Intelligent Manufacturing € May € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 5

Autodesk and Industry.Net Bring Electronic Commerce to the Web

As we've already alerted you in two cover stories this year (see the February and April issues), electronic commerce will have a major influence on the manufacturing industry throughout the rest of this decade. A recent strategic alliance formed between online marketer Industry.Net (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and software provider Autodesk's Data Publishing unit (Sausalito, Calif.) bears this out. This partnership will bring a broader selection of manufacturer's parts to engineers and designers online.

Users will be able to enhance their design process by accessing digital designs and leveraging existing libraries more easily. Most users today rely on self-created libraries of drawings, or have re-drawn parts based on pictures and specifications. Industry.Net will now offer its users access to Autodesk Data Publishing's digital "small parts" libraries. Users will be able to search, select, download, integrate and purchase these small parts through Industry.Net's Online Marketplace, thanks to an electronic commerce hook-up.

The Industry.Net Online Marketplace provides users with such information as catalogs, corporate profiles, product/service descriptions, drawings and specifications, photos, brochures, demo software, and online discussion areas. It incorporates audio and will soon support full-motion video as well. Reportedly more than 36,000 corporations participate at various levels. Industry.Net can be accessed via the World Wide Web at http://www.industry.net

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