An e-catalog allows SMC Corp.of America to efficiently present its complex product line to manufacturing customers.

By Alicia Orr Suman

SMC’s E-Tech catalog became operational for testing in mid-2000. “This was just the core model of the catalog, and it had taken us about six months to put up,” says Giebutowski.

It took another eight months of development before the system went live in January 2001 with 75 products, says Hoffer. SMC spent a six-figure sum to get the system up and running. Plus, internally, the company went from having three staffers devoted to the Web site to eight.