ChipCenter Links with Motorola

Electronic News, March 6, 2000 by Marie Eve Demers

Online electronic components information and sourcing service ChipCenter has added to its site the Networking Technologies Knowledge Center, a Motorola-sponsored information platform that offers engineers articles, training and tools provided by ChipCenter experts.

At the center, which Motorola will sponsor over a three-year period, visitors are able to communicate through forums and bulletin boards and also can purchase networking technology components online. The purpose of the service is to enhance knowledge-sharing between the world's network designers, Motorola executives said.

The site focuses on semiconductor solutions for networking products and technology, an area that Motorola addresses via its DigitalDNA line of chips, software and systems aimed at the networking market. While Motorola is sponsoring the service, the center's content features products from various companies in the network components area.

"The Networking Technologies Knowledge Center gives engineers another avenue to get information about Motorola products," said Rob Damron, an analyst with Cleary, Gull, Reiland & McDevitt. "That sponsorship increases the company's exposure in the engineering community. Also, when a company like Motorola gives incremental information and makes it easier for engineers to utilize its products, it's likely to increase its sales volume."

Motorola is well aware of that. In fact, Mike Smith, director of Internet marketing at Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS), revealed that the company's goal was to get its name, DigitalDNA, on as many sites as possible, making sure that engineers surfing the Web eventually will encounter Motorola's products. The company recently negotiated a sponsorship agreement with another company called WebPRN.com, whose site is primarily dedicated to online services. Other Sponsors of WebPRN are Zilog, LSI, AMD, Hitachi, and MIPS.

ChipCenter is owned in part by distribution giants Arrow Electronics Inc. and Avnet Inc. Motorola said its sponsorship of the site will not affect its relationship with distributors.

"The nature of our relationship with distribution companies and the one we have with ChipCenter is fundamentally different," Smith said. "Distribution companies are mostly about fulfillment, while ChipCenter is more of an information/editorial nature."

The fact that the sponsorship has a three-year length has no real signification, Smith says. "It is just that the Internet is such a fluid environment."

ChipCenter on the Rise

Rob Damron said ChipCenter appears to have grown a lot since its September launch.

"The key to a successful e-commerce in the distribution industry is providing incremented value in the supply chain. By creating a site that is efficient for online ordering and gives valuable information, ChipCenter is doing just that."

Two things differentiate ChipCenter from the rest of the crowd, analysts say. First, ChipCenter is primarily information-oriented. Customers who want to buy are sourced to authorized distributors. Second, the site is backed by renowned companies.

"Being run by authorized distributors, ChipCenter provides clients with safeguards, protection, value-added, availability ... all those things that other "wannabes" cannot necessarily offer," said Robin Gray, executive vice president of the National Electronic Distributors Association.