SLIDE 25 ICTC Carries Stream of Inventions to the Market
By Shary Lyssy Marshall, Times Correspondent In Print: Sunday, March 27, 2011 A new Dallas County Schools bus has cameras near the Stop-Arm to catch drivers who fail to halt. It’s part of a security system built by ICTC, based in Hernando County. Some manufacturers make a product that's all their own. Others, like ICTC, make products based on prototypes inventors bring to them. The company, with headquarters at the Hernando County Airport Business Complex, has helped dozens of firms bring new products to a mass market, including electronic security systems that keep schoolchildren safe, marine cables that can weather the elements and traffic control systems that help clear intersections for emergency vehicles. Part local, part global, ICTC specializes in cable assemblies and electric boxes for more than 50 clients in the medical, military and technology industries. Part of the company's job is advising clients on the best places to manufacture their products. With many firms operating on lean budgets and avoiding risk, putting all of those
- perations overseas doesn't always make sense, said president Sareet Majumdar.
"A lot of companies decided to draw down their inventories and couldn't place orders way into the future," he said. "They needed a better response domestically.“ Majumdar describes ICTC as a hybrid. Its headquarters and main manufacturing facility are both in Hernando, but it also has a small management team in China that facilitates production there when necessary. Of the company's 91 employees, nine work in China while the rest live and pay taxes here. Based on an increased workload, ICTC added an additional shift last summer, increasing its work force by 25. One new product line came from officials at Louisiana-based company which wanted someone to manufacture a new security system for school buses. The product includes cameras both inside and outside of buses, helping drivers monitor student behavior as well as drivers zooming past stop
- signs. ICTC was able to build the product, and schools from Rhode Island to Texas have lined up to try it. Other recent ICTC products include a specialized cable used
- n high-speed ferries. The cable has to be able to work in harsh conditions - saltwater, high temperatures and freezing temperatures. "That product will go all over the
world," said Majumdar. Another customer designed the electronics for traffic boxes, those large boxes off to the side of major intersections that allow officials to tweak traffic lights. Everything the company does depends on a steady stream of inventions and prototypes. "We are 100 percent customer focused," Majumdar said. "We don't invent anything. "If our customers don't develop or come up with cool ideas, we don't have anything to make. A lot of companies say, 'We rely on our customers to buy our product.' We rely on them to develop a product for us to manufacture.“ Manufacturing has grown in the United States during the recession. And as the economy improves, Majumdar expects business to continue to grow. “That's the nature of our business," he said. "When the economy picks up, the mothballed projects come to life. "Ideas that have been sitting on someone's desk for a while suddenly look possible."
