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If there is one issue that has dominated the IT industry from birth it is the incompatibility of products/services with the end system. Compatibility between component products and services from multiple vendors is an issue that has enormous implications for manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, but ultimately impacts most on the end-user.

Computer product vendors have relied on various approaches to solving the problem of compatibility. Some have chosen to bypass the issue altogether, and accept that the consequence will be a very high product return rate - with accompanying customer dissatisfaction. Others have supplied raw information and relied on the end-user possessing sufficient technical knowledge to resolve the issue - an increasingly less viable option as Internet usage expands outside of the 'geek' world. Still others have attempted to address the problem by helping users on a one-to-one basis via phone lines - a time-consuming and human resource-intensive process with uncertain results.

To assess product compatibility you require knowledge of both the product and the end system. A product vendor will more than likely know the former but not the latter. Our objective at work4sure has been to revolutionise the solution to this issue:

• Firstly, we have removed the need for the end user to have any degree of technical knowledge. Internet usage is not only expanding at an exponential rate, it is also moving into the cultural mainstream, where the population value it for what it can provide, rather than for how it works. Hence, rather than ask the user to provide the answers we "talk" directly to the PC; the shortest, most effective line of communication.
• Secondly, by providing a technical solution, we enable the industry to automate it. ComponentMatching eliminates the need for personal interaction, which means that even complex technical sales can be handled entirely within an Internet environment.

In addition, since ComponentMatching is an Internet service, its reach is as extensible as your web strategy: Wherever your site can be seen, our service can go.

All of this is, of course, very impressive, but the real question is how ComponentMatching can benefit your business. There are very few companies who would not wish to achieve sales growth: Most plans for such growth are based on new markets and new approaches, with the attendant costs of new marketing campaigns. The benefits ComponentMatching offers are of a very different nature. The aim is to achieve sales growth by converting more attempted purchases into successful sales of the right (i.e. compatible) products and services. The success, therefore, of ComponentMatching is founded on the elimination of wastage and errors, and that has to be good news for both the industry and its customers.

Click here to try ComponentMatching.

Alternatively, to see a flash demonstration of the ComponentMatching service please click here.