Mr. Jacky Shieh’s Professional Experience :
      1994-2002: worked as engineer, product commissioner and product manager in AXIOMTEK Co., Ltd, ALEXTEK International, Inc., HEISEI Technology Co., and LTD Mythology Tech. Express Inc. Mr. Jacky Shieh joined ICP DAS in March 2002, served as the Director of Marketing, and is currently the General Manager of ICP DAS Co.,Ltd Shanghai.

C&D: ICP DAS always hold the identity as “Navigator of PAC” in China; brings new products, solutions and major PAC products to different exhibitions. Could you define the goal of your company’s strategy?

Jacky :The slogan “Navigator of PAC” is not out of over-exaggeration or self-hypnosis. The ultimate goal of ICP DAS is to bring together all domestic automation product manufacturers to get highly involved in R&D and innovation. Through encouragement from these “competitors”, we aim to compete with those over-a-century-year-old manufacturers – such as Siemens, Mitsubishi, Schneider and Rockwell - that dominant the PLC market in China. In order to break this monopoly, we are trying to find our niche by enhancing PAC products with new technologies, this motivates us continuously improve on R&D and marketing in the past few years.

C& D : PAC is still a new term in this country, most users just wait and see what’s next. In your opinion, is this offers ICP DAS more opportunities than challenges?

C&D: ICP DAS set its market position of being “ the best supplier of remote I/O modules and embedded controllers in the eyes of the customers” Do you think ICP DAS is stepping closer to this goal?

Jacky : ICP DAS was founded in 1993 in Taiwan Silicon Valley - the Hsinchu Industrial Park, it is an enterprise specialized in industrial data acquisition products and sales products worldwide. The once best-selling Newton-7000 and iDAM-7000 modules were actually OEM by ICP DAS. The vision of ICP DAS is to focus on automation solutions and become the best supplier of remote I/O modules and embedded controllers. In this highly competitive global market, we insist to provide our worldwide partners with the best quality and most cost-effective products and solutions.

With extensive experiences accumulated, our products series are expanding rapidly. We provide total solutions for various industrial automation applications and offer quality after-sales services. ICP DAS Product lines include: PC-based BUS I/O Board - such as Analog Input/ Output, Digital Input/ Output, Timer/Counter & motion control card, distributed I/O modules ( I-7000, M-7000, FR-2000, ET - 6000, I-87K series products), micro programmable controller-μPAC(I-7188/7186) series, programmable automation controller- iPAC-8000 series, programmable automation controller – such as WinPAC、LinPAC series which are based on Windows CE/Linux, and Signal Conditioning Modules-SG-3000 series, etc.

Especially the leading product ICP DAS launched in 2003: WinPAC series – the embedded controller based on Windows CE.net and RISC CPU; as soon as it was introduced into the market, it had won praises from domestic experts in all industries. And this product was also selected by leading institutions such as Zhejiang University and East China University of Science and Technology as the test platform for related automation professional subjects. In 2004, ICP DAS introduced more innovative technologies and new products into the market, including: Linux-based embedded control systems - LinPAC series, advanced XScale embedded motherboards, instant/Synchronous field bus remote control/monitor FRnet, and CAN bus, etc.

In short, ICP DAS is moving pragmatically and firmly toward its objectives.

C&D: ICP DAS is good at providing its users with integrated solutions, especially for business users. In your opinion, what is the biggest benefit of this for them? Can your company take care of application issues that business users most concerned?

C&D: “Better-Than-Best Products & Quality Services” is what you claimed. In 2007, will ICP DAS continue to release new products? Will you keep on providing best- effort services?

Jacky : Speak of new product planning, the R&D of ICP DAS is definitely ahead of this industry. Currently our best selling product lines are still based on RS-485 BUS remote modules I-7000 series and PC BUS board cards. Of course, in recent years, benefited from widely acceptance of PAC products by general users, of the ICP DAS PAC product including μPAC series, iPAC-8000 series, WinPAC and LinPAC series already get substantial gains. In 2007, we will play to our strengths and keep on introducing various BUS remote I/O modules into the market, including PLC-structure-like, remote and real time FRnet BUS FR- 2000 series, CAN BUS remote I/O and related protocol converters, Ethernet ET-6000 series, etc. During the second half of this year, we are expecting a highly desirable product - hot-pluggable I-87P remote I/O Unit. Furthermore, in order to enter the machinery manufacturing industry, we will launch motion control and machine vision products, hopefully, we will satisfy clients’ “One-Stop-Shop” demand in the near future.

When it comes to “Quality Services”, even though ICP DAS has long been considered as a company focus on R&D, the main function of ICP DAS Mainland China branch lies in services. This covers aspects including trade, technical support, maintenance, and training, etc. We are pursuing “distribution system” in China market, that is, we only provide logistics services to our distributers. Our goal is to achieve "smooth flow of goods". This year the number of our distributers has reached more than 30. Due to our strict policy toward pathway management – for the purpose to make our partners more money – so far, we already got pretty good results.

As for the rest, I’d like to borrow what the ancient China Master Han Yu said in his famous essay “On the Teacher” to describe our other jobs: “A teacher is the one who could propagate the doctrine, impart professional knowledge, and resolve doubts.” “Propagate the doctrine” is the job of marketing; in the past three years, we have invested millions dollars to build up brand recognition of ICP DAS in Mainland China. It is gratifying to say, in the past two years, we already successfully shaped the image of being “Navigator of PAC” in China. This year, we will spare no effort, continue to participate or organize various exhibitions and seminars, we are sure the results will be reflected on distributers’ sales performance.

“Impart professional knowledge” is the job of training; we didn’t pay too much attention on this part in the past. However, from this year, we want to grow with our distributers and partners, in addition to the internal personnel training and trainings on product knowledge, we will run courses on sales techniques, negotiation skills, social skills and related management knowledge.

“Resolve doubts” is the job of technical support; this is also the main reason behind the sharp increase of ICP DAS products sales in recent years. Due to the nature of ICP DAS products and also because our technical services covering all customers - not just the distributers, the technical support team in China is up to about 20 people. Furthermore, we have implemented electronic delivery of services - we set up a Technical Forum on our Web site www.icpdas.com.cn - a path that customers can get satisfactory answers no mater when and where they need help.

C&D:The personality of the business leaders often reflect the character of the enterprise, as the CEO of ICP DAS China, what kind of character you grant ICP DAS China?

Jacky :To talk about this issue, we should talk a little bit about so-called "corporate culture", now in ICP DAS China, we have about 60 employees, located in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Kunming, Qingdao and Jinan. Honestly speaking, in comparison with product technologies and marketing, tasks in management is more challenging for me. We must keep smooth communication and coordination; our ultimate goal is to provide a stable environment, encourage every employee in ICP DAS China to live up to his/her full potential. I expect our staff in ICP DAS China commit to follow “team spirit” instead of individual heroism – this is an idea derived from our General Manager – Robert Chen. We hope they could “work happy”; maintain their best physical and mental condition to take a more long-term way. We also expect them to “work smart”, do not waste time and energy, but to keep their edge and to be efficient. Facing the wave of globalization, in the future, China must keep in line with international practices, I would suggest these “leaders of tomorrow” to cultivate international outlook, master at least one second foreign language, prepare themselves ready for challenges in the future.

C&D: You have been working in Mainland China for quite a long time, from your perspective, what are the greatest strengths and weaknesses of your staff?

Jacky : It has been more than a decade since1996 when I first came to the Mainland China, from a technical engineer, product Commissioner to management jobs that I am doing today, I met quite a few talent people. I think the best part of our employees is the full energy and enthusiasm that they have, they are with the spirit of “New-born calves don’t fear wolves.”, and ready to face challenges. Especially those young men, who left their home with dreams to come to join us, I really admire them from deep of my heart; they could be “rising stars” in the future. However, due to the nature of Chinese culture system, which is an inevitable influence factor, the concept of “team-work” is still weak here, the conflicts between each other might cause unnecessary loss or damage to the enterprise. For now this is the issue I’d like to specially address. I hope in the near future, our new “profit share” approach - a concept raised by our General Manager Mr. Robert Chen - would successfully encourage our staff and achieve better operation performance.

(contents and pictures from “Controls & Drives”)