Frontier Silicon

Frontier Silicon in TimisoaraBarry Jones24 July 2013

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Partnership

#Successful Partnerships are the joining together of 2 or more parties in an embrace of mutual benefit in the hope and expectation that the value will be greater than the sum of the parts.

Partnerships may be based 1. Competitors Pursuing a mutuual goal or interest -Symbiotic2.The coming together of 2 people holding different parts of the solution to a problem3. A group of people commiting to each other in the cause of something great4. In successful Partnership peopel may bring different strengths and skills which are complimentary but most important they support each other and give opening handedly.5. Most of All Partnerships are based on trust and respect for each other 6. Finally , partnerships are about Bridging the gap between disparate elements to bonding them together

Today we are here to celebrate the Launch of what I believe will be a great partnership that between the city of Timisoara and Frontier Silicon.

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How did Frontier Silicon get to Timisoara ?

Benchmarks

ChinaIndonesiaMalaysiaPhilippinesSingaporeThailandVietnam

ArgentinaBrazilChileMexicoPanama

IndiaPakistan

BulgariaCzech Rep.HungaryLatviaLithuaniaPolandRomaniaRussiaUkraine

4 years ago, we started a global search for a location to expand and extend our development capable to meet all our future product commitments

#Anthony has spoken eloquently and in some depth about what Frontier Silicon is, and has achieved , so let me start with a review of how we arrived in Timisoara.

A year ago we started a journey to find the optimal place to create the future of our company. We investigated the 30 top outsourcing countries around the world seeking the ideal location to execute the future growth of Frontier Silicon Our benchmarks were the USA and The UK.

The process was a 3 phase operationPhase 1: Identify a long list of potential candidate locations for a successful development centre [Deliverable: Short List ]Phase 2: Reduce the list to a manageable candidate list and conduct an analysis based on the factors identified as impacting the success of the venture. [Deliverable 3 Candidate countries]Phase 3: Investigate the final candidates in detail and identify 3 candidate countries for deeper planning exercise

This document does not share the 1000s of pages of data which make up the informing material however a series of support slides are available at the end should further detail be sort.

We identified 37 objective points which we could measure, the core of the question was where in the world presents the best chance of successfully establishing an Embedded software development team capable of delivering Tier 1 customers.Surprisingly for some the answer was not India or China although both had some merits.The shortlist consisted of Poland, Czech Republic and Timisoara

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Timisoara chosen from shortlist of five3 months later, we visited 3 candidate countries 6 months after , we committed to Timisoara Inside 9 months, we opened our first officeCzech RepublicBrnoOstrava

Poland LodzLublin

RomaniaTimisoara

#The feedback from the investigation was as followsThe 5 South American countries while in some cases logical for the US IT market. Did not show enough financial advantage to outweigh the limitations of the SW development capability. Thailand , Indonesia , Malaysia , Philippines and Vietnam were removed from the list for being too early in the emerging cycle , having significant command and control issues and not having large enough proven Software development capability to satisfy Toumaz core domain requirement .Pakistan is not focussed enough on Software Development to be usefulOf the emerging Eastern European candidates Latvia and Lithuania are just too young in the cycle to meet our needs without risk but should be monitored for the future. Hungary is a solid candidate but too closely linked with Germany in terms of outsource and the aspirations of employees. Although Hong Kong provides a close business fit with regulatory and the close relationship with the UK over many years and is an excellent candidate for the Asian HQ of a business. The country has only 30,000 software developers and a small number of additional graduates each year they are in demand and are significantly more expensive than other locationsRussia and Ukraine are more established candidates but outside the EU which increases barriers including free movement of employees and are simply not as compelling as the other eastern European challengers. Russia and Ukraine are difficult places to do business in politically and economically Russia is acknowledged as one of the places where bribes are still part of doing business.The incumbents India and China have massive transaction for outsource development and so were covered in the deeper evaluation because they can provide the solution however neither of them is the optimal solution in this case.The challengers which provide the best balance of meeting requirements and reduced risk of execution are Poland , Romania and Czech Republic with Bulgaria because it is in the earliest level of meeting the need and there fore has additional cost benefits but at increased risk and should only be consider if for some reason the previous 3 were disqualified.

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Phase 2 began July 2013Office launch 24 July 2013+3 months we launch our first product+6 months we will be 20 people+18 months we will be 50 people

What we said

19 engineers 49 engineers What we Did 64 engineers

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We evaluated 37 key factors in making a location decision. Key decision pointsrelative strength of the embedded/App/Cloud SW development skills in Timisoaramindset of the engineers / their lack of fearability to withstand competitive pressures of low cost economies in Asia and Indiacommand and control is easy, and engineers within EU can commute easily to / from UK

Why Timisoara?

#There are 2 parties to our Partnership

As I said in my last slide there were 37 reasons why Timisoara was selected.

Several cities in the short list could have executed our plan and Lodz in Poland was a very strong candidate however

TALK TO ELEMENTS ON SLIDEAnd that is how we arrived at the Ideal Location.

The second Part of the Partnership Contract is why Fronter Silicon What do we bring the party that is so special for Timisoara Commitment to the team in terms of Quality of the work, which is the fundamental to real engineers, Commitment to the team in terms of challenging them to deliver Tier one quality technologies for global brand customers and the feedback of seeing the results on the shelf in consumer electronics timescales. The This is not maintenance programming or subsystem development, this is full product line delivery responsibility . In the year I have been working on this project I have seen not one element of NIH from the current teams in the UK only an recognition that we have a opportunity to do more.Finally, we are a fast moving pragmatic company which I believe reflects the spirit of Timisoara and we are committed to seek new levels of performance from our team here through incremental gains in every aspect of the development process.

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We took a business needing to grow, working with emerging technologies #1 supplier in primary market (80% market share) exciting range of products - helping to make world a better placeCommitted to real product development in TimisoaraTimisoara team will own development of key software projects for Frontier we invested in the team tools, equipment and trainingWe developed a no excuses approach to executing our business We are making it happen in Timisoara, today

Why was Frontier Silicon a good fit for Timisoara?

#There are 2 parties to our Partnership

As I said in my last slide there were 37 reasons why Timisoara was selected.

Several cities in the short list could have executed our plan and Lodz in Poland was a very strong candidate however

TALK TO ELEMENTS ON SLIDEAnd that is how we arrived at the Ideal Location.

The second Part of the Partnership Contract is why Fronter Silicon What do we bring the party that is so special for Timisoara Commitment to the team in terms of Quality of the work, which is the fundamental to real engineers, Commitment to the team in terms of challenging them to deliver Tier one quality technologies for global brand customers and the feedback of seeing the results on the shelf in consumer electronics timescales. The This is not maintenance programming or subsystem development, this is full product line delivery responsibility . In the year I have been working on this project I have seen not one element of NIH from the current teams in the UK only an recognition that we have a opportunity to do more.Finally, we are a fast moving pragmatic company which I believe reflects the spirit of Timisoara and we are committed to seek new levels of performance from our team here through incremental gains in every aspect of the development process.

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Frontier Silicons product portfolio is expanding into Connected Audio and Internet of Things wireless healthcare (with Toumaz Healthcare)Opening development centre in Timisoara highly skilled workforce availablecreate centre of excellence for SW developmentgrow to ~50 people in 18 months Will build a team to exceed expectationsdevelop a super culture which will make Frontier Silicon: Made in Timisoara stand for the highest standardsWhy are we here?

Be the best we can be

TIMISOARA

#We built a world class team - the #1 SW development company in Timisoara recruited core of strong, knowledgeable and committed engineers partnered with the universityDelivered interesting / challenging work Provided Innovative training and development approach to add value to the team competitive package of benefits and a engaging working environment we built Timisoara super-cultureIntegrate Timisoara team into Frontier Silicon familyengineers travelled between locations to learn how to work with UK and complete knowledge transferTimisoara took up the mantle and became the core developemnt team. allow us to deliver effectively, but ultimately it will be Made in TimisoaraBeing #1 in Timisoara is step to being #1 in the world: benchmark the rest and be the best

Timisoara is Frontier Silicons key SW development resource

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Frontier Silicon TIMISOARA

A partnership of equals City, Company,Team.A commitment to SW development excellence.A challenge to the engineers of Timisoara to make Made in Timisoara a synonym for success.Real products for real people in everybodies home..

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