NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> Highly-engineered Products
ONLINE-ADS>> Highly-engineered Products
Matthew da Silva (mdasilva_at_ibd.yamatake.co.jp)
Mon, 23 Nov 1998 23:56:13 -0600 (CST)
This relates to Ann Handley's recap of the Nov. 10 - 11
e-Biz Solutions conference held in Scottsdale. I thank her
for the information because there's no other way I could get
it. I've been a subscriber for the past few months and I
think that there's a lot of really great stuff.
But I work for a company which makes a really wide variety
of products some of which are sold in bundles that cost
millions of dollars. Because some of our products can be
handled as consumer goods only with established customers,
and because others require significant pre-sales
correspondence with several customers including an
'end-user,' marketing and pre-sales needs differ greatly
depending on the product and depending on the level of
'development' of the customer. It follows that each product
group or even some individual products should have different
Web support based on this pre-sales handling requirement.
I'd like to ask, because I've never, ever encountered one,
if a Web services co. exists which specializes in serving
highly-engineered sectors such as electrical and mechanical
engineering, process and chemical industries, semiconductor,
heating ventilating and air conditioning and other such
industries. Already, vertical portals (VP) are open but
their solutions seem unsatisfying and, somehow, temporary.
Their 'storefronts' and 'directories' of suppliers in
'categories' are OK as far as they go but I wonder about
repeat visitors. VPs also offer opportunities to promote
stuff via front-page news and the like, and all this is
supported by weekly email dispatches. Are any other people
watching this stuff too? Similar highly-engineered (HE)
companies in Phoenix may have sent reps. to the conference.
But would they have met anyone who could help them?
The reason for this may have more to do with fear than with
ignorance. Even without the Internet, marketers having
experience in high-tech (ugh) shivver with trepidation when
confronted by the difficulties in HE cos. of how to forge
customer relationships that are based on something as vague
and uncompromising as technology. As always in such cases,
expert opinion is hard to come by.
Those industries we serve often target their sites at the
general consumer. But, so far, I can't make a match with
any customer testimonials or e-commerce models I've browsed.
Obviously, we have still many problems to overcome, which
is why standards in data handling and product description
terminology are being beaten out, even as I write.
In the meanwhile, I'd really like to see an e-commerce site
that works for me. Some grist for the mill:
- Customers hang out in a highly Web-literate crowd that is
equally skeptical of the benefits of technology (because
they use it every day) and the blandishments of sales
pitches
- Products are highly customized and often bundled as "total
solutions"
- End-users have "highly-engineered" projects that require a
lot of to-and-fro of correspondence to get the
specifications right; this exchange starts long before any
contract is awarded
- End-user support is as vital to success as is the
equipment/software they buy
_at_-_at_-_at_-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-
Matthew da Silva, Online Solutions
International Business Development
Yamatake Corporation
2-12-19 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-8316 Japan
Tel: 81-3-3486-2216
Fax: 81-3-3486-2503
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