Make this your online home page

Looking for suppliers of software, hardware or IT services for a current or potential project? Want technical or business information by any subject or maybe by company name? Just want to be kept abreast of industry and technology news? Or maybe you want to review that feature from a back issue of Manufacturing Computer Solutions, but can't remember the date or title - just the subject? For all of the above and a lot more, go to the brand new www.mcsolutions.co.uk. You're looking at your primary resource for manufacturing and business IT. www.mcsolutions.co.uk was first launched in September 2000 and has now been completely overhauled. We're not just talking about a new look and feel, although it has that: it's also much faster, far, far more comprehensive, and hugely easier to use. And the key is its most important new feature - an impressive new web search engine. We're all used to getting results fast in these days of broadband connection and Google, and you'll get the same at www.mcsolutions.co.uk and more - or rather less. Less, because hundreds or thousands of page/URL returns are not helpful, so MCS' website provides only directly relevant filtered content - and that's both from within the site and, just as important, from the world wide web as well. If I do a Site Search on 'CAD', for example, results are returned fast under seven tabs - 'Suppliers by Category'; 'Suppliers by Name'; 'News'; 'Reference Categories'; 'Reference Articles'; 'Jobs'; and 'Optimised Web Search'. The tabs tell you how many sources it's found and each does exactly what it says - although it's worth noting that if you're looking for suppliers, 'Suppliers by Category' gives you every firm we know in that category, while 'Suppliers by Name' delivers suppliers with your search term in the company name or its products' trade names. Optimised Web Search is the really new piece: it's a search throughout the web for content and companies that match the term you search on - but with sites filtered to return only those of most interest to Manufacturing Computer Solutions' readers. Underpinning MCS' Optimised Web Search is a pre-selected group of external websites - edited content if you like, rather like the journal. So a search for the term 'CAD', even though it is a broad term, returns a far more controlled number of companies and their most relevant web pages - 142 at time of writing and a far cry from the 175,000,000 returned on a certain well-known search engine! A tighter search for something like 'advanced planning' will see the Optimised Search return 54: again far fewer than the more than 348,000,000 returns that the web's favourite search engine serves up. And in our case, it is a company name that heads up the return list, not a paragraph of text with highlighted words. By hitting the company name you get to our 'record card' of details we hold on the company, while the URL beneath takes you straight to the relevant part of its website. Running quickly over the rest of the site functionality, in our Reference Zone you'll find MCS feature articles and case studies as PDFs classified by industry or technology type and rendered in relevance and date order. So if your interest is, say, aerospace, you can quickly and easily navigate to the relevant articles by hitting 'Industry Sectors' and then filtering on 'aerospace/defence' - or just key 'aerospace' into the Site Search. Note that the site's content grows every day. Having found the article, you can see it, read it, print it - and you'll also be given links to related articles, news items and relevant suppliers. Select a news item and it'll be displayed, again with related links to other news items, articles and related supplier names. And if you want to see only news, the home page provides the day's top and eight most recent stories. Hitting any 'News' button extends that to the latest 25. For other news stories, use the Site Search and 'News' tab. More free information Incidentally, note that the top left hand buttons under 'IT Shortlist' provide another route to suppliers' information by function. Hitting 'Factory/Plant Systems', for example, serves you a list of the 23 relevant categories we hold - and where there's another level of sub-categories it's shown with a '+' for you to expand. Choosing 'Shop Floor Data Capture Systems', for example, delivers 213 suppliers - currently as 18 preferred at top of list and the remaining 195 accessible at the 'click here' icon. Again, hitting a company name takes you to our 'record card' - address, telephone, email, URL, any case histories, relevant Product Spotlight (again with links to the right place on the supplier's site), trade names and news and reference material. You can use the links and email forms provided, and if you want to visit the company, there's even a map link. Finally, there's all the digital information on the right hand buttons. Lost your copy of MCS, but know there was something you wanted? You've got three choices: search for the article by navigating the Reference Zone, as above; search for it using the main Site Search and tabs; or download the issue using the 'Digital versions' link. You can also use our free online Reader Enquiry Service - with another three choices. Select the issue you want and use the fields to enter the relevant enquiry numbers printed in the magazine: the system then lets you send pre-formatted emails to suppliers mentioned or link to their websites. Alternatively, you can email multiple enquiries to selected advertisers in that issue - just tick the boxes in the list - and/or visit their websites. Or you can get supplier information by technology type: click on any topic shown to see an appropriate list of MCS' preferred suppliers. And you can apply for free copies of MCS and subscribe for MCS' weekly ezine - again, all free. Simple searching with filtered and edited content as you want it - that's the new www.mcsolutions.co.uk. Make it Looking for suppliers of software, hardware or IT services for a current or potential project? Want technical or business information by any subject or maybe by company name? Just want to be kept abreast of industry and technology news? Or maybe you want to review that feature from a back issue of Manufacturing Computer Solutions, but can't remember the date or title - just the subject? For all of the above and a lot more, go to the brand new www.mcsolutions.co.uk. You're looking at your primary resource for manufacturing and business IT. www.mcsolutions.co.uk was first launched in September 2000 and has now been completely overhauled. We're not just talking about a new look and feel, although it has that: it's also much faster, far, far more comprehensive, and hugely easier to use. And the key is its most important new feature - an impressive new web search engine. We're all used to getting results fast in these days of broadband connection and Google, and you'll get the same at www.mcsolutions.co.uk and more - or rather less. Less, because hundreds or thousands of page/URL returns are not helpful, so MCS' website provides only directly relevant filtered content - and that's both from within the site and, just as important, from the world wide web as well. If I do a Site Search on 'CAD', for example, results are returned fast under seven tabs - 'Suppliers by Category'; 'Suppliers by Name'; 'News'; 'Reference Categories'; 'Reference Articles'; 'Jobs'; and 'Optimised Web Search'. The tabs tell you how many sources it's found and each does exactly what it says - although it's worth noting that if you're looking for suppliers, 'Suppliers by Category' gives you every firm we know in that category, while 'Suppliers by Name' delivers suppliers with your search term in the company name or its products' trade names. Optimised Web Search is the really new piece: it's a search throughout the web for content and companies that match the term you search on - but with sites filtered to return only those of most interest to Manufacturing Computer Solutions' readers. Underpinning MCS' Optimised Web Search is a pre-selected group of external websites - edited content if you like, rather like the journal. So a search for the term 'CAD', even though it is a broad term, returns a far more controlled number of companies and their most relevant web pages - 142 at time of writing and a far cry from the 175,000,000 returned on a certain well-known search engine! A tighter search for something like 'advanced planning' will see the Optimised Search return 54: again far fewer than the more than 348,000,000 returns that the web's favourite search engine serves up. And in our case, it is a company name that heads up the return list, not a paragraph of text with highlighted words. By hitting the company name you get to our 'record card' of details we hold on the company, while the URL beneath takes you straight to the relevant part of its website. Running quickly over the rest of the site functionality, in our Reference Zone you'll find MCS feature articles and case studies as PDFs classified by industry or technology type and rendered in relevance and date order. So if your interest is, say, aerospace, you can quickly and easily navigate to the relevant articles by hitting 'Industry Sectors' and then filtering on 'aerospace/defence' - or just key 'aerospace' into the Site Search. Note that the site's content grows every day. Having found the article, you can see it, read it, print it - and you'll also be given links to related articles, news items and relevant suppliers. Select a news item and it'll be displayed, again with related links to other news items, articles and related supplier names. And if you want to see only news, the home page provides the day's top and eight most recent stories. Hitting any 'News' button extends that to the latest 25. For other news stories, use the Site Search and 'News' tab. More free information Incidentally, note that the top left hand buttons under 'IT Shortlist' provide another route to suppliers' information by function. Hitting 'Factory/Plant Systems', for example, serves you a list of the 23 relevant categories we hold - and where there's another level of sub-categories it's shown with a '+' for you to expand. Choosing 'Shop Floor Data Capture Systems', for example, delivers 213 suppliers - currently as 18 preferred at top of list and the remaining 195 accessible at the 'click here' icon. Again, hitting a company name takes you to our 'record card' - address, telephone, email, URL, any case histories, relevant Product Spotlight (again with links to the right place on the supplier's site), trade names and news and reference material. You can use the links and email forms provided, and if you want to visit the company, there's even a map link. Finally, there's all the digital information on the right hand buttons. Lost your copy of MCS, but know there was something you wanted? You've got three choices: search for the article by navigating the Reference Zone, as above; search for it using the main Site Search and tabs; or download the issue using the 'Digital versions' link. You can also use our free online Reader Enquiry Service - with another three choices. Select the issue you want and use the fields to enter the relevant enquiry numbers printed in the magazine: the system then lets you send pre-formatted emails to suppliers mentioned or link to their websites. Alternatively, you can email multiple enquiries to selected advertisers in that issue - just tick the boxes in the list - and/or visit their websites. Or you can get supplier information by technology type: click on any topic shown to see an appropriate list of MCS' preferred suppliers. And you can apply for free copies of MCS and subscribe for MCS' weekly ezine - again, all free. Simple searching with filtered and edited content as you want it - that's the new www.mcsolutions.co.uk. Make it your manufacturing business IT search engine of choice.