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

By Alicia Orr Suman

“There was no way to show all of these versions in a print catalog,” recalls Steve Hoffer, marketing manager for SMC Corp. of America. “So customers would call their sales reps for help, and oftentimes, custom CAD models would have to be worked out by hand.”

An Online Solution

SMC decided to see if an online interactive catalog could be the solution that would solve both its product complexity issues and the need for so many CAD models. By building an electronic catalog that also could generate custom CAD models on demand, SMC would be able to improve customer service through its catalogs and reduce costs by eliminating the need for so many man-hours of customer sales support.