Realizing that engineers are just as important to them as purchasing professionals, distributors have been making news by creating new fee-based services that directly target an OEM's engineers (see June 3, page 91). Typically, those services or tools provide component and design engineers with the technical data they need to make the best engineering choices for their new product designs. The only challenge is getting them to pay.
Lately, though, it appears that chip makers are beginning to see some benefit to using, and paying for, some of those services. Texas Instruments, for example, recently announced that its sales force will use Arrow Electronics' new Ubiquidata tool, a Web-based components database that provides technical information for more than 16 million devices from both franchised and nonfranchised manufacturers.
Arrow's database will give TI's salespeople direct cross-references and let them perform parametric searches, providing them with the data they need to better recommend the appropriate TI parts. In addition, TI will be able to use Ubiquidata to make cross-references available at its public Web site.
As part of the agreement, TI will buy 100 seats of a customized version of Connectivity Dashboard, the gateway to Arrow's online solutions. The chip maker will also have access to the project section of Connectivity Dashboard. That section will give TI's salespeople the ability to manage their design-in activity and share information within the organization.
TI recognizes that distributors are making enormous investments in areas that have been nontraditional businesses-outside of their "parts-for-dollars model," said John Simari, TI's director of worldwide distribution. And the Dallas company wants to tap into some of those capabilities, especially if it means that TI doesn't have to make huge investments of its own for them. "We have a need to assist our internal resources at finding the right TI part for our customers by doing parametric data assessments and we think the Arrow tool brings us value that we can use with customers," Simari said.
As for Arrow, the goal is to build an exhaustive database for its customers, said Chris Henry, vice president and general manager of Arrow's Global Information Business. Arrow currently provides up to 20 to 25 technical parameters for each part in the database. Henry believes there is an opportunity for suppliers, as well as OEMs that are currently building product, to benefit from using the database.
A number of suppliers have the component data, but it's not in a format that allows for easy cross-referencing, parametric comparisons or even an easy display of what the components are, Henry said. Arrow can help those suppliers bring a robust parametric search and easy cross-referencing to their own Web sites, he said.
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