Page 41 - trends in automation

Photo: © Stobag AG
product is no longer available in the catalogue, a link to the
support information is provided. Customers therefore have
quick access to after sales information and can obtain high
quality data and documents with just a few clicks.
Virtually all of the information on the Support Portal is accessible
using a smartphone at m.festo.com/sp. Another way of accessing
the Support Portal is to use the data matrix code, which can be
found on the rating plate of more and more products. The code
contains the product key for the respective product. This
provides customers with the manufacturing data and the order
code, for example. For products that don’t have a data matrix
code, the 11-digit product key can be entered instead.
Customers can access the data and information that they need
anytime, anywhere.
www.festo.com/sp
1.2 million
Festo Support Portal
International
Photo: © istockphoto/rustemgurler
Data matrix code: Customers can
get the product key with just
a single click. This is the code for
the valve terminal VTUG.
The number of complex automation products and systems has
risen at Festo in recent years. The information requirements of
customers have therefore increased as well. The Support Portal
was created in response to this development and has been
providing real added value for the past two years.
What was originally devised as a replacement for an outdated
download area has become a genuine success story. The Festo
Support Portal registers around 1.2 million searches worldwide
every month. Its popularity is thanks to the fast, intelligent link
to the Festo catalogue.
The Support Portal offers basic information and tools such as
brochures, manuals, application videos, technical documentation,
software and firmware. It thus combines all service information
with the complete Festo in­formation offering, including CAD files
and the online catalogue xDKI. In addition to the current product
range, which includes more than 30,000 products, the Support
Portal provides data for around 20,000 older products.
Basing the product navigation of the Support Portal on the
structure of the Festo catalogue has also proven to be very
successful. The Support Portal links documents and data
according to context. When a customer searches the catalogue,
information from the Support Portal is also displayed. If a
“The Festo Support
Portal provides a
wide variety of user-
oriented after-sales
information.”
Armin Kaiser,
Internet Communication
Manager, Festo
Issue 24 trends in automation
Festo worldwide 38 – 39