Kycon, Inc. is an ISO 9001 registered manufacturer of connectors and sockets. They specialize in the production of a wide array of connectors including: D-Subminiature Connectors; PC99 Colored, Power, SMT Modular & Mini USB connectors; Dins & Mini-Dins and sockets. Kycon has facilities in California, Taiwan and China, and major distributors in North America and other parts of the world. They have thousand of parts that engineers can choose from, with multiple options for each.

Although Kycon already had a good website, they wanted to make it easier for engineers to select their product needs in a faster, more intuitive fashion. The website would allow engineers to search by specifications, drill down to specific part numbers, view detailed technical information, select options, request samples or quotes, review quantity pricing, search for off-the-shelf inventory, and send out emails, RFQs, or POs to buy product from authorized distributors or from Kycon.

Kycon contracted Mectronic.net to integrate their legacy systems with new website functions; to provide user registration for privileged pricing access; to link detailed product information to the results of multiple searches such as dynamic parametric search, cross references, data sheets and stock checks; provide sample requests and RFQ forms to search results; create content management tools to update data; and increase throughput on the website and host the new system.

Mectronic created for Kycon an XML (Extensible Mark-up Language) data structure to transfer data from a Lotus Notes database internally used for parts information, engineering drawings, data sheets and specifications. Another XML integrated database was from their back-end legacy transaction system, Epicor's Platinum software where multi-tier pricing and inventory data was extracted. From this base, Mectronic provided Dynamic Parametric search capabilities from a starting point of 20 product groups and 8 industry applications. Mectronic also integrated a Competitors' Cross Reference search of over 100 manufacturers and 5,000 parts. Both of these searches linked seamlessly into an Inventory stock search, which was a mix of current inventory available at franchised distributors and multiple factory locations. Password protected, User registration specific, multi-tier pricing was linked to inventory search results. The website hosting was moved to Mectronic's locked, secure, environmentally controlled server cabinet.

The result for Kycon was that they made it easy for engineers to find and buy Kycon products, increased available website data and function, reduced telephone technical support calls, and increased website speed and reliability. The Mectronic solutions for Kycon were done in 8 weeks, below their planned budget, and without any increase in hardware, hosting costs, personnel or IT infrastructure expeditures.