Automation products sourced on-line

Festo has launched a new online procurement facility that incorporates an Online Shop, Online Catalogue, and easy access to CAD models, direct from the website.

Festo has launched a new online procurement facility, designed to optimise supply chain efficiency for automation solution providers.

It provides access to all the information companies need to make good buying decisions and track their purchases, regardless of whether the actual purchase is made on-line or through the more traditional channels.

The new system incorporates an Online Shop, Online Catalogue, and easy access to CAD models, direct from the Festo website.

It is designed to deliver the broadest possible range of options to the automation sector where - as in the majority of industries - demand for on-line ordering is growing sharply, but phone, fax, and retail channels still account for the majority of orders.

"Our customers' supply chains are highly evolved and often complex".

"Our experience - and industry research - shows that companies want on-line access to product information that they can use in many different ways, to complement their own processes and cultures," says Kim Layard, Festo Customer Contact Centre manager.

"This new platform makes it faster and easier to access the information they want, and dramatically simplifies purchasing - whatever their preferred channel." The new system incorporates numerous timesaving features.

One login with the user name of choice now gives access to all the tools and information customers need, all along the supply chain.

Online Catalogue features include product family drill-down, advanced search facilities, and product comparisons, for example, as well as simple access to CAD models.

A 'less screens, fewer clicks' approach, which reflects customer purchasing processes, makes purchasing via the Online Shop particularly fast and friendly: users can see details of products within their shopping basket at all times, for example.

The one-screen order tracking facility offers further major efficiencies for purchasing departments: users can review, retrieve, repeat or modify previous on-line orders, and all users can review 'open' orders placed by mail, phone or fax, find details of despatch schedules, and track deliveries right through to the courier's signature.

"This new online facility really saves us time - we now have one access point to all the information we need, instead of switching between the CD Catalogue, the web site, and the on-line shop, and we simply cut and paste information into our orders," says Darren Jones, director of Cymru Automation, adding: "Fewer steps in the chain make purchasing faster and more accurate, and will reduce processing costs".

" And the ability to view the status of all our orders gives us excellent levels of control." "As more of our own customers come online, I can see this forming the basis of an extended integrated procurement system for us.".

Back to top