About Metrosol

If you want to develop an electronic product but do not have sufficient resources internally or have technical challenges that are outside your experience, then Metrosol may be able to help. Our speciality is the development of precision instruments for metrology applications, but we have been involved in a wide range of projects from high precision (sub ppm) resistance bridges for temperature metrology to infra-red gas sensors and IT products. Project sizes vary from the very small (a half day consultancy advising a client on how to reduce the internally generated electronic noise in their system) to six-figure projects lasting several years (full project management of a new precision instrument based on technology developed in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory).

We do carry out projects on a normal consultancy basis (generally fixed price against defined deliverables). However, our preferred arrangements is to work more closely with our customers on a “shared risk – shared reward” basis by carrying out the development at cost (fixed price) and then receiving a royalty on each product sold. This gives our clients the lowest development cost, but more importantly it means that our objectives are completely aligned with those of our clients; to get the product to market quickly and for it to be as commercially successful as possible… after all, we only make profit when our customers do so by selling the product. Traditional consultancy arrangements work either on a daily rate basis or a fixed price for the project. The former arrangement means that the client takes all the risk including the consultant’s ability to deliver the product to specification, on-time and to budget. The latter arrangement means that once the contract is placed, the consultant is financially motivated to do the minimum required to achieve the deliverables, since every penny spent on time or materials reduces their bottom line. Our “shared risk –shared reward” model means that we are rewarded on the commercial success of the product and will therefore seek innovative solutions that maximise the commercial potential of the product rather than simply aiming at achieving the agreed deliverables. We, like our clients, are interested in the whole life commercial success of the product.

Paul Bramley
Technical Director