March 6,
2007
Component
Training Moves Online
Distributors
and component suppliers have spent decades training their customers on new components
and technology. Traditionally they conducted that training in person, through
seminars and classes at the distributor’s facilities, the supplier’s home or
even on the road at hotels or at the customer’s plant via field application
engineers (FAEs).
Lately,
however, manufacturing customers have made it known they want their training
now. In the moment they’re actually selecting components for a new product.
They don’t want to wait for a seminar or visit from an FAE. They want to be
able to go online – even at midnight – and try out a board or get instruction
on new technology. Distributors are accommodating that demand with free online
training modules that can be accessed 24 hours a day.
At
Avnet Inc. in Phoenix, customer demand for online training has prompted the
distributor to re-think how it conducts training. “Our whole customer
initiative is changing,” says Marc Gsand, VP of marketing at Avent Electronics
Marketing North America, which is Avnet’s components division. “Customers now
want more and more on-demand training. We have a lot of information, and now
we’re moving it online in what we call Avnet School of Knowledge.”
Avnet’s
online training includes video presentations that actually allow engineers to
test drive boards. Called, “Behind the Wheel,” these videos offer a complete
and concise overview of the capabilities of development tools. The audio,
graphics and animation are designed to give customers a multi-media experience
in less than 10 minutes. “Customers can click and quickly get a video review of
everything on the board,” explains Gsand. “It offers key features and lets the
customer take the board on the track before clicking and buying.” A
click-and-buy function is actually embedded in the presentation so customers
can purchase the board after test-driving it.
The
video-based board presentations are available at the Avnet Design Resource
Center, which is part of Avnet’s website. The Design Resource Center was
created to offer customers an online, hands-on, self-serve training environment.
Avent is beginning to put supplier-agnostic training on the site as well. With
these presentations – which run 45 minutes to an hour – the customer can learn
about emerging technology such as radio frequency identification (RFID) in a
presentation that explains the technology in a manner that doesn’t favor
individual component suppliers.
Avnet
is making its online training available to anyone who wants to see it. “Anyone
can access it,” says Gsand. “We’ve been doing training internally for our
customers forever, but now our customers can do this at midnight on the web.
We’re taking the information we have, we’re recording it and we’re posting it
online for our customers.”
Digi-Key
has also started to post training online in presentations it calls Product
Training Modules. “We started doing this nine or 10 months ago, says Steven
Tsukichi, Digi-Key’s VP of marketing. “We’re still building our library, but we
now have 65 modules online with technology from 20 different suppliers.”
Tsukichi
notes that the development of the Product Training Modules was prompted by
customer demand. “From the customers’ perspective, this is a way to get
in-depth information about technology or parts,” says Tsukichi. “And the
customer knows the information has been approved by the manufacturer or has
been created by the manufacturer. From that standpoint, it adds value to our
website and gets more customers to visit the site.”
The
Product Training Modules have attracted greater traffic to Digi-Key’s site.
“Our customers have been accessing the training modules with a fair amount of
frequency,” says Tsukichi. “We’re seeing several thousand downloads each
month.”
The
modules feature either individual parts or a series of parts. “We develop these
modules based on parts and technology that has broad appeal to Digi-Key
customers,” says Tsukichi. The technology and parts featured in the modules
include semiconductors, converters, flash-based microcontrollers and other
technology.
Tsukichi
notes that customers are using the modules in the design process. “My instinct
is that people are accessing the training while they’re deciding on the right
technology for their products,” says Tsukichi. “Our intention is to give our
customers the ability to solve their design problem, which we hope will lead to
the purchase of the part.”
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