Buying Smart Guide

This Control Engineering Buying Smart Guide redesigns our annual print "Control & Automation Buyer's Guide" to better address how engineers and manufacturing managers are specifying and buying products today. Brief, to-the-point articles in this guide offer highlights that every buyer should keep in mind when purchasing, including: most important features; main differentiators among princip...

By Staff August 15, 2005

This Control Engineering Buying Smart Guide redesigns our annual print ‘Control & Automation Buyer’s Guide’ to better address how engineers and manufacturing managers are specifying and buying products today.

Brief, to-the-point articles in this guide offer highlights that every buyer should keep in mind when purchasing, including: most important features; main differentiators among principal products in the market; price ranges and cost-to-feature correlation; specific industry considerations; and market factors that may impact buying decisions.

For links to even more purchasing guidance resources, access this page online at www.controleng.com/archives .

www.cesuppliersearch.com

Online, the information traditionally found in our print and online buyer’s guide can still be found at www.cesuppliersearch.com —a new supplier search tool formed by a partnership between Control Engineering and Kellysearch. Integrating Kellysearch’s globally recognized, leading search engine with our online buyer’s guide enables us to deliver thousands more categories for finding supplier and product information related to automation, controls, and instrumentation, and related sensors, networks, software, and systems. For example, searching on PLCs produces 59 more categories than the prior version; searching on flowmeters offers 137 more categories. The upgrade also contains more global companies and tools to narrow searches by region or state. In total, the upgrade includes more than 64,350 specific categories.

Start by choosing between Products/Services or Companies. Use the pull-down menu to narrow to the appropriate region of the world. Type in what you want. Get categories. After clicking into a category, select a company or narrow further by state.

Leading vendors

A section of yellow pages alphabetically lists major CE suppliersearch vendors with contact information.

We hope you enjoy this Buying Smart Guide and the MORE results you’ll get with LESS digging at www.cesuppliersearch.com .

Online Extra for Buying Smart Guide 2005-2006

Related reading to help with buying/specifying Control Engineering -related information to help in the buy/specify decision-making process includes monthly articles about technology trends. Use the search box atop www.controleng.com to find what you need. Learn features most important to subscribers on specific technology topics by searching “Product Focus” and “Product Research.” A small sampling of archived materials includes:

“Control Engineering’s Buyers Guide 2004 Purchasing Study”

“Industrial auction: how to buy online”

“How to Work with a System Integrator”

“10 Considerations for Direct Part Mark Identification”

“In-House/Outsource Debate”

“Minimize risk in selecting an automation support services provider”

“Controllers: Heartbeat of Production”

“Suit Yourself: Tailoring a Best-Fit Network”

Resource Center Control Engineering Resource Center at https://resource.controleng.com contains information to help, including:Purchasing Data searchable by product, functionality, region and industry. Learn what control and automation purchases are being made in the current economic environment. Query the database by industry, vendor and product for your specific application needs and to identify purchasing trends. This searchable data is based on more than 900 Control Engineering subscriber responses in 2004.

Customer Service Data searchable by vendor, product and industry. Gauge Control Engineering readers’ satisfaction with specific vendors and products. Based on data compiled from more than 1, 400 Control Engineering subscribers providing 2,034 responses about the satisfaction they are receiving from 92 manufacturers across 16 product categories.

Monthly research studies are available detailing specific product trends in the automation, control and instrumentation areas. Each month Control Engineering posts a new research study focusing on a product bought by our subscribers. Each study is based on at least 100 engineering respondents and is provided by Reed Research Group.

Engineering/manufacturing books with a Control Engineering discount At the Elsevier Science and Technology bookstore, Control Engineering readers can get a 10% discount on any purchase. Thousands of engineering books are available, covering everything from automotive engineering and engineering mathematics to mechanical and petroleum engineering. Click here to visit the bookstore and enter 80771 in the offer code box when selecting a book to receive your discount.

Other Reed Business Information resources

Purchasing.com Electronics Channel

In-Stat Market Research

Reedlink Parametric search tour of online specifications

Reed Business Information

Reed Elsevier