manufacturing manager would be in regular phone and face to face meetings  as that responsibility is often handed off to a planner or customer service personnel.

We believe in ensuring our key people are totally familiar with the customers and understand their needs. In other words, we believe in developing strong relationships with our customers as you can’t talk about wanting to be their business partner if you then delegate responsibility for developing he relationship. Similarly in quality, sales, and engineering. The customer has full access to our people, like our quality engineer, Theresa O’Callaghan. Our engineering team lead, Donal Geoghegan has regular direct communications with customers.

My own background is as an electronic engineer having worked for several different MNCs in various design and manufacturing management roles, primarily in the Telecoms and Automotive industry sectors

What are you long term plans for your product / company?

My longer term plan is for CW Applied Technology to continue growing and to continue providing design and manufacturing services, becoming a key component in the electronics hardware ecosystem in Ireland and further afield. Electronics hardware development is gaining increased focus across the globe as the IoT revolution gathers pace. I want CW Applied Technology to play a key role in ensuring Ireland can develop a significant amount of companies in this sector over the next few years without recourse to China, Asia, Silicon valley etc. We can do it here and I would like to think that CW Applied Technology can play an important role in translating that potential into reality. We are a creative people. We should be able to turn our ideas in the electronics hardware area into a reality here.

What are your favourite tech gadgets?

My smartphone and i-pad without question. The more work I can get done using those the better. Working on the move and remotely is a hell of a lot easier now than ever before.

What tech gadgets do you wish you could use to help you?

While I love driving, I am absolutely looking forward to the autonomous vehicle. With a very busy work schedule at present, I have too much time ‘wasted’ behind the wheel. I think the autonomous vehicle will become the ‘smart-phone’ , the must-have piece of tech, of the ‘20s.

How can people contact you?

Email:   joconnell@cwappliedtechnology.com ,

Twitter: @cwappliedtech

Website: www.cwappliedtechnology.com

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or @SimonCocking