During his trip to the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, the President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel was accompanied by a business delegation to the United States from September 22 to 28.

The mission focused primarily on start-ups and small and medium-sized companies in the field of cybersecurity and defense technologies, including drones and navigation, communication systems, simulators, and ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance).

RACOM was invited to participate in this mission, and since the focus of the mission overlaps with our production program, we were happy to accept the invitation. We were represented on the mission by Vít Koutenský, a member of our management team.

In New York, a meeting with several US companies was held at the Czech National Building, where the main topics discussed were infrastructure security, unmanned aircraft and vehicles, and autonomous robots.

The next day in Washington we met with representatives of FedTech, an agency responsible for identifying interesting technologies and technology companies for cooperation with the U.S. government. It was also very interesting to visit the Quantico Cyber Hub, a world leader in cyber defense equipment. The reception at the Czech Embassy hosted by Mr. Stasek, the Czech Ambassador to the USA, was a good opportunity to network with representatives of many technology leaders such as Google, Cisco, RedHat…

In Chicago, the visit to MxD, an agency focused on digitalization of production and business processes and designated by the Department of Defense as the National Center for Cybersecurity in Manufacturing, was very interesting.

On our last day in Cedar Rapids, we visited Collins Aerospace, a major player in the aerospace industry.

We are very positive about our participation in the mission. In addition to new contacts in the USA, we got to know more about the Czech companies that participated in the mission. This opens up the possibility of cooperation on the domestic market and common export to other territories.

RACOM organizes a “RACOM Day” for its employees at least once a year. It’s nice to get together over good food and drinks, meet colleagues from the Blansko branch, do some sports together and talk about things outside work. Almost a hundred of us attended and all ages from 6 months to 79 years were presented.

Our HR department has prepared several activities this year. We were able to try Nordic Walking under the guidance of an experienced guide. Starting in front of our HQ, we walked more than five kilometers through the beautiful countryside around Nové Město na Moravě to reach the teambuilding site, really “hungry”.

We were also able to try a demonstration lesson of physio-yoga. The yoga session was well received and soon another yoga group will be added to the four regular Pilates groups that have been running at RACOM for more than 10 years.

The traditional football match was held at the teambuilding place. Despite the high level of commitment from all players, the game was played respectfully. Fortunately, there were no injuries.

Instead of the traditional petanque, which we skipped this year, a group of enthusiasts played volleyball. We documented everything, so feel free to check out the attached photo gallery.

We are all looking forward to the next event – the Christmas party!

The process ‘the handover of the company’s management to a new generation‘ which has been underway at RACOM for several years was formally completed in March.

After considering various possibilities, the owners and key people in the company’s management concluded that the best option would be when Marek Bobula, David Marek, Vít Koutenský and Bohumil Sobotka continue to lead the company together. In terms of hierarchy, they are all at the same level and the management of RACOM is without the position of CEO.

The new directors will jointly manage the overall strategy and long-term direction of the company. They are individually responsible for these areas in the day-to-day management of the company:

Marek Bobula – Development and Technology
David Marek – Sales and Marketing
Vít Koutenský – People and Internal processes of the company
Bohumil Sobotka – Production, Finance and Infrastructure

The founders of RACOM, Jiří Hruška and Martin Lácha, are not leaving the company. They work part-time on specific projects: Jiri in SW development, Martin in marketing. If the new management would like, they are always ready to give their opinion and view on the issues they will be dealing with. Bohumil Sobotka, the youngest of the former managing directors, remains in the same position as before and, among other things, ensures the continuity of the former and new management.

Jiri and Martin say: “We are happy that the new management was created from our colleagues who have been working at RACOM for many years. We believe that we are handing over the fate of the company into good hands. We wish the new managing directors the best of luck and thank them for their courage and willingness to take on the responsibility.” 

The General Meeting of Owners, as the supreme body of the company, on 26 March 2024 formally confirmed the above and agreed that RACOM will have four managing directors from 1 April 2024: Marek Bobula, David Marek, Vít Koutenský and Bohumil Sobotka.

This step does not change anything significant for the day-to-day running of the company.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed together that RACOM runs as well or better and for at least as long as before with the new management.

On behalf of the old and new management
David, Bohumil, Vít, Martin, Jiří, Marek

The third generation of the M!DGE3 cellular router was launched last year. It has established itself very well among customers and has successfully replaced the M!DGE2, the previous generation.

Our cellular routers are mainly used for data communication in SCADA & Telemetry applications in critical infrastructure for Power and Water, Oil & Gas and other industries. They are also suitable for many other applications where high reliability and 24/7 service are required, such as POS, ATM, Security, etc.

Based on feedback from our customers, we decided to develop the essential version M!DGE3e suitable for less demanding installations. It is built on the same platform as M!DGE3, but we have thoughtfully stripped some features to make it more affordable. Both models are fully compatible.

Together with RipEX radio modems offers an unrivalled solution for combining mobile and licensed UHF/VHF radio in one hybrid network.

The philosophy of the full-featured flagship and its basic version is the same as for our RipEX2 and RipEX2e radio modems. The M!DGE3e does not have the option to be expanded via an mPCIe slot, so it cannot be extended with GPS, other serial interfaces or a second cellular module. There are only two Ethernet and one serial interface, and compared to the M!DGE3, it is missing SFP, digital inputs and outputs, HW tamper and dynamic routing options.

M!DGE2 is gradually being discontinued for new projects and we expect to deliver it only for existing network expansions or in other necessary cases. Of course, we continue to carry out any repairs without any restrictions, just as we continue to maintain the FW.

As annually in January, the management met with the sales team to review the previous year and to inform themselves about the expectations for the year ahead. As usual representatives from product management and R&D also attend the meeting to inform the sales team about upcoming news for 2024 and to get feedback from the market.

Sales managers from Europe came to the meeting at the company’s HQ in Nove Mesto n.M., while others were connected online. Our sales managers are spread around the world in different time zones with a shift from -5 to +7 hours compared to our HQ in the Czech Republic. The time for meeting together is therefore significantly limited and for this reason the meeting was held over two days.