In particular with respect to products, which require some form of explanation, customers find it difficult to find the right article in an online catalogue without specialist advice. Especially when the industry offers technical products with a high degree of structuring, which have to be distinguished from each other. Without technical support, the customer would find himself confronted with a task he was hardly able to master, if he had to find the exact item which is right for him from a catalogue offering hundreds of different products. TURCK realized early on that the PowerSearch function would be able to facilitate optimal product research opportunities for the customer: based on pre-defined characteristics, it is possible to select any required article featuring the sought after characteristics from the appropriate range of products.
PowerSearch - finding the right product quickly and easily
TURCK based in Mülheim an der Ruhr is one of the leading worldwide company groups in the sector of industrial automation. It is a pioneer in the area of sensor technology which administers any products, which require an explanation, in the Product Information Management System ASIM® from the Waibling Company DHW Informationsmanagement. Since 2003, TURCK has been providing its customers with the features of PowerSearch on its website, which were developed by the Essen e-Business agency communicode. As this was met with great interest by their customers, the company decided to expand the existing features by the graphical application search (PowerFlash) again developed by communicode. The decisive difference in respect of PowerSearch: in addition to the product characteristics, the customer is able to specify his particular application profile or profiles. If he activates a special search function, an input form will appear next to the list with the product characteristics. This contains the parameters which are specific for this product area, giving TURCK customers the opportunity to state which conditions require to be satisfied during the application. After all data has been entered, the special search function will find the required product. The innovation of the graphical PowerSearch: the customer will be able to activate a simulation of the stated application parameters on request. This simulation is interactive: the parameters entered before, appear as slide control in the graphic application, providing TURCK‘s customers with the opportunity to adjust any values via the control section and to see immediately, what effects result from any changes undertaken and respectively which products are needed to implement the required application.
Technical innovation: The RFID performance simulation
TURCK is the first company to use the graphical application search. This special search function is already available online for the product areas of identification systems (RFID): the customer specifies the amount of data, by which the RFID tag should be described as well as the speed by which the tag crosses through the electro magnetic field of the write resp. read head. In addition, it enables the customer to define the required distance to the write or read head. Using the recorded formulas, PowerSearch automatically establishes all products which fit the application. During the graphical simulation all entries can be made quick and easy via a slide control. That way the user sees immediately how the change he has made influences the parameters with respect to the overall application.
However PowerFlash has additional features to offer: by clicking, pop ups are opened showing the performance profiles of the relevant products. Apart from that, the product choice which has been made via the controls can be memorised so that they can be used again for later orders. The complete control mechanism is accessed behind a question mark. From this window, the user gets either back to the simulation or he can view the correct application of the products in the form of an example from a further animation.
Product data always up to date
A particular highlight of the application is its integration in the existing PIM system ASIM®: This enables TURCK to maintain all product information required for the application directly in ASIM®. All data is made available uniformly in the web application and the graphical simulation. The simulation realized with Flash also communicates with the online catalogue. As a result both applications are always up to date; showing the same product information.
The ASIM® web application "ASIM® InstantWeb”, "PowerSearch” as well as "PowerFlash” have all been developed by the Essen-based e-Business agency communicode, specialists in respect of Product Information Management and Enterprise Content Management solutions. Experts from development, design and consultation provide media neutral solutions on the basis of modern system architectures. Thereby communicode significantly contributes to improvements with regard to business processes aiming at improving communications and realizing cost savings.
