Ideal information gets Net Profile

Ideal Hardware is to launch its electronic catalogue, Profile, on the Internet on 6 November. The service is being offered free of charge to Ideal account holders and will provide access to 4,000 products and 200,000 pages of technical documentation.

Ideal MD James Wickes said the move is intended to make the buying and selling process as easy as possible. 'Access to information is vital in this industry, it is a key part of being able to sell effectively. Putting Profile online will mean the latest information can be made available to people in a selective manner,' he said.

Ideal is also hoping to use Profile as a targeted lead generation system, by focusing on specific user interests.

Profile users will be able to indicate a range of preferences when logging on to the system, which will enable Profile to issue automatic emails with details of special offers that match the user's particular buying history.

Each user will be greeted with a personalised interface showing which pages of the catalogue have been updated since they last used the system.

Profile is already available on CD-Rom. Resellers and dealers will now be able to get real-time access to information about new products and will be kept up to date about which are to be revised or replaced.