Specialist Equipment

Equipment supply centres allow the user to identify suppliers of specialist equipment and facilities based on their needs. They provide a more intelligent search, and more complete information, than is currently available from paper-based catalogues or their electronic counterparts. Current systems are very much based on a yellow-pages model where the supplier of a particular class of equipment can be identified, but not the parameters of the equipment (can it do the job you have to do), the location, the availability, etc. Centres are likely to be established in regional and national contexts, though they can also be of benefit to various membership or professional organisations.

Equipment supply centres aim to further enable Technology Transfer by identifying appropriate facilities from all sources. Users are taken directly to the supplier for full information on the equipment or facility and to enable a purchase or hirage to be made. They also allow users to establish interest profiles for automated notification of new facilities and equipment in their areas of interest.

CONNET recognises that specialist facilities and equipment are of benefit no matter which country or organisation they reside in. To this extent CONNET provides mechanisms to link together all equipment supply centres to provide answers to user requests at a European as well as a national level.

One of the fundamental assumptions of this service, and the CONNET initiative, is that there is benefit from bringing together as wide a range of organisations as possible. To this end we welcome the establishment of new Equipment supply centres in other countries or for other markets. We also welcome connections with existing information resellers who may sell their services to particular audiences in the countries they serve. There are several ways forward for those who wish to set up a similar service, they are summarised below:

• Compliant interfaces: for an existing system the simplest approach is to provide an interface compatible with the CONNET specifications and for a Equipment Supply Centre. This is detailed in full on the Help Desk.
• Development with common models: a new Equipment Supply Centre could be developed using the data models and API specifications as a starting point. These are available for interested parties.
• Re-use of existing service: the database, software, and machinery used to provide the initial version of a Equipment Supply Centre can be re-used to provide a similar service for any other interested party.
• Lease of existing service: the software created for the initial Equipment Supply Centre can be leased to other interested parties.
• Technical consultancy: the development team of the initial service are available to provide technical consultancy on any issue related to a Equipment Supply Centre to interested parties.

In all cases we are interested in talking about your requirements. See the Contact Us page for contact details.