Company Focus: Embedded Systems Korea

When one thinks of South Korea, historical and political issues may initially spring to mind, but it is the country’s reputation as an economic powerhouse that characterises its place in the world today.

Like a handful of other countries with no natural resources and large populations, South Korean industry focuses on what it can export, namely IP in the form of semiconductors, cars, ships, machinery and robotics, to name but a few.

One of the companies serving this booming high tech industry is Embedded Systems Korea, a distributor of microprocessor development and CAN tools that was started in 1997. The company is a member of ODVA, the organisation that supports network technologies built on the Common Industrial Protocol, and works with many well-known names, including Hyundai Motors, S&T Daewoo, LG, Samsung and Volvo Korea. Embedded Systems focuses on selling to the motor components, marine, military and semiconductor sectors.

Korean customers share much in common with their other Asian cousins – a steadily growing economy at over 4% every year, plus a tendency to buy the cheapest but to require a great deal of local language support. However, Embedded Systems sees this as an opportunity. Mr Jongik Park, sales director for Embedded Systems says: “In the Korean market, Vector and National Instruments are our main competitors, but neither of them visit customers to provide support. In contrast, we visit customers and provide CAN seminars and demos for CAN beginners. We also train customers how to use the tools they purchase.”

Embedded System’s first CAN sales began in 2001, when the company first started working with Kvaser. According to Mr Park, Hyundai Motors used to purchase in-circuit emulators and C compilers from Embedded Systems, but used Vector CAN tools at that time. “Hyundai asked us for an alternative tool because Vector tools were too expensive, so we recommended Kvaser because they are compatible with Vector.” Since then, Hyundai has consistently used Kvaser’s CAN cards.

As it happened, Hyundai wanted a complete hardware and software alternative to Vector, but when Kvaser’s CAN Creator was discontinued they decided to remain with Vector. However, Embedded Systems has supplied many other Korean companies with Kvaser tools, which Mr Park confirms as very good quality and a source of confidence.

Prospects for growth

The main growth area for Embedded Systems CAN sales, which account for 50% of its business, is the automotive components industry in Korea. Mr Park reasons that of-course CAN was used first in automotive applications, but he confirms that in other industries it is just at the beginning. Recent efforts to broadcast the CAN message and encourage adoption include running a CAN seminar for Samsung’s Semiconductor division and instigating a briefing session for applying CAN to a human robot developed by Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Embedded Systems also promotes its message via Internet search engine advertising, notably on ‘Naver’, a popular search facility in Korea. It has also developed a dedicated mobile-accessible webpage (see http://www.eskorea.net/mobile/product/) and participates in mobile media advertising too. To participate further in the mobile device trend, the company has developed a Quick Response (QR) code for customers to use to find out more about products or make a purchase. “Our customers are generally young engineers,” explains Park, “so they prefer to use the QR code rather than our company address or phone numbers.”

Due to the advancement of the Internet, attendance at exhibitions has become less effective, compared to the value the company has gained from web and mobile advertising, notes Mr Parks. He quotes a recent report showing that Korean young people tend to purchase items online, mostly via their mobiles. However, Embedded Systems attended exhibitions up until 2009 and he also believes that the engineers that need to know are already well aware of the company from that investment.

As for the future, Korea’s economic growth combined with the rapid growth of the Korean automotive components sector gives Embedded Systems a positive outlook. Mr Parks adds: “Korea is one among many countries that invest in China. Our country exports a lot of production equipments to China.” Finally, he notes that CAN is still in its infancy in Korea, so experts expect CAN demand to continue on an upward trend.

For more information on Embedded Systems, please visit www.eskorea.net. To contact the company, please send an email to Ms Miae Cho at esk@eskorea.net in the first instance.