Building a Symbiotic Relationship with Engineering Web Site Vendors and Visitor (Part Two)

Part one of this article (November/December) covered the converging market trends and how to create or choose suppliers for CAD models. Part two discusses the importance of search in catalog design as well as the pros and cons of business models (including short and long term costs) that might be selected to build this symbiotic relationship with customers.

Digital Catalog Design and Search Capability

Search capability matters tremendously! If we are saving people time by downloading instead of building CAD models, then it has to be much quicker to find the CAD models than to build the CAD models. The success of Google is based on helping users quickly find items relevant to what they are looking for (even if it'

Search capability matters tremendously! If we are saving people time by downloading instead of building CAD models, then it has to be much quicker to find the CAD models than to build the CAD models. The success of Google is based on helping users quickly find items relevant to what they are looking for (even if it'

 

Search capability matters tremendously! If we are saving people time by downloading instead of building CAD models, then it has to be much quicker to find the CAD models than to build the CAD models. The success of Google is based on helping users quickly find items relevant to what they are looking for (even if it's 50,000 Web sites). An industrial supplier's Web site needs to accomplish this same goal but with higher relevance pertinent to the part and attributes the user is seeking--it must be easy to find the parts and CAD models you need. Bottom-line: your catalog search capability must appropriately address the needs of your product lines with a design solution that intelligently addresses your customers likely search needs. Is your search capability sufficient? The two most common types of searches are:

 

1. The user knows the part number and is visiting the Web site to quickly download technical product information such as a CAD model. Most industrial supplier's Web sites meet this search requirement fairly well, although only 13 percent offer CAD models for download. 1 Some manufacturers' part numbers are represented by "smart part numbers" that detail the selected configuration--in this case the search needs to include a check validating the part number entered by the user is indeed valid (representing a valid configuration).
   
2. The user doesn't know the part number but knows the attributes or some parameters of the product they need. This is where things get interesting; every industrial supplier seems to put their own spin on customizing their Web site and online catalog. Some products lend themselves very well to an image-based search if images distinguish one part from another (e.g. J. W. Winco Inc. catalog, www.jwwinco.com) which sells more than 18,000 machine components and assembly hardware items best be identified with an image. But what happens when two parts have the same exterior image, but very different internal features? Image search can be combined with parametric or attribute-based search (e.g. Gates Industrial Fluid Power DesignConnect catalog, >www.gates.com/designconnect--after a free registration users are presented with three search options for each product category). The coupling locator search is the next evolution of Gates Fluid Power's online catalog. Similar to filtering columns in a spreadsheet, users can quickly filter any of the 6 attributes to find the right coupling for their engineering design. The locator search has built in side-by-side product comparison for efficient part selection, and once you select the coupling you need, you can immediately see a list of hoses that work with the coupling you selected (or visa-versa).

Catalog Design
Have you given enough thought to the design of your catalog? A mistake that many industrial suppliers make is to add CAD drawings, CAD models and 3D viewers to their Web site without giving enough thought to the organization of their online catalog. Paper catalogs have been refined over many years to optimize the product search. For example, you can navigate a 300 page paper catalog very efficiently after only a few minutes. Compare this to visiting a company's Web site and having to navigate 300 PDF files. Users don't have the time to wait for 300 PDF files to open, let alone attempt to navigate them. Paper catalogs are very useful when they are current and available. However, the minute a paper catalog is printed, it is typically out of date and engineers don't have days to wait for a paper catalog to arrive via the mail. The solution is an online catalog that uses the right amount of image search and parametric search for your products.

Can Your Configurable Parts Be Effectively Searched?
Built-to-order products are often complex assemblies that have many possible configurations. Configurable products have many customer options that can be clearly communicated through the use of a Web-based "configurator." These configurators guide users through a selection process and then create unique CAD models representative of the final configuration chosen. The best configuration solutions incorporate Visual Constraint Feedback," which provides efficiency for the user and feedback that educates the user to further increase efficiency. Most traditional configurators do not include this feature. In a complex product, users usually don't know the constraints and they almost certainly don't know the interdependence of those constraints (i.e. if you select X you are giving up option Y in selection Z). The visual constraint feedback makes you aware of what effects any selection has on future choices. More than that, sometimes appearance can be just as important as substance. Substance is vital, but customer perception is just as important for successful adoption. The most flexible solutions separate the online catalog, CAD model download and configurator into separate modules that can be integrated or not depending on the needs of a particular industrial supplier's individual product lines and web site(s).

Business Model

The industrial supplier's goal is to achieve an increase in sales with the minimum initial and recurring costs. To help achieve these goals, their Web site needs to attract, and keep attracting, browsers and returning customers. At the same time, by providing CAD models of their products online, they can decrease their current technical support costs through more user self help and decrease product returns by enabling online customers to select the right product the first time. The business model they select will dictate initial and long term costs. The most important items to consider are:

 

• Will you be charged per download? It is best to avoid a per download model charge, because as you become more successful at generating downloads your costs will accelerate, perhaps with no relationship to the cost of running the necessary IT infrastructure and maintaining the CAD Models. A cost per download model is usually the worst choice. In contrast, a fixed price for unlimited downloads is the best choice.
• Will you use an external hosted solution or run it internally? Most suppliers in this space provide the online hosting of models including the use of some type of real-time model generator that employs parametric data, supports a multitude of output CAD model and viewing formats and "large pipes" to the internet to handle large models efficiently. Be sure that your vendor uses high reliability data centers with power backup to ensure maximum uptime of your application. It can be a very expensive proposition to do this internally, but as long as you have the internal infrastructure to run a high reliability (99.5 percent uptime) Web site then either can work. Externally hosted or Software as a Service (SaaS) implementations are usually preferable in smaller organizations. Even in large organizations, CIOs have changed their thinking to welcome SaaS to address specific solutions. At one time CIOs perceived it as a threat to their power over IT, but now they often see it as a way of fulfilling business mandates without stretching their thin IT budgets, particularly as there is no end in sight to the short supply of skilled IT workers. The most important benefits of a SaaS approach are speed of implementation, reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and a fast and cost-effective way to enhance an online strategy. You avoid buying, installing, supporting and upgrading expensive software applications, servers and network equipment on company computers and you do not spend time and effort on troubleshooting, tech support, compatibility issues and the other headaches that accompany traditional "out-of-the-box" software usage. This is especially true if you choose a supplier whose 3D CAD models and 3D visualization can be added to your Web site with a simple URL for each part number, thereby enabling fast and seamless Web site integration.

   

• Will you use 3D model downloads to generate sales leads? 3D models have proven to be one of the best online marketing tools available to manufacturers and distributors. The best solutions include the ability to capture low-cost, high-quality leads from your Web site when users download the 3D model. Engineers and CAD designers will gladly register to download a 3D model since it will save them valuable design time. Companies that require registration prior to downloading a 3D model should be sensitive to protect user information. Many companies publish and abide by a strong privacy policy that protects user information and e-mail addresses. Allocation of these leads, for example, by distributor territory, can be automated or manual.
• Does the solution support manufacturer-distributor relationships? Distributors can be wary of disintermediation when manufacturers create new direct relationships with customers. Therefore, ensure that your distributors are part of the plan and that the online catalog complete with 3D CAD models will further empower your distributor network. Maintaining separation of the CAD model download and the order processing functions can be key to distributor adoption. Distributors are typically closer to the customers than the manufacturers and many provide value added services beyond traditional stocking, order taking and credit provision. The CAD model download capability can be another service available via the distributors' Web sites (even if those Web sites just point to the manufacturer's Web site). As part of their visits to customers, distributors can use the Web site as a new sales tool to help customers select parts and download CAD models.

Conclusion

Several market trends have converged to create a new sales and marketing opportunity for industrial suppliers (manufacturers and distributors). Design engineers spend a significant proportion of their time (some estimate up to 25 percent) searching for stock parts and creating CAD representations of these parts for use in their designs. The information they rely on to identify parts needs to be accurate, up-to-date (online) and complete (including 3D and 2D CAD geometry) because their choice of component supplier can be directly affected. They expect design efficiency gains through re-use of CAD models and from reduced communication dialogue with suppliers (24/7 self help and download, in contrast to multiple emails and bulky attachments). Providing online 3D CAD model downloads helps them get their designs to market faster and often "locks" products into a new design so suppliers later benefit from the sales success of that design.

Industrial suppliers who meet these expectations by making an ongoing investment in their Web sites via online catalogs with CAD model downloads (and possibly e-commerce and configurators) can expect increased sales and lasting customer loyalty by providing a compelling reason for design engineers and buyers to return repeatedly to their Web sites. The 3D CAD downloads will supply critical engineering information, reduce engineering design costs, accelerate time to market and ensure design accuracy. Internally, industrial suppliers can also expect some relief for high value tech resources as the customer "self-help" frees up resources from CAD model retrieval and communication as well as helping customers configure products.

Industrial suppliers without 3D CAD models on their Web sites are at risk of losing customers to competitors who do offer 3D CAD models. Conversely adding CAD downloads is a proven way to increase sales--an important sales and marketing tool for all industrial suppliers and an ROI justification for online digital catalogs, e-commerce and configurators. Many technologies and business models are available for online digital catalogs, CAD downloads, ecommerce and configurators. The choices made will dictate initial and long term recurring costs, increases in sales achieved and longevity of the competitive advantage obtained.

John Major is CEO of Catalog Data Solutions (San Jose, CA). As a founder of InPart, VP of PTC (after PTC bought InPart and incorporated it into Windchill) and CEO of Catalog Data Solutions, he has led the development of three generations of manufacturing catalog and CAD download software. Visit the Web site at >www.catalogdatasolutions.com