Could three dimensional catalogues help you increase your sales and exports?
18 May 2017
In March 2016* BFPA featured an article in our newsletter by Strategic Alliance Partner CADENAS on the increasing use of three dimensional catalogues. A year later, Colin Johnson of CADENAS UK points to a case study where a BFPA member and manufacturer is now reaping the benefits of this innovative technological trend.
IMI Precision Engineering achieved an important milestone in their program of improvements to digital services with go live of their first ever integration of eCATOLOGsolutions into an eShop. In a press release in January 2017, Jez Ashton, IMI Precisions Engineering’s Global Online Marketing Manager said: “CADENAS was the obvious choice due to the ease with which we could embed configuration technology and CAD downloads into our existing website”. IMI Precision Engineering believe that the eCATALOGsoluions forms a key part of their online marketing strategy for their products, which is powered by CADENAS.
To see more of IMI Precision Engineering’s online and configurable 3D CAD manufactured products follow the link to their website: https://www.imi-precision.com/uk/en/
According to Colin Johnson, UK MD of CADENAS: “When you think about an engineer who is researching and designing, most now use a 3D CAD tool. When they’re researching, they need to be able to configure, tailor and select and download content in 3D, the reason being they want to be able to incorporate that into their designs. Without that 3D content, they have to remodel it themselves from the data sheets. It is time they don’t have.”
According to a survey by CADENAS if an engineer was looking for a particular product and it wasn’t available in the native CAD format, 75% said they would choose an alternative supplier. In coming years that last figure is only going to rise. Another interesting figure is that 87% of engineers, who download a native 3D CAD part, end-up purchasing it and including it in their final design.
Through the BFPA Strategic Alliance Partnership (SAP), this service is now being made available to members. Although new to the UK, the company has actually been around since 1992, launching its first Electronic Product Catalogue three years later and in 2014 achieved 100,000,000 CAD file downloads in a year, now running at a rate of 16 million downloads a month. All main 3D (and 2D) file formats are supported including Creol, Inventor, NX and Solidworks, and this includes all previous versions not just the current one.
Johnson claims the immediate availability of useable models supports another emerging trend – that of customisation. It is something that consumers are increasingly looking for, possibly as simple as changes of colour or materials, but again it applies to engineers who are looking to tweak performance for their customers. “In the design environment the trend is more and more, to have the ability to configure and customise designs online. This is where we can help, with the ability to configure options and variants to tailor the actual end product.”
To learn more about making your own Electronic Product Catalogue powered by CADENAS please visit the website: www.cadenas.de/en
CADENAS is a BFPA Strategic Partner. They are a leading software manufacturer in the areas Strategic Parts Management and parts reduction (PARTsolutions) as well as Electronic Product Catalogues (eCATALOGsolutions). Interested members should contact Colin Johnson on Tel: 07949 696751 or by Email: c.johnson@cadenas.co.uk Web: www.partsolutions.com and quote BFPA/SAP for preferential rates.
*If you would like a copy of the full article published in March 2016 please contact Sarah Gardner on sarah@bfpa.co.uk