A guide to our products and services

At the product concept stage

• Seminars – We hold quarterly seminars focusing on current and future technologies. We are also happy to arrange customised seminars at our customers site when appropriate.

• Spectre News - We issue a bi-monthly news letter advising on products, reference designs and development kits for existing and developing communication standards.

• Web site – The source of information for product overviews, data, white papers, reference designs, events coming up etc.

• Vendor support - Access to industry leading experts, product roadmaps, test reports, custom product feasibility.

• Face to Face consultation - Our engineers will visit the customer to discuss which technology and solution fits the requirements well.

The proof of concept stage

Customers need the right tools to be able to evaluate the technology both technically and commercially. We excel in offering the following

• Development kits and evaluation boards - Comprehensive development tools are offered and supported facilitating quick time to market.

• Bill of material costing - support is offered to cost the whole implementation of the technology not just our chip/module costing.

• On site demonstrations - We can do on site demonstrations and testing before the customer has to commit to any particular technology.

• Approval support - Help with estimating the cost, time taken and resources required for approvals can be given.

Design Realisation

Support is offered through out the implementation of the design 

• Design Services - Design partners are used to offer anything from ASICS, support on skills non core to the customer, to full product design and realisation.

• Reference designs - Proven reference designs are available to increase time to market and help produce reliable designs.

• Application Notes – Application specific design guides can be provided to help speed up implementation of devices in specific industries.

• Samples - Samples and small quantities are available to support the design process.

• Consultation and guidance - Experienced field based engineers are available to give advise and answer questions throughout the process

• Test facilities - Access to vendor test facilities and partner test facilities for design verification and pre-qualification.

• Software support - Firmware release updates, drivers and test software are all available. If required, firmware can be customised to fit special requirements.

Design for production

• Consultation and guidance - Experienced field based engineers are available to give advise and provide tools for production. For example programming and test tools, RF test tools, DFM.
• Lowest cost route for production - Choosing the right product can have a big impact on the cost of manufacturing. We can help optimise the implementation for the expected volumes and performance requirements.

• Prototyping and field trials – We recognise that it is necessary to support a slow ramp up to full production in many cases. Spectres provide the flexibility to achieve this with a range of flexible scheduling packages.

Volume production

• Our agency model- an important part of the Spectre business model is the flexibility to support projects successfully regardless of manufacturing location.

• Manufacturing services- for customers who plan to outsource production, we have preferred manufacturing partners in the UK and Asia that we would be pleased to introduce you to.

Value added services and logistical support

We have invested heavily in a comprehensive suite of value added services aimed at taking cost and time out of the supply chain

• Flexible scheduling- this service recognises the increasing customer trend in wanting to replace firm orders with forecasts.

• Buffer stocking- by the nature of the products we supply, many are considered to be specials, and as long as our customers underwrite customised buffer stock, we are happy to hold any reasonable quantities in buffer stock to allow for unplanned ramp up in production.

• 2d barcoding- our state of the art 2D barcoding capability means that you can electronically scan Spectre shipments direct onto your system.

Service and quality excellence

• Our people- our Regional technical mangers are all ex engineers with high level technical qualifications and experience in design. We bring the key value of knowledge and experience in how to implement our technologies

• ISO9001-Quality Management System- Spectre has ISO9001 approval and there is an ongoing Board level focus on our quality management systems

• Premium brands- we have always pursued a premium brand strategy where we carefully select partners based on product fit, quality and customer service capability.

• Continuous improvement programmes- all departments are subject to internal audit as a mandatory disciple and we have ongoing continuous improvement programmes tasked with taking cost, time and errors out of every process

• Investment in training- all new employees undergo a rigorous training programme to ensure that we maintain our standards and we take our internal sales, customer service and logistical personnel through Training Needs Analysis (TNA) training.