Q5 Interview - Slobodan Puljarevic, EBV

Slobodan Puljarevic, president of the design-in distributor EBV, talks to Electronics Weekly about the challenges facing the European electronics industry, the impact of the Internet, and the importance of eco-design.

1. What are the biggest challenges facing the European electronics industry?

Like many other sectors, the semi­conductor industry will not escape the financial crisis. Our customers' reluctance is tangible, particularly in the automobile industry. But even in a very general sense, we are noticing that the willingness of manufacturers and customers to invest at the moment is very limited - not to mention the transfer of production towards the East, which is taking place on a major or minor scale depending on the region. This represents a huge challenge for our entire industry.

2. How has the role of the design-in distributor changed in the past few years?

On the one hand, products and technologies are becoming more and more complex; on the other hand, some of the manufacturers are cutting back on their design resources. As a result, the customer expects much more service and support from a distributor. A new approach is to develop reference designs, which combine hardware and software on a single board. This allows the customer to make time savings of up to one year per developer.

3. Where are the biggest design opportunities?

Energy efficiency is currently the number one topic of interest for the whole industry.
Our "ECOmise it" campaign combines all the relevant aspects of this topic. It is our belief that economic success can only be achieved in future by setting ecological standards.

4. Do suppliers appreciate the need for dedicated design support in Europe?

This is most definitely the case. Products and technologies are becoming more complex and the time-to-market requirements shorter. As a distributor we therefore see ourselves as the extended design arm of the manufacturers and want to help customers with our design know-how in word and deed, wherever possible.

5. Is the Internet having an impact on your business plans? If so, in what ways?

The Internet is, without doubt, the most important information medium of our time - and of our industry.
For example, on our website we have created a tool that provides up-to-date information about products and services. But ultimately, this is merely a starting point for us. We have created background resources so that for the future we can offer more services and support online. ?

See also: Q5 - Interviews with electronics industry leaders
Read all the Electronics Weekly Q5 interviews. From ARM's chairman, Sir Robin Saxby, to touchscreen technology firm Zytronic's MD, Mark Cambridge, the business leaders share their particular insights on the UK electronics industry.