Sevice warns of product obsolescence: News from Farnell InOne

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Product Watch is a novel obsolescence service from Farnell, available now in the UK and scheduled for global rollout later in 2002. Product Watch is a comprehensive proactive obsolescence notification service designed to give Farnell's customers advanced warning of obsolete, end of line and end of stock items. Product Watch will inform customers when the products they buy are no longer going to be available, and provides further help by suggesting a suitable substitute for them to consider as a replacement or upgrade.

Combined with an automatic warning of cancellation or back order and scheduled itineraries, Product Watch will save customers time, money and effort by giving them the latest up to date product information when they need it.

Available automatically to all Farnell account holders, the service is completely free, all customers need to do is look out for the advisory e-mails and letters, speak to sales staff or check their delivery notices.

Development and testing of Product Watch began during 2001.

The urgent need for such a service to be available to customers was then compounded by the recent findings of independent research conducted on behalf of Farnell.

The research revealed how serious the problem of global component obsolescence has become for all industries as development of new technologies continues apace.

Half the respondents in the Farnell research report, "A survey of design engineers, identified finding suitable replacements for obsolete components and lack of availability of relevant components as the major issues they face today.

The research, conducted independently by Metrica Research on behalf of Farnell, also found that almost one in four respondents forecast that finding replacements for obsolete components would be the most critical problem they faced over the next two years.

Commenting on the launch of Product Watch, Paul Tallentire, Regional Director, Western Europe, Farnell, says: "Design engineers need advance warning if a product is going to be made obsolete or no longer stocked.

Farnell recognises both the aggravation and business implications from designing-in components only to find out, often too late, that between design and production a key component has become obsolete.

Hopefully we can solve the frustration factor for our customers with our new Product Watch".

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