#1 – Good News from YOU!

As a subscriber to way too many newsletters, RSS feeds and other news sources, I often see SupplierSource members with good news to tell. Since SupplierSource is meant to help you showcase yourselves and to learn more about each other, we’ll start posting good news that you send us as soon as we have two or three good items. This first one will be a trial to see if you think it’s a good idea and we’ll go from there.

Rapid Sheet Metal Now Offers Laser Cut Flat Acrylic Parts

Nashua, NH – July 22, 2008 — Rapid Sheet Metal, Inc., specializing in rapid turnaround of sheet metal and stamped metal prototypes, has announced that it has added a plastic material, acrylic, to its list of available materials. With a standard shipping lead-time of 5 business days or less, product designers can now be assured that flat acrylic prototypes are available in a week or less.

“Acrylic parts in the flat are used by product designers in a number of ways including bezels and face plates. Acrylic is also a good substitute for G10 and can be used to prototype the footprint of a circuit board. In addition, by combining the acrylic prototypes with our 2 day turn, in-house silk screening service, companies are now able to procure finished acrylic products with graphics in well under two weeks.” says James Jacobs, President of Rapid Sheet Metal.

Rapid Sheet Metal offers laser cut acrylic in thicknesses from .060” to .250” and stocks acrylic in thicknesses of .060”, .125” and .250” thicknesses. Other thicknesses are available.

Rob Rodriguez, owner of Axis CAD Soultions is Featured Artist on 3DVIA.com

Axis CAD Solutions’ owner, Rob Rodriguez, is the Featured Artist on 3DVIA.com right now (full disclosure – I’m an online community manager for 3DVIA too, and worked with Rob to create the posting).

It’s a great way for him to promote his company to a broader market and help 3DVIA visitors understand more about the manufacturing and architectural uses of 3D models. Check out the full story.

So, if you have some good news to share, send it to me here at SupplierSource and I’ll collect them, post them and let everyone know about the good news from YOU!

Upcoming improvements

Continuous improvement is a necessary part of every process. SupplierSource itself is no exception. We’ve been taking steps over the last 10 months to improve our ability to provide continuous service and to be able to respond more quickly when there are problems. Significant improvements to streamline our software structure and reduce our hardware requirements have been made.

We’re now ready to make two more improvements. Each step will require a short period of downtime to make hardware and software upgrades.

We will start the upgrades early on Friday morning, July 18 and will be back up and running around 2:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Savings Time) the same day. We’ll verify that set of improvements for several days before we make the second set of changes early on Tuesday morning, July 22. This work should only require about 2-3 hours.

Then we’ll be ready for action.

Adding services to your profile

It’s simple enough – your company exists to provide services that other companies need. That said, it’s easy to realize that one of the most important parts of your company profile is listing those services so that you can be found.

The SupplierSource search algorithm first looks at the Specialties that you have listed and then looks at your Capabilities. We have limited you to three Specialties so that you have to be clear about what your most important services are.

We then limit you to eight Capabilities, again so that you have to be clear about what are the most important services that you provide.

When a visitor does a search, our goal is to provide them with a shorter list of possibilities each time they make a choice. Each of the service selections that you make for your profile will determine which search results you appear in.

OK, you know that your choices are important. How do you know what services are available for you to choose from? The tabs across the top of the page include one that is called “Categories”.

If you click on that tab, you’ll see all 1800+ services that you can choose from. (If you click on a service from this page it does not add it to your profile, but it will show you all suppliers already listed that provice this service.) Seeing all of the possibilities allows you to figure out your choices before starting or editing your profile. I like to look at a map before starting a road trip, so that I have some idea as to where I’m going and how I’m going to get there. I also don’t want to miss something just because I didn’t know it was there.

Another important reason to review the whole list is that when choosing your services you must start typing in the “Find services” box to be able to make your selections. If you already know what you want, you’re more likely to quickly get the results you want.

Choices based on what you have typed will show up and you can scroll through the alphabetical list to find the exact service that you’re looking for. Since a search is being done based on every letter you type, it may take the search a second or two to catch up with you. Sometimes even removing a letter or two gives better results.

You will be able to choose a service as either a Specialty or Capability until you’ve reached the max allowed. Once you have chosen three Specialties, you will only see the Capabilities choice remaining. If you want to delete choices, just click on the “x” in the blue circle next to it in your list. In order to change a service from Specialty to Capability, or the other way around, you’ll have to first delete it from the list that it’s already in.

During the selection process (and any time you edit your profile) you can change the order of your services by just clicking on them and dragging them up or down the list. You can’t move a service from one list to the other – as mentioned above, you must first delete it from the list it is in and then add it back in. The order of your lists does not affect search results. It just lets you put the list in the order you want.

BE SURE TO SAVE YOUR CHOICES – FREQUENTLY! If you forget and choose another part of your profile to work on YOU WILL NOT BE WARNED to save like on the other pages. There is a technical reason for this, having to do with the database structure.

There are also three FAQ questions and answers that help with this same process. FAQ #9, FAQ #10, and FAQ #11 cover most of the same territory, but without the visual aids.

Hopefully, this explanation will help answer some of your most important questions and make it easier to choose and modify your services. You can also contact us using the support email any time.

 

 

 

Wild weather, but we’re back!

We’re sorry for our recent web site outage, but we are back up again.

We had some really wild weather last night that put us out of business until just a few minutes ago. Several folks were kind enough to ask nicely what was up and we do appreciate everyone’s patience.

We’re also thankful that it was just a brief weather episode and we are thinking of those who are continuing to endure so much more through tornadoes and flooding here in the US and typhoons and earthquakes in Myanmar and China. 

Your profile photos just got better

Folks respond to pictures much faster than to words*, so your profile photos are a valuable tool to tell your story to potential new customers.

Your profile portfolio page now lets your visitor launch a slide show (to encourage viewing more of your photos), as well as the ability to enlarge any single photo that really catches their interest. Northwest Rubber Extruders has a great set of photos that I’ll use to show the changes:

The slide show feature includes your captions and lets the viewer pace themselves through your photos.

 

Both you and your visitors have the ability to flag any inappropriate photos (or other content), so that we can quickly review it and remove it, if necessary.

In addition to being available in your profile, each photo also shows up on the SupplierSource home page in rotation with other folks’ photos. This can catch the eye of searching visitors and if they move their mouse over your picture your caption and company name will also appear. So, make sure your captions are working hard for you here and in your profile to help inform your visitor.

 SPECIAL PHOTO TIPS:

1- Make ‘em close to the file size limit (1Mb) because we can automagically reduce them to fit, but we can’t increase the size. So, you’ll get better resolution if the files are larger.

2 – When you’re done looking at a photo or slide show you now have to click on the ‘x’ in the upper right corner to close them. Previously, you could click anywhere outside of the photo. A small thing, but potentially annoying if you don’t know.

3 – Check out other profiles and find photos that you like and figure out what attracted you to help you improve your own photos.

4 – Change your pictures when you finish something new or go to a show and want to show folks what it was like.

*5 – We all respond to photos better than words and to photos of people better than photos of things, so show off your co-workers too. Have some fun!

3 important things to do right now – welcome SolidWorks Manufacturing Network members

Welcome to SupplierSource! Our whole purpose is to help buyers and suppliers find each other fast. For a little history on how SupplierSource has evolved from the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network check out the blog post ‘Just the facts, M’am, just the facts’.

Following these steps is valuable to all new members, but parts of each step are specifically for new members being welcomed to SupplierSource from the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network. Be sure to also check out the ‘3 valuable things to do as soon as you can’ blog post for additional steps to take.

We’ve started a profile for SolidWorks Manufacturing Network members based on our existing database and visits to your web site. Now it’s YOUR profile. You can makes changes and improvement whenever YOU want to using the easy tools provided. The following steps are meant to provide a simple guide to start getting the most out of your profile right now. Additional posts will provide more ways to add to your profile, but these three steps are the most important.

Sign in – Go to www.SupplierSource.com and use the link in the upper right corner. Then use the email address that you provided for the main contact in your SolidWorks Manufacturing Network application and was used to recently contact you. That email also contained a password. You can use the ‘I forgot my password’ link on that page to create a new password any time. If you did not receive an email or are unsure of the email address to use, please use the ‘Get support’ link in the ‘Helpful Resources:’ column (which is lower on the same page) to contact us and get a quick response.

Immediately check all of your contact data for accuracy - We did our best to use your own web site and our database to get the latest data, but only you know what the correct data is. Use the ‘Edit My SupplierProfile’ link over in the left column. Check the ‘Hello World!’ blog post for information about geocoding and your address data. If the address you enter cannot be geocoded, our distance search cannot find you, so please be sure that it works. You will see an error mesage at the bottom of the address area if there is a problem and you’ll see no message if everything is fine.

Add to your ‘Specialties’ and ‘Capabilities’ - These are the top dogs in the search algorithms which determine your position in search results. Right now you have only one ‘Specialty’, but you can have up to 3 and also 8 capabilities. Check FAQ #9 for how to see all of your service choices, FAQ #10 for special tips, and FAQ #  11 for reordering help. (You can also find the FAQ link at the bottom of all web site pages, except on the blog.)

Since you will be making a number of changes and will want to check the results, be sure to read the ‘Why don’t my changes show up?’ blog post to understand why it takes about an hour for your changes to show up in new searches.

Also be sure to read the blog post with three more valuable steps for all members to take to get the most out of their profiles!

Thanks for being a part of SupplierSource and feel free to send comments or suggestions as you find your way around.

3 valuable things to do as soon as you can – welcome SolidWorks Manufacturing Network members

Welcome to SupplierSource! Our whole purpose is to help buyers and suppliers find each other fast. For a little history on how SupplierSource has evolved from the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network check out the blog post ‘Just the facts, M’am, just the facts’.

In the ‘3 important things to do right now’ post we outlined the three most important actions for new SolidWmembers to take immediately. This post will cover three valuable steps for everyone to take as soon as they can and then to do on an ongoing basis to keep their profile fresh and reward the internet bots always looking for new content to scarf up and rank.

Add photos to your portfolio page - Photos are more appealing than text and offer much more information to the potential new customer. They can also have captions, which allow you to point out what is important for the viewer to notice. These photos are cycled through on the SupplierSource home page in the right column. Viewers are drawn to the photos and as they hover over the picture your caption and company name will appear. Clicking on a picture will take the potential customer directly to your profile portfolio page.

Get customer reviews - We all respond best to our trusted friends who give us the benefit of their experience. Share your experiences and help the valuable partners that you work with by adding a simple review to their profile. Check out the ‘Don’t be scared – say something nice!’ blog post. If your suppliers don’t yet have their free SupplierSource listing, then use the ‘Invite a supplier’ link in the ‘Things to do” list. While you’re at it, use the ‘Tell a friend’ link to easily let them know about SupplierSource.

Add facility info - On your ‘Facilities’ page you can call out the manufacturing, testing and inspection equipment that make your operations unique. You can even use the space (the content you enter appears on your profile front page) to embed YouTube videos (like Surface Solutions did) by following some simple steps outlined in the ‘Liven up your profile with YouTube’ blog post. 

You’ve probably noticed that this blog thing is a valuable source of tips, information on what’s new, and even a chuckle or two now and then. So please subscribe to the RSS feeds that easily keep you informed when changes are made (yet another post ‘RSS – better than a fire hose’) and let us help you liven up your profile and your day all around.

1 important question and answer – welcome SolidWorks Manufacturing Network members

Welcome to SupplierSource! Our whole purpose is to help buyers and suppliers find each other fast. For a little history on how SupplierSource has evolved from the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network check out the blog post ‘Just the facts, M’am, just the facts’.

How are people going to find me if they use SolidWorks and want to use a supplier who does too? 

By using the ‘Refine your results’ choices in the left column.

 

Once a user starts a search, the first set of results also includes the ‘Refine your results’ column, which then allows them to make additional choices to further reduce the set of possibilities.

You can see (in the image to the left) that in the ‘Certifications’ choices, the user can select SolidWorks Manufacturing Network as one criteria.  This means that only network members will be considered as they make other choices; such as service, industries or materials.

The main goal is to help the user define what they want in steps that reduce the number of possible suppliers to a manageable number. The choices that you make on your supplier profile are what determine where you appear on the various lists of choices.

Since searching at SupplierSource can be done in many ways (see FAQ #3 for several different approaches), the ‘Refine your results’ column (also sometimes referred to as guided navigation) is a powerful tool to make any search easier.

 It’s also an easy way for SolidWorks users to find you!

Be sure to check out the blog posts ‘3 important things to do right now’ and ‘3 valuable things to do as soon as you can’ for more help in making the most out of your SupplierSource profile.

Knock on wood…

This better not be a jinx, but we’ve been perking right along these last few days and I think we’re back in the regular universe again. If anyone notices ongoing problems, please let us know and we’ll get them fixed.

Thank you for bearing with us!

The pictures are just in case you thought that trucks didn’t have fun! Check out the European Truck Racing web site. It has everything, including some awesome videos. Racing cars looks way safer!

 

Frustrated? YES!

We apologize for the ongoing technical issues that have kept the SupplierSource web site bouncing up and down like a yo-yo over the last few days. I’m not a software or network guy, so I won’t even try to explain the details (which keep changing hour by hour anyway). Moving the servers was intended to increase our up-time, but somehow we’ve ended up in a reverse universe.

I can’t make any promises, but we are all doing our best to resolve the current issues and restore both the site and our reliability as soon as possible.

Thank you for any patience you may still be able to muster.