COVER STORY
Developing the digital application engineer for the electronics frontier
There are clear limitations with the FAE
Simon Duggleby, technical marketing manager at RS Components, explains how the distributor is building up its vast online electronic application resources and know-how to deliver the ‘digital application engineer’
These changes in the industry also mean that the modern distributor needs to move with the times: increasingly they are finding the need to move up the value curve to offer greater levels of technical guidance, tools and support, as well as business-to-consumer experience in what historically has been a B2B environment.
Helping engineers
In an ideal world, engineers should be able to find everything they need for an electronics-engineering project in one place. This should include all the components, technologies and tools, as well as other design resources including key system knowhow and all the other supporting information required to aid the design process and enable teams to make power- and cost-efficient products.
approach. For example, there are limits on how many customers can be handled – a typical FAE will look after somewhere between 10 and 100 customers. There is also limitation on product knowledge as well as inherent product bias. In addition, FAEs are an expensive resource. Given that RS is not a volume distributor and has around one million customers, the FAE model is not a suitable one. However, clearly we want to support our engineering customers and because we offer extensive resources in terms of components and tools, we’re in an excellent position to deliver an equivalent service, which we call the ‘Digital Application Engineer’. The advantages of this new approach include: rich and relevant design-in content: extensive customer reach; constant availability whenever required; up-to-date information; and a completely supplier- agnostic approach.
Digital Application Engineer In fact, RS began implementing its Digital Application Engineer strategy around a year ago. Now gaining significant momentum, the strategy essentially
involves communicating technical and useful application-led content via the RS and DesignSpark websites and using the company’s many marketing communication channels. RS has also organised online hubs to address key markets, such as motor control, the IoT, power management and LED lighting. Each hub groups links to useful information and block diagrams, aids navigation to a range of relevant new and existing products, as well as DesignSpark blogs, reference designs and supporting technical content. In this way, we can be a much more integral part of engineers’ research journey, adding value and helping them find a solution, rather than simply saying this is a suitable component that could enhance your design. RS is perhaps the only electronics distributor today that can offer a single environment including a broad range of components and the DesignSpark suite of free design tools, where an engineer can go from concept to a working prototype with the necessary tools to build it, quickly and easily.
www.uk.rs-online.com
Simon Duggleby I
n the development of new electronics products, systems and solutions, the role and importance of the Field Application Engineer (FAE) is well understood, primarily operating as a conduit between the product or technology vendor and its key customers. Ideally providing in-depth product knowledge, the FAE typically works closely with end customers to develop and implement solutions based upon the vendor’s products and technologies. However, the changing dynamics of the
electronics industry is seriously challenging the FAE model. The rate of development is growing ever faster with emergence of new technologies, in wireless for example. In addition, there are considerable changes in the market with major mergers and acquisitions ongoing in our industry over the past couple of years, especially in the semiconductor market. We are also seeing new entrants in the marketplace with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), including major companies that have not traditionally been involved in the electronics industry. There are a multitude of new designs in development today, and finding a way to support demand from the explosion of the ‘maker’ community for example is not so easy.
8 November 2016 Components in Electronics
www.cieonline.co.uk
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