Website provides access to component samples

A website which allows engineers to hunt down samples of components is finding great popularity in India.

Close to 1000 engineers in India do are making use of Beganto's NeedaSample website (needasample.com) to access component samples, according to CEO Sunil Grover.

Also using the site are major distributors like Avnet, Future and WPI to access samples for their customers.

Grover interprets both phenomena as partially relating to the lack in India of good sampling support from component suppliers.

Beganto's closed loop feedback system also suggests that nearly half of all the samples being shipped through its system - whether to India or elsewhere in the world - are getting designed in! Component suppliers who fund the Beganto program - Alps, Catalyst, Fox, Hirose, JAE, JRC, Mueller, NEC, Optek, ROhm, Torex, and United Chemi-Con - use it not only to facilitate sampling support as a customer service, but even more to help them achieve, manage, support and track design wins.

The pace of new NeedaSample registrants in India has been increasing at a rate of approximately 100% per year, Grover reveals.

When the NeedaSample program was introduced in 2002, 30 engineers in India signed up.

In 2003 the number jumped to 63; then 112 in 2004, 232 in 2005, and 405 last year.

The highest concentration of design engineers in India enrolling in Beganto's Open Network (BeON) is in Banglore.

Registrants come from such companies as Honeywell, GE, Flextronics, Solectron, Elcoteq, D-Link, Kone, Larsen and Tubro, UTL, Delphi and Juniper Networks, covering such industries as aerospace, automotive, medical, industrial, heavy machinery, elevators, and networks.

Other registrants include both large and small design service providers like Tata, Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, and Patni.

The sample requests also support reference board designs at Intel, Philips, ST Micro, Freescale, Analog Devices, Conexant and Ikanos.

Registration for the BeON network is free for engineers and others on the "buy side".

Beganto helps more than 40,000 engineers worldwide get needed data and samples from a central source - without the need to visit dozens of Web sites or enter the same information repeatedly.

"Although our Indian membership is only a small percentage of the total, it's significant because of the growth pace and because it's all coming without our having done any significant marketing outside the US", Grover says.

The quid pro quo for free membership in the network is that engineers agree to provide information about when and where the project will go for production.

The Beganto system also facilitates sharing such information with the reps and distributors who are involved in supporting the sale.

During its four-year lifetime, Beganto has processed more than 60,000 sample requests, resulting in an estimated 6000 design wins and 600 volume production orders.

Beganto is particularly sensitive to the Indian market because CEO Grover hails from there, and the Fremont CA-based company maintains its own development facilities there.

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