Avnet Embedded Announces new French structure

“By joining forces, we can offer our French and other customers the combined strengths of the former Abacus Embedded companies and the Avnet Embedded group,” says Serge Bitoun general manager at Axess. “We are committed to helping our customers develop innovative products and get them to market faster – and the new structure has been set up with this goal in mind.”

Axess Technology’s customers in France stand to benefit from the new structure in four important ways. First, they now have a much broader choice of products and solutions from the combined linecards of Avnet Embedded and Axess Technology. Second, they have a larger pool of technical specialists at their disposal in addition to the Axess Technology staff they are familiar with. The Avnet Embedded group now has over 100 staff with a high proportion of engineers. Third, the expanded system integration expertise and local product laboratories are available to assist French customers with integration as well as to produce product demos and design references for them. Fourth, Avnet Embedded and its offices around Europe are backed by Avnet’s world-class logistical and supply chain services as well as a strong, global organisation that has been in business since 1959.

Many of the former Abacus Embedded group companies have significant brand equity and recognition in their respective countries. This is the case for Axess Technology in France, which will continue to do business under its current name while operating within the Avnet Embedded group. Other former Abacus companies to keep their existing names include the wireless business of TDC in the UK; and Trident in the UK, Benelux and Nordic countries. The Abacus Embedded name has been changed to Avnet Embedded in Germany and Italy.

Within the new corporate structure, Avnet Embedded offers customers a much broader franchise portfolio. As a result, Axess Technology can now offer its French customers products from the following groups:

· Embedded operating systems and software

· Displays – LCD panels, digital signage solutions, monitors, terminals and panel PCs

· Wireless and networking - GSM, 3G, GPS, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Wifi and many others

· Embedded computing: all form factors from mini ITX to industrial box PCs

The full Avnet Embedded linecard can be viewed at www.avnet-embedded.eu. Further announcements will be made in due course concerning linecard additions and the expansion of existing distribution agreements to cover other European geographies.