Steve DeCollibus, Managing Editor, Circuitnet

How do you go about creating a successful business in a highly competitive world?

When John Yacoub joined Advanced Circuits in 1996 they were looking for a niche and direction that would create success for them in the printed circuit board quick-turn prototyping market. An early move that he made was to begin to look at prototyping in a different way. Up till then it was a process that hopefully led to a larger order, as a result a lot of the quick turn small orders were either slipping by the competition or being done by customers in house.

Advanced Circuits vision was to take this work and support and service the customer as if the order was going to lead to larger ones. To service them in a way that exceeded their expectations and to focus on making it easy for customers to upload their complete design files to an exclusive web based program called FreeDFM.com.

John Yacoub, President of Advanced Circuits

FreeDFM.com is more than a design rules check, it checks PCB design files for issues that affect manufacturability and sends customers a detailed free graphical report within minutes. This eliminates as many problems as possible before moving the design into a manufacturing environment. As the company was developing this focus, there were a number of individuals at Advanced Circuits who saw the promise and capability of the Internet as a tool that could help customers get to what they wanted quickly an efficiently. This led them to launch what was then the first interactive site in the PCB industry that automated an instant online quoting and ordering process.

Becoming leaders in the small quantity, quick turn prototyping space did not happen overnight. Once the leadership decision was made to focus on this niche management needed to support and promote the concept, both inside the company and to the marketplace at large.

In 1996 noone knew the industry was about to undergo a tectonic shift in direction and cost and off shoring were about to hit the western electronics industry with a devastating effect. By deciding to focus on what was then an un-served market in 1996, Advanced Circuits had without knowing it, set themselves up to take advantage of the market shift and prepare to help companies maximize the development of printed circuit boards before shipping them off shore to be manufactured.

“Advanced Circuits was able to put a lot of focus and automation into the process,” Mr. Yacoub recently told us. He went on to say “We wanted to use the strength and future we saw in the Internet to create services that exceeded our customer’s expectations. By perfecting the online ordering process, that allowed customers to manage the process completely, that is when we introduced our FreeDFM web based program that can be used anywhere, anytime.

Later on in 2007, Advanced Circuits introduced “PCB Artist,” their FREE PCB Layout Software. The free package is an easy-to-use and intuitive printed circuit board layout software and is the most comprehensive, free layout software available for manufacturers, designers and engineers in the PCB industry.

“We made prototyping easy enough and cheap enough so that you can afford to make multiple runs at a design.” As far as complexity goes, we are making up to 10 layer prototypes and customers range from students and hobbyists to very experienced designers who are designing complex boards.”

A unique focus that the company has, and one that many other firms might learn from, is Advanced Circuit’s focus on Electronic Engineering students and curriculum development and the way they incorporate their services at the university level. Currently 51 of the top engineering schools plus many others use Advanced Circuits as part of their ongoing curriculum using their FreeDFM service, and free layout software. The students create board designs for their competitions and class projects, and then Advanced Circuits will sponsor the boards.

FreeDFM.com and PCB Artist are used in various Universities in their curriculum to design and check their designs. By working closely with the professors and teachers they are building for the future of the industry and their business. This is a great way to support and grow new talent while also building a pool of new customers who will utilize the service after they have graduated from college.

Is it any wonder than that the company processes over 350 unique jobs a day, and is adding 300 new customers a month? As John Yacoub says,” At some point you decide that you and your company will succeed, you hire a lot of good people who do good things focusing the companies’ vision of building good products and you create a good business with loyal customers.”