AEROSPACE

CONCORD, Mass. - Parts manufacturers have boosted revenue, increased sales leads, reduced sales costs by as much as 90 percent, and cut customer purchasing decision times from days to minutes with SolidWorks(r) 3D PartStream.NET(r) service, the company announced today. With 3D PartStream.NET, global manufacturers such as SMC Corporation of America, Nook Industries, Inc., and Jergens, Inc. enable their customers to quickly find and download interactive 3D parts designs from online catalogs to see how those parts will fit and operate in their own product designs. 3D PartStream.NET lets power transmission component manufacturers like Nook increase sales by allowing customers to download and "design in" (check compatibility and subsequently purchase) their products. Chris Nook, the company's vice president of marketing, said that with 3D PartStream.NET, "about 80 to 85 percent of downloaded CAD models produce sales. As soon as an engineer can download a model and determine how it fits into his overall design, the purchasing decision is as good as made. We've cancelled all of our trade shows and will continue to invest in 3D PartStream.NET. It's a more cost-effective means for generating leads." Some of the benefits Nook has reported with 3D PartStream.NET include: * increased sales by 35 percent for all products included in its 3D-powered catalog; * cut sales support costs by more than $425,000 a year; * reduced cost-per-sales lead by 90 percent. 3D PartStream.NET also accelerates customer time to market by allowing users to quickly find the right part, no matter how many different product lines the manufacturer has or how many different configurations there are for each product. SMC is one of the world's largest manufacturers of pneumatic cylinders, with 9,200 distinct product series available in millions of configurations. "Our products are highly configurable to meet specific customer needs," said Steve Hoffer, SMC's E-Tech Group leader. "The real-time interface to 3D PartStream.NET enables our customers to select the exact configuration they need for their application, when they need it." With 3D PartStream.NET, SMC has: * reduced engineering support costs by more than $205,000 annually; * boosted annual revenue from one customer by $500,000; * registered 46,000 users in two years; * achieved 18,000 computer-aided design (CAD) model downloads per month. Using 3D PartStream.NET to help customers speed products to market gives tooling, fixturing, and workholding components manufacturers such as Jergens a distinct market advantage. "Because our models are available on the Web site, we've been able to convert many of our competitors' customers to Jergens brand products," said Greg Arnold, Jergens' marketing manager. "The ability to configure 3D models definitely raises customer awareness of what we can provide and converts business in our favor." Jergens has used 3D PartStream.NET to: * generate 50 percent of all sales leads from Jergens online catalog that features 3D PartStream.NET; * spend 80 percent less per sales lead than the same cost for trade shows; * register 3,000 users in six months. Nook, SMC, and Jergens components are also featured on SolidWorks 3D ContentCentralSM (www.3dcontentcentral.com), an online directory of downloadable 3D CAD parts available directly from within SolidWorks mechanical design software. The site includes downloadable parts models from leading manufacturers of power transmission, pneumatic, hydraulic, workholding, tooling, and fixturing components. With more than 268,000 people using SolidWorks software today, 3D ContentCentral offers component manufacturers a way to attract new customers and secure their business by ensuring companies download and "design in" their parts. "Jergens, SMC, and Nook are emblematic of the component manufacturers who are using 3D PartStream.NET to boost their sales and marketing efforts," said Bob Noftle, general manager of 3D content solutions at SolidWorks Corporation. "They need to make thousands of products that are configurable in millions of ways easily accessible to customers. The reduced sales costs, increased sales leads, and added revenue they've reported explain why more manufacturers are turning to 3D PartStream.NET to support their existing customers and 3D ContentCentral to attract new ones."