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

By Alicia Orr Suman

“Print catalogs always will be around, but you can’t modify a print catalog on the fly,” Hoffer says. “Plus, with the electronic transfer of catalog information, you always can print it out if you want a hard copy.”

SolidWorks’ Bob Noftle agrees that paper catalogs are here for the foreseeable future. “People still like to pick up a catalog and leaf through the pages.” But he stresses the importance of the step SMC has implemented by stating that for a company in the business of selling industrial components, “Being able to offer customers 3-D CAD models and images in a customized online catalog is going to make it easier for customers to do their jobs and easier for them to decide it’s right to do business with SMC.”