OVERVIEW

Tk Open Systems (TkOS) is a privately held Israeli company founded in 1996 employing about 25 salaried employees and from three to five independent contractors in Israel and one contractor in Slovakia. TkOS provides software engineering services in Linux and associated technology infrastructure, both open source and proprietary. For new applications this typically includes processor selection, boot-chain development and kernel configuration, device drivers and proof-of-concept projects. For existing projects our services include re-engineering for standards compliance, software infrastructure upgrades, end-of-life electronic component replacements and feature enhancements. For more details about our technical competencies, please see our Technologies page or download our company datasheet.

Our pricing ranges from EU 55 to EU 80 per hour, depending on the type of skills required to do the required tasks and depending on the length of contract. We can also do fixed price or hybrid priced contracts, depending on how well the project is defined, how much existing infrastructure is available, and how well we understand the technology.

TkOS’s primary office locations are in Jerusalem (two offices) and in Yokneam, Israel.

Our timezone is GMT+2, Israel Standard Time (IST), and our normal business hours are 08:00 to 17:00.

For more information please contact Jonathan Ben-Avraham at sales@tkos.co.il, or see our Contact page.

BUSINESS MODEL

Fixed-price Projects

Fixed price contracts reduce risk for customers but come with a steep premium to cover the development risk that we assume. The risk premium is typically between 50 and 100 percent of estimated project development cost. Fixed price contracts are appropriate where the project requirements are well-defined and the technologies are mature and well-supported.

Hybrid Pricing

Hybrid-priced contracts are a mix of hourly consulting and fixed price. Typically this would include an initial, fixed number of hours of consulting with a non-binding set of deliverables, followed by a fixed-price contract with fixed deliverables. This model is appropriate where the technology is newer, or the requirements are less well-defined, but the budget must be controlled. In most cases, a hybrid contract is only possible when there is some flexibility possible in the list of final deliverables.

Hourly Consulting

Hourly contracts provide the lowest cost service option but require you to actively oversee the progress of the engineering work in order to control costs. Hourly contracts are appropriate for long-term projects with unpredictable requirements, or when the volume of work is expected to be constant over a long period. Hourly contracts are also appropriate for short-term consultations in the form of meetings, tutoring, or design discussions. Billing for hourly contracts is monthly.

On-site hourly consulting

Travel time is a major cost driver in the engineering consulting sector. We therefore offer significant price reductions for services that we can do remotely. In situations where remote work is not possible, we need to charge a travel fee.

Support Contracts

In situations where there is an expected need for technical support with a defined availability we offer fixed-priced monthly support contracts that are based on an expected average number of hour per month. These contracts are a guarantee of availability of a specific number of hours of engineering service within a specified notice period, typically within 24 hours. We cannot provide 24/7 service.

Technology Partnerships

TkOS is interested in technology partnerships with both hardware and software vendors and channel partners where the technologies involved closely match our core competencies, and present significant opportunities for revenue from end-customer support contracts. These partnerships involve an investment by TkOS in maintaining a competence in a particular technology for the purpose of providing paid support to the vendor or channel partner customer base. Technological partnerships are long-term relationships that require building and maintaining trust, but typically do not require cash investment by the vendor.

PARTNERS

TkOS partners include:

See out Partners page for more details about our activity with these partners.

CUSTOMERS

Our customer list for the past two years includes the following companies:

  • Samsung Semiconductor Israel Research and Development Center – Algorithm implementation support
  • MobilEye – Automotive – Atmel SAMA5D2 board bring-up
  • Mobility Insight – Smart Road -i.MX6 IoT edge with remote OTA upgrade
  • Ardix – Automotive – RK3288 infrared camera interface
  • Brainsway – Medical device – Full stack from GCC compiler to kernel, root filesystem, Qt application
  • QCore – Medical Device – Atmel SAMA5D2 secure boot and board bring-up
  • Rachip – Medical device – FIPS 140-2 compliant Linux OS
  • RenalSense – Medical device – STM32 bare metal C programming
  • TandemG – Military Aviation – i.MX6 camera interface with Green Hills Integrity RTOS
  • Coral Detection Systems – Safety Device – Nvidia K1 board support
  • RAD – Industrial Networking – Marvell Armada 388 SOM board bring-up with mainline Linux kernel
  • SolidRun – Marvell 8040 and Armada BSPs, i.MX8 bring-up
  • Six Degrees of Freedom – Virtual Reality – Processor selection and testing
  • Celeno – WiFi chip development – Devops
  • Frisimos – Qt and Open OPC/UA
  • Goji Food Solutions – i.MX28 BSP
  • Orbit Communications – Serial gateway for satellite ground stations