Pivot International Acquires Avatar Engineering, Based in Lenexa, Kansas

PIVOT INTERNATIONAL ACQUIRES AVATAR ENGINEERING, BASED IN LENEXA, KANSAS. THE ACQUISITION WILL COMPLEMENT PIVOT’S CORE ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING EXPERTISE AND WILL EXPAND ITS CAPABILITIES AND RESOURCES. THE ACQUISITION IS PIVOT’S THIRD IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS CONTINUING ITS SUBSTANTIAL GROWTH TRAJECTORY SINCE 2012.

Pivot International, with global headquarters in Lenexa and offices in Europe and Asia, announces that it has acquired Avatar Engineering an expert in technology design and manufacturing based in Lenexa. Avatar Engineering will expand Pivot’s competencies with hardware, software and mechanical packaging solutions for OEMs in a variety of industries including agricultural, industrial, transportation and scientific instruments markets. This is the third acquisition for Pivot since the beginning of 2016; in January 2016, the company announced the purchase of Mid-Continent Custom Electronics (MCCE) followed by the acquisition of DigitTron in March 2016.

Jack Ward, CEO of Avatar Engineering states that he is “proud of the company that he has built over the last 18 years and confident that Mark Dohnalek and his executive team at Pivot will continue Avatar’s legacy of innovation, outstanding quality, reliability and cost management”. Jack expresses his gratitude to the associates who built the company with him exhibiting the highest professional standard in all they do. “Because of them Avatar became the company it is today and is now poised for its next phase of growth and continued exceptional client service under Mark Dohnalek’s leadership as a Pivot International company.

Mark Dohnalek, President and Chief Executive Officer says “We are making this strategic acquisition to expand our technological engineering and manufacturing capabilities in the U.S., specifically in the Kansas City area, while also growing our resources in Asia and the UK to serve European customers.” “The acquisition of Avatar Engineering supports the fast-pace growth for embedded electronics such as circuit boards, box-builds, software and hardware for many growth industries. The additional resources and expertise will provide Pivot’s customers with highest quality, rapid-design and manufacturing and very cost-efficient production and processes. “We will be able to design and engineer, build prototypes, short-run and full-run production locally.” As the global economy evolves, Pivot is poised to design, source and manufacture products in many countries, including the U.S. efficiently and effectively.

Concurrent with the acquisition of Avatar, Pivot International continues to build its portfolio of brands, talent and resources adding staff in London, UK to support the European market, an office in Hong Kong to support the Asian market, expanding his US national sales force, as well as building company-owned manufacturing plants in the US and Asia. Pivot’s company-owned global resources provide a unique ability to engage the world’s top talent to develop and engineer product and the world’s most efficient and effective manufacturer for any product format.

Pivot has a 45-year track record of outstanding performance, innovation, quality and design, engineering and manufacturing as a single-source expert serving clients in a broad range of industries including biometric/security products, wearable technology, touchscreen technology, medical, wireless, fitness, electronic components and consumer products. Avatar Engineering, Mid-Continent Custom Electronics (MCCE) and DigitTron Technologies are expansions of the company’s current services and will provide additional expertise in the electronic & mechanical design and manufacturing capabilities in the Kansas City area.

“Mark Dohnalek, CEO affirms, “I am committed to generating jobs, products and revenue in the US, especially in the Kansas City area. I am equally committed to ensuring that Pivot has the global capabilities to manufacture in the US and Asia so that we can deliver the most efficient solution for our clients all over the globe. While many debate the merits of nationalism versus globalism, I pragmatically understand the need for both in our growth strategy.” Pivot views every opportunity as global while leveraging capabilities from all over the world to bring the product to life. Pivot is committed to growing its local business as well as contributing to economies in Asia and Europe where they do business.

Pivot Heads to ISC West 2017

This week, we’re writing from the International Security Conference and Exposition, or ISC West, in sunny Las Vegas.

ISC West is one of the best conferences of the year for security industry professionals, featuring new security products and technologies from a huge range of brands. It’s always exciting going to events like this, as we get to network with other companies working on amazing products.

We’re set up in the main ISC West Exhibition Hall, booth 33068, where we’ve really enjoyed talking with attendees about the latest security products.

We’ve created several security products over the past several years – an iris recognition system, an ID management mobile computer, and more – and are currently engaging in several different security product categories:

Access Control

• Cards/Card Access/Card Readers
• Facial Recognition
• Finger Print
• Iris Recognition

Alarms

• Controls/Control Panels/Control Communicators

Detection Controls/Devices

• Control Panels

Home Automation

• All

Monitoring Equipment/Systems/Services

• Other

Sensors

• Contacts/Switches

Video Management Software

• Video Management Software

There’s plenty to see at this year’s conference. There’s the Unmanned Security Expo, showcasing products like unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned ground robotics and vehicles, and the technologies needed to develop and use them.

Another side expo is the Connected Security Expo, which is showcasing products that combine physical and cybersecurity measures to protect organizations and personal homes.

We’ll be at ISC West through the exposition’s closing on April 7, so stop by and say hi! And if you have a security product – or any other kind of product – that Pivot can help you develop, contact us for a free consultation.

Pivot International Expands Engineering and Project Management Departments

At Pivot, we love helping independent inventors, small businesses, and large companies create their products and grow their product-based businesses.

That’s what we’ve been doing for the past 45 years, since we were founded in 1972. Throughout those decades, we’ve opened a manufacturing facility in the Philippines, expanded into global sourcing with our Taiwan procurement office, and have grown our European clientele with a dedicated UK division.

In fact, in 2015 we were named to Inc. magazine’s list of the Top 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies. We actually made the Inc magazine top 500.

These measures have allowed us to offer our clients the fastest, most comprehensive service possible while maintaining the highest quality.

Now, we’re expanding once again.

As demand has grown for our engineering and project management services, we’ve decided to add to those teams. To accommodate everyone, we’ve decided to renovate some of our warehouse space at our headquarters in Kansas City Lenexa, Kansas into office space.

We’ll be growing these departments throughout the next 2 to 3 years, ultimately increasing our corporate office staff by about 30 percent.

If you find yourselfin need of product design, product development, manufacturing, or business development services, contact us! We’d love to discuss your idea during a free consultation.

6 Reasons Why We’re Excited to Attend This Year’s MD&M West Conference

Once again, we at Pivot International will be attending the MD&M West Conference. In case you haven’t heard of it, it’s the largest medical technology conference in the world, held each year in Anaheim, California.

Going to conferences like this is a perk of being in the product development industry. It’s always fun to see some of the latest and greatest product ideas in one place, making connections with people who have incredible visions for new products of all kinds.

At MD&M West, we get to mingle with more than 20,000 engineers, business leaders, and product designers who work in the medical technology industry. And that’s just the beginning. Here are just a few of the reasons we’re excited to attend this year’s MD&M West conference.

1. Mythbusters‘ Jamie Hyneman is giving the keynote speech.

Science geeks everywhere know Jamie Hyneman from the Discovery channel show Mythbusters, on which he and co-host Adam Savage busted various myths by actually testing them scientifically. The fact that he’s speaking at MD&M West this year is definitely cause for excitement.

2. Smart manufacturing is a big part of the conference this year.

Manufacturing is undergoing serious, transformative changes right now. Robots are giving way to cobots, or robots that can work collaboratively with humans. 3D printing is entering the medical technology world in a big way. More and more devices are being connected directly to the internet, allowing for easier access to more data than ever before.

MD&M is offering a Smart Manufacturing Innovations Summit this year that will exhibit robots and cobots, plus offer lectures and discussions on topics related to the future of manufacturing.

3. The demos.

One of the best parts of any tech-related conference is the demos. Just ask anyone who tried out a virtual reality demo at this year’s CES in Las Vegas.

While there won’t be any virtual reality streetscapes to roam at MD&M West, there will be plenty of cool demos for things like cyclic block copolymer. It may not sound that interesting to you if you’ve never built a medical device before, but trust us – it is.

4. The talks.

MD&M also offers an incredible range of lectures, panels, and discussions on topics from product design to the industrial IoT, and AI to engineering to change the world.

We usually come away from these talks with all kinds of new ideas for ways to innovate, and get better and more efficient at what we do. It’s an incredible chance to hear about the amazing things that other medtech companies are doing.

5. The networking.

One of the most important reasons to go to any conference is, of course, the networking. It’s interesting – as our workaday lives become more and more digitized, face-to-face meetings seem to become ever more significant.

Most, if not all, of your average business partnership today can be conducted entirely through digital tools. While this is great in many ways, a digital relationship can never provide quite the same connection as an in-person one. There’s nothing like face-to-face networking to help cultivate your next game-changing partnership.

6. The ability to tour the massive Expo Hall directed by theme.

The Anaheim Convention Center is absolutely massive, and so is the number of exhibitors that will be set up on the expo floor. That’s why MD&M’s Innovations Tours can come in handy.

Tour leaders take groups around to visit exhibitors that are all focused on a specific topic, like packaging, robotics, or plastics. It sure beats wandering the hall on your own, trying to find number 4002 in an endless sea of booths.

Medtech is a big part of Pivot’s portfolio, which is why MD&M always makes up an important part of our conference schedule. Learn more about the medical devices we’ve created here.

Pivot International Makes Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing U.S. Companies

At Pivot, we help product developers and inventors make better products because we love doing it. However, we have to admit that a little recognition is always nice.

This August, when Inc. magazine released its list of the top 5,000 fastest-growing privately held U.S. companies, we were proud to see our own names on the list. In fact, not only did we make the top 5,000 – we made the top 500. At number 478, we had the highest spot of the 42 Kansas City metropolitan area companies that made the Inc. 5000, as the Kansas City Business Journal reported. We’re also number 7 on the list’s top Engineering companies.

The rankings are based on three-year revenue growth, and ours has grown 798% – a number that sometimes takes even us by surprise. So how have we done it?

To start, we have a dedicated team of product designers, engineers, software developers, and project managers who come to work every day with the goal of helping our clients make successful products. Without these professionals, Pivot wouldn’t exist.

But assisting with product development isn’t all we do. Because we recognize the value of being a single-source product development, engineering, and manufacturing company, over the years we’ve made sure that we can handle every step of the product life cycle.

For one thing, we’ve developed and maintained partnerships with global manufacturers. As our world economy has grown more complex, and globalism has accelerated, we’ve found that our clients appreciate having an experienced partner like Pivot to manage their manufacturing needs. Our factories can handle everything from small prototype runs to large volume orders, and are certified to meet many different regulations.

And because things don’t suddenly get easy once you’ve placed your order with a manufacturing company, we help our clients with the things that come afterward, too. Business development, supply chain management, regulatory compliance, and business data management are all services that have become increasingly popular with our clients.

That’s what being a single-source firm is all about: providing our clients with great end-to-end service that helps them bring their products to fruition, get them into the market, and continue improving them as time goes on.

If you’d like to learn more about any of these topics, take a look through our e-book library.

Pivot Announces Acquisition of 2 Local Engineering and Manufacturing Companies

At Pivot, we’re always looking for ways to improve our wide array of capabilities, from product design to manufacturing and business development.

To that end, we’ve recently acquired two companies that will help us enhance our local resources for electronics engineering and manufacturing: the Shawnee, Kan.-based DigitTron and the Kansas City, Mo.-based Mid-Continent Custom Electronics (MCC Electronics).

DigitTron is a custom electronics manufacturer that specializes in circuit boards and touchscreen technology, two capabilities for which Pivot has continued to see growing demand. In addition, DigitTron’s facilities will allow us to build more prototypes, as well as offer short-run and full-run production at a local facility.

Acquiring DigitTron, which has 17 employees and a 14,000 square-foot manufacturing facility, will allow Pivot to continue to meet those demands in the most cost-efficient, quickest manner possible. We actually foresee the need to add more jobs at DigitTron, which will benefit both our clients and the local economy.

MCC Electronics, which we acquired in January of this year, designs and manufactures electronic products for a variety of industries – gaming, telecommunications, medical, agriculture, automotive, construction, and more.

Adding MCC’s excellent electronics and software engineering and manufacturing capabilities to our own will further improve Pivot’s abilities to serve our growing number of clients more quickly and efficiently.

While we remain committed to enhancing our global manufacturing assets in Asia and Europe, we’re also glad to be expanding our facilities here at home. That means not just in the U.S., but in our own locality (Pivot is based on Lenexa, Kan.). This is a move that we think is in line with the future of manufacturing, which will almost certainly move toward an increase in more localized solutions.

As our CEO, Mark Dohnalek, has said in a press release about the acquisitions, “I am committed to generating jobs, products, and revenue in the U.S.” We love our community and our country, and are thrilled that we can be a part of helping our economy grow while still providing our clients around the world with the global facilities that they need.

If you’d like to learn more about how Pivot can help you design, prototype, or manufacture your product, schedule a free consultation with us.

Pivot Proudly Sponsors Make48 Competition

At Pivot, we love to see people taking a shot at making something new or improving on an old idea. That’s what keeps technology moving forward—the people constantly looking to innovate and design new products. And that’s why we’re so happy to be a sponsor for the Make48 Competition.

For those of you who don’t know, the Make48 Competition is an invention challenge where teams apply and compete to develop a new commercial product idea in a 48-hour invent-a-thon weekend. Teams have 48 hours to plan, prototype, and pitch a new idea within the specifications of a challenge, revealed at the start of the 48 hours.

The teams use a variety of tools and materials and get expert guidance from a resource-rich fabrication workshop. At the end of 48 hours, the teams have to present their ideas to a panel of experts in product development, scouting, and sales. The top three teams are awarded prizes that include a crowdfunding campaign and licensing consideration.

While only the top three teams will get those prizes, the experience itself is plenty rewarding for the teams. Of course there is the exposure—showcasing their talents and ideas to top brands, investors, and industry experts—but it’s also a great time to learn about the tools and materials that go into prototyping your own idea. Teams get to see and experience hands-on prototyping techniques with the latest tools, such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and molding/forming machines.

And even if teams don’t take one of the top three spots, there are tons of giveaways like books, tools, and t-shirts — along with a few surprises for lucky teams.

To enter, you must have a team of 2-4 members with a captain over the age of 18. Send a 1-2 minute video of you and your team, and if you’re selected you’ll receive a packet with guidelines and a schedule.

We’re excited to see what all of these teams can come up with at the Make48 Competition. Even if your team isn’t selected, don’t give up! Keep coming up with ideas and working on your passion. And if you need a little help, contact us to get a free consultation. We specialize in helping inventors bring their ideas to life and their products to market. Check out our testimonials and you’ll see that we excel at turning ideas into reality.

Building a Successful Business with Pivot International

Not every great idea automatically becomes a success. Some inventors get frustrated by this and forget about turning their idea into reality. But others turn to Pivot and our strategic planning, and create the business they’ve always dreamed of. We provide the benefits of a strategic partner in product development, cost reductions, and contract manufacturing, helping entrepreneurs turn an excellent idea into a thriving business, and equipping them with the knowledge and tools they need to become industry leaders.

Having a clear and coherent strategy in place is key to building a successful business from your idea. It allows you to enhance your efficiency and ensures that stakeholders know where to focus and why. Think of it as a map that helps you understand where to take the business and how to get there. While building a strategic plan, ask yourself some of these questions:

• What kind of business are we running?
• How do we offer value to our customers?
• What markets do we operate in?
• What differentiates our business from our competitors’ businesses in the eyes of our consumers?

Once you have a product idea, you need to do sufficient market research to make sure there is a market for your product, as well as identify the characteristics of the market and target consumer. This can be incredibly expensive if not done properly, so you should get help from experts who can streamline the process and help you:

• Identify target consumers
• Examine current market conditions
• Conduct consumer interviews and surveys
• Analyze competitor products
• Calculate an anticipated return on investment

All of these can be difficult on your own, but with Pivot, you have our marketing research experts at your disposal, and they can help ascertain an anticipated ROI, as well as figure out how you can cut down on start-up funds.

Pivot can also help you with another crucial part of your business—your website. Your website will often be the first impression a customer has of your business. Our website consulting services can help entrepreneurs design a website that coalesces with their marketing and business strategies. Once you’ve found the right balance between functionality and design, you also need to develop coherent and compelling content to convey a clear message and story about your product.

Even if you successfully develop a strategy, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to successfully implement it without the right tools, knowledge, or resources. No matter how excellent a business strategy, if it isn’t properly implemented, it isn’t going to serve your business. So once you have your plan in place, Pivot can help you implement it. We help you:

• Align initiatives and resourse allotment with strategy
• Design a structure that reflects strategy
• Engage staff
• Monitor progress and adapt accordingly

It’s not easy turning a great idea into a successful business, but when you work with Pivot, you have a range of different business development services at your disposal. At Pivot, it’s more than just product development. It’s about turning a vision into reality.

Pivot Heads to ISC West, the U.S.’s Largest Security Industry Trade Show

This week, we at Pivot are heading West – to Las Vegas, to be exact, for the ISC West physical security trade show.

We love going to events like this (back in February, we attended the Medical Design and Manufacturing West Conference), as they’re a great way to get ideas for products, network with other talented designers and technologists, and see what’s new and exciting in the product development world.

For this show, we’ll be 1 of 900 other companies presenting at ISC’s security exhibitions from Wed. April 6 through Fri. April 8 at Las Vegas’s Sands Expo Center. We’ll be showcasing our expertise in software development as well as electrical, mechanical, and industrial design engineering.

Pivot’s security products

At Pivot, we work on products in all types of areas, from consumer to outdoor to medical – but we’ve also worked on certain security products.

We provided manufacturing services for a rugged mobile computer for ID management, which includes a full set of features to handle any ID management, enrollment, or badging requirements in the field:

• A QWERTY keyboard
• Contact card
• Contactless card
• Barcode
• Optical fingerprint
• Optional magnetic swipe and MRZ readers

Another device we worked on was a handheld iris recognition device for use in the field. We were contacted about this device by a research and design firm that needed help refining their prototype into a low-cost, manufacturable product.

Pivot’s engineers worked with the client’s designers to take the product from the lab to the marketplace, and we integrated their technology with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and custom parts. Thanks to our expansive manufacturing resources, we were able to bring the security product to market within four months.

This, combined with the low cost design, helped the client establish a substantial market advantage.

Some of the device’s key features include:

• The ability to perform standoff identification over 18 inches away
• Ambidextrous, one-handed use
• Identification of subject in less than one second
• Interoperability with all leading iris-matching algorithms
• User enrollment into database
• Lower cost than similar devices on the market

Taking in what’s next in physical security

We look forward to seeing what our colleagues are working on in the security industry – with the amazing technological advancements we’ve seen just in the past few years, it’s one of the most exciting industries to follow. You can be sure we’ll come back with plenty of new ideas to pursue.

Pivot’s Going to the Medical Design and Manufacturing West Conference

This month, we at Pivot will be attending the Medical Design and Manufacturing West conference in Anaheim, Calif.

While non-designers probably don’t find much to get excited about in that title, those of us who work in product design and engineering – like you, most likely, if you’re reading this! – are already looking forward to this chance to see some of the amazing medtech innovations that have been developed over the past few years.

That includes everything from 3D printed molds for medical tools, to a miniscule antenna for intraocular implants to treat people with glaucoma.

Medtech is one of the most exciting fields for innovators to be working in today – at least, if you ask us. We’ve worked on several medical products over the years, and we always enjoy collaborating with the designers and companies that are working to improve people’s lives through safer, smarter medical products.

In that spirit, here’s our take on three incredible medtech innovations of the past few years.

Migraine blocker – the ATI Neurostimulation System

Anyone who suffers from migraines or cluster headaches knows how utterly debilitating they can be. While there’s no cure for these kinds of headaches, one company called Autonomic Technologies is developing and testing a neurostimulation implant that is embedded permanently in a patient’s cheek. The device is positioned at a specific nerve bundle, the SPG nerve bundle, which has long been associated with the worst types of headaches.

At the onset of a headache, the patient uses a remote control to turn on the neurostimulator, which stimulates the SPG nerve bundle and can relieve the patient’s pain. The therapy is completely patient-controlled and can be done anywhere, at any time.

Needle-free glucose monitoring

Diabetics often have to prick their fingers up to six or eight times a day to test their blood sugar – which is not only painful, but inconvenient, to boot.

Now, however, there are ways that diabetics can safely monitor their glucose without having to draw blood. According to Popular Science, a team at the University of California San Diego has invented a stick-on tattoo that, using electrodes, creates a current that draws glucose molecules up toward the skin. Glucose is carried by positively-charged sodium ions, and the device tests the strength of that positive charge to determine glucose levels.

Tests on non-diabetic people have been successful, and the researchers believe the tattoos could be available to diabetics for just a few cents each.

Another method of non-invasive testing is the GlucoTrack, a monitor that uses an earlobe clip-on to determine blood glucose levels. The GlucoTrack is expected to go into clinical trials this year.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine, or connecting patients to doctors via telecommunication technology, has been in use for a while now, especially in rural areas that are underserved by hospitals and specialists. In these cases, patients in small clinics or, sometimes, children in rural schools, are connected with the doctors they need via videoconference.

Now that’s being taken even farther. Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, for example, has started a telemedicine program for their young patients who receive organ transplants. Recovery time after a transplant operation is lengthy, and until now, usually required a long hospital stay. That’s hard on the child, who often falls behind in school and isn’t able to see her friends, as well as the child’s family.

At Children’s Medical Center, however, patients are being allowed to recuperate at home instead. After a transplant, children are sent home with a tablet, a blood pressure cuff, a weight scale, and a pulse oximeter. They or their parents then send the data they collect with those tools to the hospital via the tablet.

Future applications could even include robotic surgery conducted by surgeons who are across the country or across an ocean.

With these sorts of advances already being made, we look forward to seeing what’s next at MDM West, and connecting with other designers, developers, researchers, and engineers. And if you have a medical device you need some help developing, let us know! Schedule a free consultation with Pivot here.