KOCHI: In Kerala, where software startups are the latest trend, getting into hardware designs and surviving its vicissitudes is a dicey prospect for any startup. But for Z-Crossing Solutions, a Kochi-based electronic hardware design services and product manufacturing firm, taking up the challenge has opened a floodgate of untapped opportunities. According to Premy Varghese, founder and one of the directors of Z-Crossing, the startup aims to create awareness and interest among the next generation in the embedded domain and to provide complete embedded products to customers in the best time to market (TTM).
Premy Varghese, a BTech graduate in Biomedical Engineering from Government Model Engineering College, Thrikkakara, is no newbie in hardware designing. He has over 15 years of experience in the hardware and embedded domain.
“Most of our customers come up with their own unique ideas and we work closely with them throughout the various stages of product development, right from concept, design and to manufacturing, to realise an end product of their choice for the market,” he says.
The startup works with multiple eco-system partners focused on their own areas of expertise for the product development. The company primarily focuses on hardware components, the firmware and software components are developed by our ecosystem partners namely GadgEon Smart Systems and mechanical components by Teqzo Consultancy. Ignitarium Technology Solutions is their FPGA solutions partner. The products by Z-Crossing Solutions find majority of its applications in the IOT (Internet of things) area.
Z-Crossing has been able to support customers, who had failed miserably by doing the initial designs with other companies mainly in China, and also in India, to help identify and solve their technical problems and take the products to production within a very short span of time. This includes products in the medical field and entertainment space. Beyond this, they have been able to do the project management from this stage and ensure the successful volume production. These customers have indicated their plans to do the subsequent designs directly with Z-Crossing.
“In a small state like Kerala, we have a lot of challenges and limitations ahead. Being in the hardware space, there are a lot of imports and exports involved. The rate of duty and the lead time for the clearance are some of the greatest challenges we face, beyond other technical bottlenecks,” he said.
The lack of standard PCB (printed circuit board) assembly firms and PCB fabrication companies in and around Kochi has been a challenge for the production and prototyping phase. At present, they work with vendors in East Asia like China and Taiwan, in additional to the US and also other parts of India. But Z-Crossing believes that embedded eco system will take off in a great way in the southern state of Kerala also and they are committed to supporting any activities towards this.
Embedded Ecosystem
The companies involved in the ecosystem can share and grow together and create a new environment for embedded solutions in India. This will in turn enable the companies to share your efforts, infrastructure costs and profits and hence increased profits to all by providing quality end to end solutions to the customer in a much faster pace. Through this model, the teams will get exposure to a complete product development cycle instead of restricting it to their core expertise areas. It will change the face of India and Kerala by coming out with a product development capable team. Z-Crossing Solutions, with an 11-member strong workforce and maintaining an eco-system mode of partnership, is poised to take a giant leap in the hardware design and manufacturing sector in the state.