MCAD Tech News #175
10 May, 2006 By: Brian BluffThe Buyer-Seller Disconnect
Study by ThomasNet and Google finds that in the industrial supplier community, Web sites don't deliver and sales are lost
Editor’s note: In this edition of MCAD Tech News, we feature an article submitted by Brian Bluff of ThomasNet. It outlines a recent study by ThomasNet and Google that found serious shortcomings in the Web sites of industrial suppliers. Next week, regular author Jeff Rowe will return to look at some of the companies (including ThomasNet and Google) that successfully connect buyers and sellers by eliminating obstacles to sales and continually moving the buying process forward.
Industrial buyers seeking everything from nuts and bolts to sophisticated manufacturing equipment are turning to the Internet nearly twice as often as the offline information sources they have traditionally relied on, according to a recent study of industrial buying behaviors. But at the same time, this study also brings to light a major disconnect between online buyers and the suppliers they seek to do business with.
This joint study, conducted by ThomasNet and Google, revealed that industrial buyers are increasingly turning to the Internet when conducting a search for products and services, bypassing offline sources, such as distributors’ catalogs and sales representatives. This sounds like good news for industrial sellers who are already online. After all, what company today doesn’t have a Web site?
However, the same research indicates that in many cases, suppliers are not providing online buyers with the information they want. To make better use of their online marketing dollars, suppliers need to increase awareness of how industrial buyers look for products and services on the Internet. This includes knowledge of where industrial buyers go online and what types of information they seek.Read more
by Kenneth Wong
If someone shrink-wraps a series of industry best practices -- proven methodologies and procedures gleaned from the experiences of leading enterprises in your field -- and sells them to you as off-the-shelf solutions, will you buy them? Dassault Systemes thinks you might. That's the raison d'être behind the French PLM (product lifecycle management) titan's latest offerings, known as BPCs (business process contents).
"BPCs are basically productization of our service engagements with various customers," explained Eric Retraint from Dassault Systemes Industry Solutions. "For instance, we do certain service engagements around SMARTEAM by developing complementary offerings to support it. And we also develop a mix of innovative, best-of-breed PLM practices to support industry processes to make sure our customers leverage our products at best." The idea is that these processes can be replicated in other companies that have similar organizational makeup or closely related markets. Read moreMark Your Calendar: MCAD Events
Accelerate Your Ideas
Various dates and locations
Autodesk series of events will introduce and demonstrate
its manufacturing solutions, including Autodesk Inventor
11, AutoCAD Electrical 2007, AutoCAD Mechanical and Autodesk’s
Data Management solutions. Read
more
Transforming Product Development for Small & Medium
Business
May 17, 2006, 12 p.m. ET
The Product Development Company will host a webcast designed
to educate small and medium businesses on how to transform product development
to drive growth and lower costs. Read
more
Interior Motives Design Conference 2006
June 6-8, 2006
London, United Kingdom
Organized by Interior Motives magazine, this second Interior
Motives Design Conference is designed for designers and experts from
the world of car design and automotive technology to share ideas and
developments. Read
more
AUGI CAD Camp
June 8, 2006
Marina Village Conference Center
San Diego, California
This is an official Autodesk User Group International (AUGI)
learning and networking event designed to help you gain knowledge and
skills you can apply immediately to solve existing challenges and make
you more productive. Read
more
2006 NAFEMS UK Conference
June 14-15, 2006
Cheshire, United Kingdom
NAFEMS, the International Association for the Engineering
Analysis Community, will hold its 2006 UK conference for the analysis
and simulation industries covering FEA (finite-element analysis), CFD
(computational fluid dynamics) and associated technologies. The two-day
event will focus on the future challenges in all aspects of engineering
simulation. Read
more
Rapid Manufacturing 1st International Conference
July 5-6, 2006
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Conference will feature industrial applications and academic
research currently used in rapid manufacturing -- the use of additive
layer manufacturing techniques for end-use parts. Read
more
For Cadalyst's full calendar of events, click here.

Online Archives: Click here to view an online version of this newsletter and past issues of MCAD Tech News.
Solid
Thinking (Tutorial) -- SolidWorks 2006 Quick Tips: Discover
new tools and tips that you might have missed in SolidWorks 2006.
CAD
Manager (Column) – Justifying CAD Expenditures with ROI Metrics: ROI
metrics help you evaluate and prioritize spending items in your annual budget.
Cadalyst Discussion Forums Have a New Look — and
a new URL: Cadalyst's CAD
Manager, CAD Questions and Hot Tip Harry Discussion Forums have moved to a
new location. Visit today to
update your bookmarks, check out the new look and find out what's on the minds
of other CAD professionals.
Cadalyst Daily Update: For all the latest news and new products, subscribe
to Cadalyst Daily e-newsletter. Plus, every issue includes a
feature you won’t find anywhere else – hardware and CAD software
reviews, success stories, AutoCAD tips and much more! Here’s a sample
of what you missed in the past week:
- Taming
the File Flood: Avionics manufacturer uses PLM to tap into the vast
resources of its own company files, saving millions
- First
Look Review -- Intuos3 12x12 Tablet: Wacom's pressure-sensitive drawing
and design tool earns high marks
- First Look Review: Shade 8.5: Capable 3D graphics toolkit for designers, illustrators and architects comes in Windows and Mac versions.