RAFA Solutions’ CEO Rafayel Ghasabyan shared the story of RAFA Solutions with Why Armenia journalist.
RAFA Solutions is a systems integrator company specializing in Smart Machines and data acquisition/control systems. Established in 2012, the company is a National Instruments Silver Alliance Partner. To find out more, we talked to Rafayel Ghasabyan, CEO/Founder of RAFA Solutions.
WA: What is the history behind your company and how is it growing today?
I used to work as a systems engineer for the Armenian branch of National Instruments and I used to travel to various customers to deliver proof of concepts. National Instruments is a technology company and my responsibilities focused on building solution based on that technology, proving that a solution worked and to find partners for particular projects.
In 2011, I understood that there were projects for which it was difficult to find partners. I got an idea that maybe I could do that myself, so I started my own company and received the first project through the network of National Instruments.
In 2014, we took a strategic approach to expand our clientele and redefined ourselves as a machinery company. We build the electronics and software for material testing machines, our clients are the actual machine builders who rely on our technology.
WA: What services do you provide?
We do systems integration. System integrating companies combine different technologies, add their own knowledge, IT software or hardware, and deliver the whole system as one, as a Solution. We provide Robust and Flexible Advanced Solutions for machinery control and automation.
In 2014, we launched our educational labs product line. Our educational products are available for purchase through our distribution network and have been delivered to dozens of universities all over the world.
We help our customers to learn, create, and grow through machinery and advanced engineering. There are three major directions in the industrial field that we are doing.
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Material testing: the implementation of automation solutions for machines that are testing the properties of various materials, such as plastics, metals, etc.
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Non-destructive testing solutions, which are mostly designed for such testing where you do not need to disturb the structure of the material.
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The automotive component test and hardware in the loop testing.
To prove to our customers that we are the best partner for hardware integration and software development, we have created two other disciplines or specialties. One of them is Learn, and the other is Grow.
With Learn, we help our customers to study, to learn something. With Grow, we help our customers to grow as we understand that we cannot grow fast alone if we do not share whatever we know, all the technology that we create.
WA: What are your recent or most important achievements?
In 2014, National Instruments created a platform for engineering, the LabVIEW tools network, where anyone can sell their own products. We started promoting our products there and now we are the #1 company with the number of products on this platform. LabVIEW tools network tremendously increased out global visibility.
Recently, we received a CSIA certificate (Control Systems Integrators Association) for our complete business process to conduct systems integration. Based in the US, CSIA combines high-quality system integrators all over the world as well as provides a platform for sharing best practices. While there are approximately 500 companies in the association, only 90 companies are certified. It is a company level business-process certification. We were the first company in Armenia to receive this certificate.
Other precious certifications for our company are ISO 9001:2015, Quality Certification, which we achieved recently, as well.