PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE
In some cases, the source of the online design resources may not necessarily come from the company itself. For example, Texas Instruments' site includes peer-to-peer support. In addition to the self-service support and company-assisted support through e-mail, this site features discussion groups in which designers can draw from each other's experience and expertise. Over 15,000 users view the discussion groups each month, and there is an average of 250 posts per month.
National Instruments offers NI Developer Exchange, a series of newsgroup-like discussion forums with a number of features that are more powerful and user-friendly than traditional newsgroups. These forums are also monitored by National Instruments' application engineers, so if a user posts a question that's not answered by another user within a couple of days, a company engineer will post a response.
In addition, the National Instruments site provides an automated knowledge management tool. When an application engineer documents the solution to a single customer's issue, that solution automatically becomes available to all visitors to ni.com, as well as to all application engineers.
According to Christer Ljungdahl of National Instruments, the Web has allowed the large and growing user community to help each other. By providing an effective medium for the exchange of ideas and solutions on issues, related to but not necessarily directly tied to National's products, the Web has become a crucial extension to the company's direct product support, he claims. Ljungdahl estimates that Web resources alone are resolving over 50% of all support-related online visits.
Although Web sites will never replace the applications engineer, Robinson explains that Apex's site is the center of the company's technical support effort. Often, he says, the applications engineers end up pointing phone calls right to the Web site. In addition, the Web site allows the company to offer technical support to hard-to-reach international users, who generally rely heavily on the Web.
The self-service resources on its Web site are also very important to the overall technical support package provided by Intel Corp. (www.intel.com). Easy access to technical product information, design solutions, application notes, and programs and networks dedicated to particular types of hardware and software developers is the core of Intel's developer area.
The Intel "Software College" provides training on tools and technologies from instructors with processor expertise. Training can be done in person, but a sizable amount of online courses is offered. There are more than 106 online courses that consist of self-paced Web study. They can be accessed any time from any place. Course topics cover software-development tools, processors, various software technologies, operating systems, and networking and communications. There are also online courses about digital media and games, with such topics as "3D Animation."
Moreover, the Intel Learning Network offers training for Intel technologies and products. The Web-based training and online seminars include topics in computing, communications, e-business, and other technologies. Users find a course in the online training catalog and can download it using the Learning Network Mobile Player software. The course is then automatically transferred to your hard drive.
While there are excellent resources available online, some designers can get just so far in their Web transaction before phone or field-application engineering assistance becomes necessary. Phone and in-person support isn't going away, but many companies feel their Web sites are the most important resource that they offer designers.
Online design resources offer a vast sea of information and will only continue to grow in size and sophistication in the future. No matter what type of design help you need, the Web offers the online resources to get your job done.