Our strategy
Chip to cloud the Swiss way
Our growth within the IoT value chain is accelerating primarily because our unrivaled core technology combines positioning and connectivity. Additionally, we partner with our OEM customers to deliver complex technology solutions, which are otherwise difficult for them to achieve. Furthermore, we offer a high-touch customer experience steeped in Swiss tradition. We continue to expand our reach with value-added service capabilities that extend the u-blox solution capability by offering competencies unique in the IoT industry.
Strategic pathways ahead
For the foreseeable future, we will continue to follow several strategic pathways that have supported our rapid growth:
● Continuing innovation in signal processing
● Selecting the most capable underlying semiconductor technology
● Focusing on the most promising applications
● Capturing high content in the customers’ bill of material by providing high solution capability
● Participating in recurring service revenue
● Developing new application areas
A very promising application: Electric vehicle charging
An excellent example of a promising application within a high growth market is Electric Vehicle (EV) charging. Analysts forecast that approximately 136 million EVs will be on the streets worldwide by 2030, with a 36% CAGR for the EV battery charger market from 2021 to 20301. They also forecast that 58% of the total installed EV charger base will be networked with cellular or Wi-Fi by 2024.
“Analysts forecast that approximately 136 million EVs will be on the streets worldwide by 2030 with a 36% CAGR for the EV battery charger market from 2021 to 20301. They also forecast that 58% of the total installed EV charger base will be networked with cellular or Wi-Fi by 2024.”
1 Source: u-blox based on 3rd party market research
How are we meeting the needs of the EV charging market?
Our customers within the EV charging market come to us with various technical challenges where u-blox positioning and connectivity solutions are applied. Here are some examples of how we are addressing functionalities in this high growth market:
● Locating EV charging stations
● Delivering charge station status to the cloud
● Monitoring the availability and status of charging stations
● Remote monitoring and predictive maintenance of stations
● Peak load reduction and dynamic load management
● Vehicle to Grid (V2G), bidirectional charging
● Connecting to car and user
● Controlling the charging process
● Optimizing charging time, energy consumption, and costs
80% of our revenue is generated with 150 strategic customers
We have become very hands-on with our customers, and they drive our technology roadmap to help us stay ahead of our competition. We gain insights from our key accounts as well as the many small to medium enterprises (SME) that are champions in their industry. Makers are an invaluable source of new ideas as well.
We define high potential customers as those who want innovative solutions. Our demonstration tools make it much easier for them to choose u-blox followed by fast onboarding, which leads to the crucial design-in phase that usually leads to a business win.
We manage an extensive customer portfolio
Our customers can also get support via our distribution partners, our forum and portal, documentation, and other tools.
Deep and lasting customer engagement
We approach our customers intending to become a long-term partner aligned with their product life cycles. Our technical and sales resources and channel partners are committed to this approach.
“Our high service distribution partners engage our joint customers knowledgeably and amplify the u-blox solution attitude.”
Untapped sales potential
Our strategy moving forward includes doubling our customer base, as there is still much untapped sales potential. A key factor will be the expansion of the successful sales structure we have built to support our existing and large customer base through:
● Direct sales
● Demand-creating distributors
● Demand-fulfilling distributors
● High service distributors
Distribution partners become amplifiers
u-blox channel managers work very closely with our three global and 60 regional distribution partners, whom we provide with deep technical and sales tools so they can respond quickly to market demands. Our high service distribution partners engage our joint customers knowledgeably and amplify the u-blox solution attitude. All distribution partners report their daily dealings with all our customers on our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. As a result, we know what our customers accomplish with our technology.
