Engineers are without a doubt among the busiest professionals on the planet. As a group, you are working on 18 design projects a year, according to the latest Design News Simmons Market Research study of the field. That's up from 15.2 projects a year in our 1993 survey and 10.5 in our 1989 survey. Just looking at those numbers alone, it's safe to say you have never been busier.
And, you've never needed more information than you need now. Technology is changing at a lightning-fast pace. Plus, your responsibilities have grown. The 1997 Design News Simmons Study shows that, as a group, you're involved in R&D, management, testing, and design for in-plant use, as well as product and system design. Naturally, as the study shows, keeping up with technology is your biggest challenge.
But, the classic magazine system for requesting product information--reader service cards--doesn't always get you the information you need as fast as you need it. Now, there's a new tool to get you the information faster.
In this issue, we inaugurate our Instant Fulfillment System. Participating advertisers will incorporate a special URL in their ads. You can use that URL to get the information you need electronically right away, rather than waiting the typical three weeks it takes the reader service system to get you the information.
Using the Website address gets you an "electronic" brochure for the product you're interested in. You can also get a hot link to the supplier's Web site so you can get more information. No more waiting for technical and product data that can help you improve your designs.
Several Design News advertisers have signed up to be part of the new Instant Fulfillment system. See page 13 of this issue for the complete list.
If you're looking for information on new products, I'd like to ask you to take a few minutes to sample this new way of getting that information fast.
Go to this list of advertisers, access the URLs on the products of most interest to you, and let us know what you think.
We want to know if this is a good way to solve your information needs. Is it helpful? Does it save you time? Would you like to see more companies use this service? Did you find it useful to link to the company's home pages?
Please send me your thoughts at [email protected]