High-End Software Services Without the High-End Prices... Made in USA!
- Ayoka brings American business acumen to apps development, systems integration
- Made to order
- An Onshore American ADM Model that Competes with Offshore's Cost, Scalability, Flexibility, and Quality
- Ayoka named to Top 25 list of largest Software Developers in Dallas
- Ayoka Wins Technology Advocate Award
- Slowing the Tech Drain
June 1, 2008
Manufacturing Business Technology
By William Atkinson, contributing editor (w.atkinson@mchsi.com)
The U.S. manufacturing industry has lost its share of jobs to overseas competition, so when these companies seek outsourcing assistance, they may well prefer to work with U.S. partners.
Arlington, Texas-based Ayoka offers an affordable onshore alternative for software outsourcing, targeting underserved industries such as manufacturing. For manufacturing in particular, Ayoka's factory automation software and remote monitoring allow users to access data whereby the Web browser functions as the human-machine interface, providing much broader access to machine controls and monitoring. In addition to real-time responsive interaction, the data is warehoused in integrated databases for business intelligence and reporting.
"When people use the term 'application outsourcing,' they usually are talking about the application in a post-production environment," notes Rona Shuchat, program director of application outsourcing services for Framingham, Mass.-based IDC. "However, when Ayoka uses the term, it is referring to the application development and/or systems integration of the applications."
Shuchat says Ayoka is moving companies - especially small to midsize manufacturers - forward to the state of automation where they can control how to tie the front end of the process - i.e., the sales order entry piece - into the production flow, and then into the output side, including control of accounting and shipping.
"In sum, Ayoka can go into a company and identify where lack of automation is hurting the company, and make recommendations on how to create a more automated flow," says Shuchat.
One company using Ayoka services is HelloLabels, a subsidiary of Safford, Ariz.-based DRG Technologies. HelloLabels makes product identification solutions for electronics and other products. Ayoka developed an open-source e-commerce system for HelloLabels, which features back-end integration with production work orders, inventory management, and shipping systems.
"When I was brought into DRG to launch the HelloLabels division, we didn't have a Web site and wanted to do our main sales online," explains Matt Milliorn, general manager for HelloLabels. "We sell through a number of channels, including wholesalers, dealers, and direct consumers."
HelloLabels deployed an Ayoka system that allows the company to seamlessly address all three channels with a single system.
"We also use it internally to input orders that come to us via mail or other sources," says Milliorn. "We've been able to take the process of quoting and ordering that once took two hours with back-and-forth communication to one where orders can be quoted and entered in about two minutes," concludes Milliorn.
Made to orderApril 18, 2008
Dallas Business Journal
by Margaret Allen Staff Writer
Custom software developer AYOKA LLC finds success
When software developers talk shop in San Francisco, they don't typically brag about code they're perfecting for a manufacturing company. It's software for high-tech concerns that carries all the glory and cachet -- not programming for heavy industry.
"It's not sexy," says Eknauth Persaud, founder and CEO of Ayoka LLC. But his Arlington-based custom software developer has found success by focusing on that niche.
Prior to launching Ayoka in 2004, Persaud worked for giant defense contractor Lockheed Martin and at other industrial companies. Through his on-the-job experience, Persaud saw a need by industrial companies for custom software applications to help them manage a variety of tasks: distribution, warehousing, logistics, customer orders, manufacturing flow and equipment automation, among other things.
"They are overlooked clients," said Persaud, who moved from the West Coast to Dallas in 2002 to work as a software subcontractor on the automated baggage system for the new International Terminal at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Though high-tech companies are easily sold on the benefits of software, industrial companies are more conservative, Persaud said. They don't buy software for the sake of buying software, but because they seek efficiencies on the shop floor and elsewhere in their operation.
Because he spoke their language, Persaud worked on showing manufacturing companies how to harness the power of technology. And that approach has paid off for Ayoka. In four years, the company has achieved a 370% compound growth rate. It employs 22 in Arlington; Persaud plans to hire another 16 employees this year and open a second office this fall in Richardson's Telecom Corridor.
The entrepreneur won't disclose specific sales figures, but says they range from $2 million to $5 million. Ayoka has been profitable since 2006.
The company has about 15 customers, whose revenue ranges from $5 million to several billion. One-third of the clients are large software developers outsourcing a smaller project; the remaining are industrial company end-users.
Offering such a wide range of custom applications is rare, according to Joe Crosswell, manager for the technology solutions group at the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center in Arlington, a government-funded program that helps small- and mid-sized businesses improve their operations.
"That is hard to find," Crosswell said of Ayoka's services. "Those are truly custom applications, and there are only a few companies out there that do that. You have to really look to find them. Many companies will simply try to develop the capability in-house. The need has been around for years -- there just hasn't been anyone doing it."
Persaud says much of his company's growth is due to middle-market customers who want to keep their software development onshore, so as to control their intellectual property and be able to meet face-to-face with developers. That's an important need for Ayoka as well.
"We want to be close to our customers," he said. "Location matters in software development."
An Onshore American ADM Model that Competes with Offshore's Cost, Scalability, Flexibility, and QualityFebruary 2008
Outsourcing Journal
By Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
In this article, Kathleen writes "I've been writing about outsourcing since 1998 and easily remember when it was remarkable to write about a company deciding to outsource its business process offshore. Over the past few years, that phenomenon has become mainstream and no longer really newsworthy, at least certainly in outsourcing initiatives of American businesses.
What's remarkable now is a U.S. company that can compete with offshore service providers in cost, scalability and flexibility, quality, expertise, and time to market.
Enterprise software development outsourcing provider Ayoka, headquartered in Arlington, Texas, in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, has a unique model that makes its solutions scalable, cost-effective, etc., like offshore solutions. And it has the added benefit of a local presence throughout the United States."
Lessons from the Outsourcing Journal:
- Despite many success stories of companies using an offshore model for their outsourcing initiatives, there are companies that do not achieve their objectives by offshoring; and many that find "hidden" costs of managing such a relationship that they did not anticipate or underestimated.
- Cultural fit is essential in an outsourcing relationship; yet it's often very problematic and costly in the offshore model but is a benefit in the onshore model.
- In its universities, rural communities, and other locations, the United States has huge overlooked resources that can provide effective outsourcing solutions and services as well as a local onshore presence.
- Offshore application development and maintenance (ADM) works best with -- and really requires -- investment in technical management and relationship management.
- Select a software development service provider with a solid track record of dynamic conversations with its clients, pushing back and asking questions and offering alternatives to make sure the project is designed at the outset to ensure it gets the client where it wants to go.
- When customers and application development service providers together define the work correctly up front, the developers can make better decisions, which translates to lower costs because of doing the work correctly the first time.
April 2007
Dallas Business Journal
The Dallas Business Journal has recognized Ayoka as one of the Top 25 Software Developers in Dallas/Fort Worth.
Ayoka Wins Technology Advocate AwardAugust 21, 2006
Creating an Onshore Answer for Offshore Software Development
DALLAS, Aug. 21/PRNewswire/ - Ayoka LLC, the onshore alternative to offshore software development, today announced that they have been selected as the 2006 Tech Titans Technology Advocate winner by the Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC). The MTBC, the largest technology trade association in Texas, awarded Ayoka for their unique approach to keeping America competitive on both the education and technology fronts.
"The MTBC is pleased that these awards continue to be as vibrant and prestigious as our leading technology companies and the vast regional infrastructure that supports them," said Skip Moore, regional marketing managing partner for technology, media and communications, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and co-chair of the MTBC's Tech Titans steering committee.
Ayoka's founder and CEO Eknauth Persaud proudly accepted the Technology Advocate award and cited his experience in the United States Marine Corps as the source for his commitment to young people and the American economy. "The Ayoka business model creates a software development environment that instills confidence, work ethic, and creativity to graduate students in technology, while providing software development services to American entrepreneurs right here on our soil," said Mr. Persaud, "This keeps America competitive both in education and on the global technology front."
Mr. Persaud was also a Tech Titan finalist in two other categories, Tech Titan of the Future and Emerging Company CEO.
About Ayoka:
Ayoka is the onshore alternative to offshore software development. As a custom software design, development, and integration company, Ayoka specializes in providing affordable enterprise application development, e-commerce integration, and develops database backed web applications using J2EE, .NET, Ruby on Rails, Ajax, and SQL. Their University Relations™ and strong commitment to education allow them to keep outsourced software development affordable in the United States. This passion enables Ayoka to provide affordable software development services to clients in manufacturing, internet marketing, advertising, healthcare and VoIP.
About MTBC:
Founded in 1994, the Metroplex Technology Business Council is a non-profit organization with approximately 350 member companies that include technology businesses and providers from across the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. The MTBC is dedicated to fostering a supportive business environment for technology companies and members of the technology community through leadership, advocacy, education and cooperative initiatives.
Source: Ayoka LLC
Back Up
Software firm gives students a reason to stay in the States
March 1, 2006
CHERYL HALL - The Dallas Morning News
Want to get someone in academia all riled up? Bring up the hot topic of "flight capital." That's the growing phenomenon of foreign students coming to U.S. universities for advanced degrees only to return home for more rewarding careers than they can find here. Computer science and software engineering are particular vulnerable to the skilled talent exodus.
Cheaper costs in India, China and Russia have ignited software production there and siphoned jobs from American companies. [Ayoka LLC] believe[s] they've found a local answer to this global issue. To read more, Contact Us.
Media Contact: info@ayokasystems.com