San Jose, CA, August 17, 2010. Catalog Data Solutions (CDS), a leading provider of online solutions for industrial suppliers, today announced that AST Bearings LLC have launched their new website incorporating CDS Catalog and CDS ModelServer to present and aid online selection of products and CAD model downloads.

AST® Bearings is a premier supplier of miniature and precision bearing products, including engineering and design solutions, to enhance performance or reduce costs to a wide range of applications and industries. “Over the past few years, we’ve noticed that the buying process has changed. We recognized that customers now often research and select products online *even before* talking to a supplier. To support this change, AST is launching a new online catalog to make it easy to find the right bearing product and downloadable CAD models. This should save engineers and designers time as they specify products into their designs,” said Paul Wharton, Director of Marketing, AST Bearings. Enabling our customers to search our online catalog of over 7,700 bearing and related products with 3D CAD models is a first in the bearing industry. From our website, our customers can now easily find the right bearing for their design via a powerful parametric search that avoids the common search frustration of ‘no results found’.

Wharton continued, "We selected Catalog Data Solutions as our online catalog and online CAD service provider based on their proven Software as a Service technology, supporting professional services, ability to brand the solutions to AST Bearings, request for quote and CAD download integration into our Selltis CRM system, and the ability to syndicate our catalog and 3D CAD content across the internet. We look forward to offering our customers this powerful new product search and selection experience."

“AST Bearings is demonstrating thought leadership in the bearing industry and their implementation of this online technology is the most thorough and extensive we’ve seen to date. For example, in the Angular Contact Ball Bearing category (see TIFF image) AST Bearings offers 554 separate products. While that is a large number of products in a single sub-category, users can still easily and very rapidly search for the right product through a parametric search on attributes that include, ‘Bore Diameter’, ‘Outer Diameter’, ‘Width’, ‘Dynamic’ or ‘Static Load Rating,” said John Major, CEO Catalog Data Solutions. “AST Bearings are also right that the buying process has changed, that industrial suppliers need to appear in and influence online research by prospective customers and that CAD downloads are the best online content to offer. Of all types of online marketing content (e.g. white papers, case studies, brochures, videos, demos, recorded webinars, reviews, CAD model downloads, etc.) only one is known to lead to a sale nearly 50% of the time! CAD downloads may be the most efficient and effective website visitor conversion tool available.”

About AST Bearings
Founded in 1963, AST® Bearings, LLC is an ISO 9001:2008 certified company and a value-added supplier of a wide selection of miniature bearings and precision ball bearing products. The company maintains an extensive inventory of superior quality bushings, rod ends, roller and linear bearings, custom cost efficient sub-assembly products and much more. AST maintains two warehouses to ensure availability and “just-in-time” delivery to customers across the US and internationally. AST also provides inventory management services, expert engineering and design services, in addition to failure analyses and re-lubrication services in clean rooms with Class-100 workbenches at its headquarters in Montville, New Jersey. For additional information, visit the company online at: www.ASTBearings.com.

About Catalog Data Solutions (CDS)
Catalog Data Solutions, Inc. is a leading SaaS provider of product search, configuration, and online CAD solutions for Industrial Suppliers. Founded in 2005 with headquarters in San Jose, CA, Catalog Data Solutions enables Industrial Suppliers to increase sales by enabling their products to be specified into new designs, improve website conversion rates, generate high quality sales leads, and improve customer service. CDS SaaS solutions include the CDS ModelServer™, CDS Catalog™, and CDS CAD Configurator™. CDS’s highly skilled and experienced professional services team provides implementation services for the successful deployment of CDS SaaS solutions. The company’s customers include the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors in the High Tech and Industrial Manufacturing industries.
For more information CDS can be reached at 408.550.8820 or by visiting www.catalogdatasolutions.com