FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

EnCata works with both fixed term and agile contracts.

EnCata employs around 30 engineers with Master's and PhD degrees in electrical and industrial design, mechanical engineering, prototyping and manufacturing from European universities. Each employee is an expert in his or her field. 

The majority of specialists are of middle or senior levels. Their range of influence is broad enough to encompass the entire new product lifecycle. Our specialists resolve legal and certification difficulties during the concept stage, optimize production costs during the 3D model development process and create necessary documentation for firmware support. 

Juniors make up only 15% of the team. They constantly upgrade their qualifications under the supervision of seniors.

EnCata is always willing to work with its client. We have everything we need to create a collaborative site. Both parties can work on the project simultaneously. The Customer, for instance, and his/ her team designs the electronics while we work on the enclosure. 

When teams work together to achieve a fantastic result, it is always a win scenario.

EnCata’s team is always willing to discuss all the necessary details about the project proposed. Our full-fledged team of professionals will interrogate you until both parties are satisfied with the procedures necessary to complete the job.

It certainly can. For any product, EnCata creates a design documentation package and a process documentation package that is suited to the production. It should be noted, however, that the technologists at the customer's chosen plant may make changes or impose their own requirements on the documentation design. EnCata, in turn, makes it easier for the client and the technologist to communicate.

EnCata does not mass produce, although it can undertake small-scale production at the request of customers.

When working with our clients we sign a contract where all the intellectual property to be generated during the R&D and engineering development belongs to the customer.

Yes. As a highly professional design and engineering firm, we make sure that all discussions with our clients and all information regarding your invention, idea and other proprietary information are kept confidential.

Aside from being a reputable company which does not steal ideas, EnCata's entire business model is based on delivering premium R&D, design and industrial prototyping services to our clients. As soon as we stole one client’s idea, our entire business would be ruined. Also, as we are not contract manufacturers (OEM or ODM), we wouldn’t be able to benefit from a stolen idea even if we wanted to.  This is definitely not a worry for our clients.

We follow a LEAN approach in product and business development and thus we strongly recommend patent filings only after you are  at least part-way through development. This is because patenting is expensive and early patents can already become obsolete or irrelevant later in the development phase. Typically, EnCata's work generates many patentable opportunities for our clients  and the best strategy is to file patents at TRL-7, i.e. when early beta prototype is ready and when a startup is ready to start batch production and marketing.

There is, however, another strategy, which is to use provisional patents which can be loose and are not to be disclosed to the public for 18 months. These are much less expensive and time consuming, generally costing below $500. EnCata will always sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement and keep your intellectual property confidential during the development phase and then we can recommend several third-party patent attorneys when the time is right.

Although having a technical background is generally advantageous, it is not required. EnCata worked on projects where we were solely responsible for all technical solutions, with the customer delivering the development process.

We value any technological experience the Customer has, yet it is not obligatory.

1. Once you have approached us with the project, we conclude the NDA and send the information to the Sales Manager for further evaluation and project planning. 
2. The Sales Manager or Sales Engineer will contact you to clarify your goals, requirements and tasks to accomplish. This process is very close to business analysis. When the details are agreed with you, a cost estimate and a quotation are prepared.
3. If you accept the quotation, we will prepare a Technical design specification to document scope of work and requirements and conclude an agreement.
‍4. After we've signed the agreements, we'll assign you a Project Manager who will gather a project team and report on the project progress.

EnCata employs 12 mechanical and industrial designers and 10 electrical engineers with experience in hardware and firmware. Our team consists of middle and senior level engineers, who have 5+ years of field expertise and have already completed more than 300 projects.

Our in-house professionals handle almost all electronics work, including interface design, protocol development, communication design, schematic design, PCB Design, Firmware design and battery management. If the Customer requires a service that Encata does not supply, we have partners that can meet that need.

We certainly do. EnCata employs electronics specialists who deal with low-level firmware. We also have experts on staff who can implement high-level software code.

EnCata is an engineering company with its own in-house capabilities for prototyping devices under development. We are primarily focused on new product development, but we can also do small-scale batch production upon customer request. Mass production necessitates a set of equipment and tools tailored to a certain product or its component. This set aims at lowering costs and increasing efficiency. 

EnCata can assist in the search for the right Contractor and the production of the device in series, if mass production is require.