Compatibility is undoubtedly the issue which has dogged the consumer end of the IT industry since birth.  Anyone who has faced the sharp end of a consumer support line can testify to the fact that the industry-standard PC is a myth: Any product that is truly make-and-model-specific such as memory or laptop batteries is heavily exposed to compatibility issues.  And how those issues are handled can make the difference between profit and loss.  Even products that are less make and model specific such as hard drives have still been shown to be prone to the same exposures; the difference between technical reality and consumer perception.

The conventional approach to resolving this problem has been the Configurator; a multi-level pick list that allows a consumer to select their manufacturer, model range and model to arrive at a list of parts compatible with their machine.  There can be little doubt that the Configurator has been a significant step forward: many vendors cite the accuracy and comprehensiveness of their configurator as a key component of their commercial advantage…

And yes, here comes the ‘but…’  Configurators have been around for over a decade.  Realistically, they’ve gone as far as they can go.  Every additional selection and click the customer has to make is one more chance of abandonment of the entire buying process. In the 21st Century era of intelligent shopping, it’s time to move on to a more sophisticated model.

So what can work4sure provide? Well, work4sure's ComponentMatching service allows the online sales process to address configuration and specification questions directly to the customer's computer, where they can be answered more quickly, comprehensively, accurately and more reliably than any human response. Several clicks an a lot of hesitation are replaced by a completely automated process that enables customers to arrive directly at the buying solution appropriate to their specification and configuration.

That's a neat trick in itself, but the real genius lies in the benefits that accrue from delivering a sales process that cannot be equalled in terms of speed, convenience and above all, consumer confidence. Read on...