Needs of Global Start-up companies (Deliverable 2) GlobalStart wp1 Studies Deliverable 2 Needs of Global Start-up Companies Table of contents p
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- 3. Internationalization
- Staff
- Telecommunication – Wireless Communication
3. InternationalizationKnow-how/technologyThe company develops its products with no foreign support or cooperation. The product is improved through internal development or cooperation with local customers. MarketThe company resells software from UK company to customers from Baltic states (public sector organisations as well as production companies). StaffEstonian employees. TTO supportThe company uses premises of Tartu Science Park. The Science Park was supporting company’s attempt to enter US market with company’s new product - eFormular. Nowadays TTO support is limited to the usage of premises. Utellus
1 (a) Profile and background Utellus is a wireless technology start-up, specialising in the design and implementation of wireless communication protocols. Following the withdrawal of Ericsson from Enschede, Utellus was founded in July 2003, by Fred Dijkstra, as a spin-off from the TOP programme at the University of Twente. Fred Dijkstra graduated from the University of Twente having studied Electrical Engineering. He has over ten years experience working in the ICT sector, where he was responsible for implementing Intelligent Networking (IN) applications for a number of large telecom providers. Prior to founding the company Fred Dijkstra had been working as the development team leader on the software for the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, third generation mobile) Radio Base Station at the Ericsson EuroLab in Enschede. In the beginning of 2001, while working for Ericsson, Fred and his colleagues, who had experience working on many different kinds of telecommunication protocols, e.g. DECT, Bluetooth, UMTS, explored the feasibility of creating a radio technology or a communication protocol that would cover these different kinds of applications. They recognised the need for a universal and scalable wireless communication standard that is both simple and powerful enough to support such a wide variety of applications where heterogeneous groups of wireless devices co-operate in order to create the so-called tele-interactive environment, i.e. mobile ad-hoc networks. The proliferation of mobile devices and non-wireless devices such as PDA’s, which are capable of communication once fitted with a radio chip, facilitate the creation of such ad-hoc networks. Following discussions with a number of Ericsson’s engineers it was decided that, because of its strengths and capabilities, Ultra-Wide-Band (UWB) radio technology would be best suited for this idea. The closure of Ericsson, announced on the 30th of September 2002, hastened the whole process of founding the company. When it was known that Ericsson was going to close, meetings were arranged between Ericsson colleagues who had an interest in the idea. Altogether there were around 15 people interested in the idea, who met to discuss the idea and give feedback but in the end there was three of them who wrote the business plan and two who started the company. The government implemented support programmes to support Ericsson staff who wanted to found their own company through Oost Nv. They had the initial idea to make a mobile device. They then entered into discussions with business advisers from Ericsson and Oost, who outlined the intricacies of developing a device, e.g. distribution, hardware, etc. Following these discussions they focused their idea to the current proposition, which appears in the business plan i.e. that they only develop software components, protocol stacks or middleware. Fred Dijkstra founded the company in July 2003. In the early stages he received a €5000 starting contribution from Ericsson, who also offered cheap sale of inventory and received money in the form of an interest free loan from the TOP programme. The development of the company was further supported through private equity provided by Fred Dijkstra. Utellus’ mission is “to introduce a truly universal wireless tele-interactive environment into everyday life.” To do this a universal set of communication protocols, which operate in all sorts of ad-hoc configurations of thousands of devices, is needed. Physically testing these would be too expensive; therefore, their first challenge was the development of Simmanet, an advanced simulation environment for mobile ad-hoc networks. Utellus uses this simulation environment for research and development of AwindA; an “advanced wireless interface for digital apparatuses.” AwindA consists of a set of software modules that control Ultra-Wide-Band chipsets, which are currently coming on the market. It can be regarded as a communication protocol cluster, a collection of communication protocols for wireless local-, personal-, or body-area networks. The development of the company has been in line with that expressed in the business plan with respect to content but has fallen behind the planned timeframe. They first have to make the market ready for the market (see cooperations elaboration). Utellus need to be building on top of a new technology, i.e. the chipsets that implement ultra wide band radio; however, there has been a setback with the development of the technology in that these chipsets are not readily available and very expensive. To overcome this setback they focused on developing the communication protocols and the simulation environment. To fund the running of the company they undertook some feasibility studies for companies interested in UWB and they also applied for some subsidy programs, e.g. Smart Surroundings, Mycelium network and the UWB testbed. Utellus have initiated contacts with Time Domain, a manufacturer and the market leader of UWB chipsets, and arranged discounted equipment (Time Domain’s evaluation-kit, EVK), on which Utellus can experiment with UWB and develop the last layers of the AwindA protocol stack on actual hardware. They have also made contacts with several organisations to discuss the possible benefits of UWB to them; among these are the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, a Dutch Telecom Agency, Norden Technology, EyeOn Trust and Enovite. They have also entered into talks with Atlantik, the European distributor of Time Domain to prepare the market for the arrival of UWB. They will do this through commercial seminars, feasibility studies, offering AwindA with Time Domain’s hardware and offering training courses in the hand’s on use of AwindA using EVKs. The company currently has offices in Enschede and Delft both located in Business Technology Centre Incubators of the respective regions. These areas were chosen to benefit from the numbers of small companies present, which allow close co-operation with the possibility of cost savings, and also because of the flexible leasing and shared administration policies operated by the incubators. The technical side of operations and run from Twente and the business development from Delft, the company also employs two employees with technical experience, having previously worked for Ericsson. While awaiting the arrival of the chipsets on the market, the major challenge for Utellus is the successful completion of the subsidy projects. These projects have received a lot of media attention and the successful delivery of the projects is paramount in them building up their corporate image and reputation. 1 (b) Major milestones
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