A new website launched on the 1st June 2001 by procurement specialist First Index will serve as a single, easily entered electronic gateway to the full range of the company’s services.
A new website launched on the 1st June 2001 by procurement specialist First Index will serve as a single, easily entered electronic gateway to the full range of the company’s services for buying and selling nonstandard or bespoke components for the engineering industry. Besides offering an integrated portal, it provides a connection to the company’s four major business centres in the UK, Germany and the USA (East and West Coast). The new website (www.firstindex.co.uk) will provide swift access to the latest version of First Index’s top-line sourcing service, ‘findFAST Online 2.0′, launched in March this year.

Hosted by the company, the database linked to findFAST Online 2.0 contains information on more than 40,000 suppliers in this country and abroad, together with details of their capability to make or supply nonstandard and custom manufactured components.

“Finding standard or commodity parts via the Internet is now relatively easy, but when something that is not readily available must be found or needs to be specially made, then people like design engineers, buyers and suppliers, in companies large and small, need a different kind of service”, said Hans Wigart, a founder and the chief executive officer (CEO) of First Index.

“This issue is crucial because it represents a recurring and often major demand on time and resources.

The new website portal from First Index provides a fast and easily navigated path to a cost-effective solution”, he said.

Of the many services available via the new First Index website, other important sources of information include details of current contracts and live requests for quote (RFQ) opportunities.

In addition, besides the First Index directory of suppliers, the PROfiles feature enables a buyer to build a personalised record of information on supplier companies by creating his or her own database within ‘findFAST Online 2.0′.

Records can be updated by the buyer to make a note of new details about the process capability and any additional information provided by the supplier.

The personalised feature means that time is saved when using the service again because there is no duplication of previous steps.