Another electronics company that has seen significant growth through focusing on an innovative niche is Impro Technologies (Impro), based in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal.
The company was established in 1987 by Errol East, Rod Moore and Ed D'Oliveira and despite amazing growth, remains privately owned.
The niche this company selected was in proximity access control systems. From a small beginning where their products were introduced, to the global market in 1991, Impro now exports to some 50 countries and has its own offices in the UK, the Netherlands, Japan and the USA.
Impro expanded its factory floor space by five times its original size in 2002, while during 2003, the layout of the plant was optimised to increase throughput with a new Mydata SMD pick-and-place machine being introduced at the same time. Like other successful global exporters its software and documentation is available in a number of European languages as well as Japanese and Chinese.
While maintaining its focus on its core proximity access control technology, Impro expanded its market base through establishing strategic relationships with value-added partners who were involved in complementary products.
In biometrics for example, it has teamed with Sagem and Recognition Systems and all Impro products are compatible with their fingerprint recognition terminal and Handkey II respectively. Similarly, since Impro's business is not in CCTV or time and attendance, it has other value-added partners that include Mirasys of Finland (CCTV systems), Denitron of Belgium (time and attendance systems) and Lavie TimeTech (time and attendance, payroll and job costing).
Impro has its systems installed at over 10 000 sites worldwide and users include BP, Shell, Sasol, Dixons Stores (UK), Nokia, Ericsson, the JSE and Unicef in Jordan. One of its more recent successes was a local client, Mondi, that adopted the Impro IXP and ImproNet software for the access control of its 1400 employees at Merebank paper mill in Durban.
A unique local application in South Africa is Robben Island. Here Impro provided the access control solution with two advanced controllers, one on the mainland and one on the island. These communicate using microwave technology. The system controls both visitors and staff and the ticket sales system has been integrated into the software. For insurance purposes, a head count system was also incorporated for ferry passengers and visitor's tags are collected in drop boxes as they leave the island.
Launched in early 2000, the company's Impro IXP range of access control solutions operate on the ImproNet Access Control Software suite, which interfaces to such extras as a visitor module, an alarm module, a CCTV module and a building graphics module. The entry-level systems to the IXP range are the IXP100 and the IXP200 (single door and 16 doors respectively with 500 and 2000 users). This is extended up to the Flagship IXP400 that can handle up to 3000 doors with up to 160 000 tag holders.
During 2002, the Impro range resulted in an increase of almost 60% of sales in Europe alone and the newly-tailored factory means that Impro can deliver a new IXP system two weeks after receipt of an order.
For South Africa and the SADC, Q Data Dynamique (Comparex Group) represents Lavie TimeTech and it has an agreement with Impro to use their platform for all time and access-control-related solutions. The Timekeeper suite includes a fully-featured time and attendance application, a time costing module, a module that allows pre-scheduling of employee's shifts and a module specially designed for the hotel staffing industry. Lavie itself has more than 7000 customers worldwide and together with Impro, Q Data is able to provide a world-leading integrated time and attendance system.
As for Impro, besides what has been already mentioned, the company offers an incredible range of proximity access control systems and its hardware is compatible with barcode, magstripe and Wiegand technologies. Its patented metal proximity readers are robust but elegant and are weatherproof and vandal resistant. The company's complete range of hardware includes system controllers, terminals, remote readers, and antenna readers together with cards and tags. One of its recent innovations is an infrared transmitter and receiver. The transmitter is mounted in the front window of a vehicle and allows button-less access to premises by automatically triggering the opening of gates when approaching.
Over the years Impro has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the coveted Nelson Mandela President's Award for Export Achievement. It also received the EIF Top Product Award for its 'Miners' Tracking Tag' and was the winner of the EIF Top 100 Award for small to medium enterprises.
Note: This series looks at some of the leading companies in the electronics industry in South Africa today. To simplify presentation and avoid perceptions that they are being 'rated' in any way, coverage is being presented in alphabetical order. Do not miss the next issue of Dataweek where we look at an electronics developer that offers a mix of security and transport management products, extensive plastics capability, and also has contract manufacturing facilities.
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