Supply Chain Reaction

Newark has inked an exclusive North America distribution deal with UK device programmer manufacturer Dataman.

Newark, part of UK-based Premier Farnell Group, will distribute Dataman’s range of universal, specialized, and gang programmers, designed for use with prototyping and production quantities of MCUs, memory chips, and programmable logic devices. Included in the offering are the latest programmers, which can support USB 2.0 connectivity, in-system programming capabilities, and PIC micro devices, Newark noted in a statement today.

Newark is making Dataman’s products available for same-day shipping through its Web site -- a big win for Dataman. Even the quickest glance at Dataman.com proves the site is cumbersome and lacks information on the overall electronics design environment. However, Newark’s online presence ranks as a top three distributor site in my book (with Avnet.com and DigiKey.com rounding that out). It’s easy to navigate, includes information on legislation like ROHS and REACH that impact electronics design, and has a design center full of whitepapers, application notes, and block diagrams.

I recently spoke to Newark’s Barry Litwin, senior VP of marketing, about the company’s site. He shared that one of Newark’s target goals for the decade is to more than double its Web sales, so that 50% to 70% of its entire sales come through that channel. Newark’s total sales in 2007 were $627.5 million, according to EDN’s Top 25 North American Electronic Component Distributors ranking.

You can read more about what Litwin had to say in EDN’s July 24 issue, but in the meantime, what are your thoughts on distributor Web sites? Are they technical resources for design engineers or are they, as some suggest, just a way to edge out the sales guy? Share your comments below.