Rockwell Website

[BillRobinson]

To go along with the Rockwell forums thread.... has anyone noticed how convoluted, complicated and confusing the Rockwell/AB website is? At times I think I would have an easier time finding my way out of corn maze, in the middle of the night, on one foot, than finding information on the Rockwell site. For a company that endorses itself as a leader in technology, efficiency and management....do you think they should be able to put together a decent website? I sure as heck hope that people who programed their website do not program anything else that comes out of Rockwell Automation.

[kolyur]

I have to be honest and say that Rockwell's site, in terms of finding information, is much better than many of their competitors IMHO. Most of my visits to ab.com involve looking for a product manual, or looking for information about some PLC product. I think their Literature Library works pretty good--I've never had a problem searching by catalog number or keyword to find a manual. And going to ab.com/micrologix or /slc or /logix takes me right to the product information pages where it's fairly easy to find catalog numbers and product specs. Then off to ab.com/e-tools to get list prices.

I get so sick and tired of going to a manufacturer's website and typing an exact part number into the P/N search field, only to have it return "no products found." Don't they even know their own product line? How asinine is that?

[kroxic]

I agree with both of you to some extent. I find their website to be a mess. I always create a boatload of bookmarks because I am afraid I will never get back to where I was again without 20 minutes and 100 extra clicks. At the same time, it is better than some as kolyer has stated. I think its just part of the business. Industrial manufacturers websites just seem to be 5 years behind everything out there that uses the web as a primary interface. They still lean toward that rather have you call them mentality instead of just letting you view everything right there on the website. Personally I just hate calling because it always ends up eating sooo much time.

The sad part is that is doesnt even cost a bunch of money to get an up to date functioning website. Customers just dont demand it enough.

Bottom line is things are improving but I still feel like I am looking at a website straight from 1999 made with geocities site builder when i visit a lot of manufacturers(or worse yet suppliers) websites.

[Chris S]

Yea AB's website leaves something left to be desired but the knowledge base is easy for me to find info about.

I have to say I find it much easier to find what I'm looking for then the Siemens website. For some reason I cant seem to find outdated drivers like I can on AB's site. Just annoying.

But yea the suppliers Website always seems to be lacking all the time for industrial stuff.

[kolyur]

They still lean toward that rather have you call them mentality instead of just letting you view everything right there on the website.

This is a great observation kroxic. And the phone call just leads to them wanting to come in and demo their wares for you. And they won't talk price until they've gone over all the features. I really don't mean to bash salesmen--I do rely on some very good ones--but if I had a nickel for every time I've heard "I'll have to check with my tech guy on that..."

One of the reasons I keep using Rockwell is that they do have very detailed product information on their website (albeit a little buried sometimes). So I can do most of the research myself, which is the way I like it. And it really helps to have list prices available--why waste time studying a product that's out of my price range?

[TConnolly]

Poke around Schneider's website instead for a while.

[Gil47]

Bill
A year or so ago I found it difficult to navigate to where I wanted, where as now I find I get what I want fairly quickly,

My experience now would be more consistant with kolyurs description.

I do find that if I use the search box on the screen that it does not always get me what I expected.

The attached picture has a collage of several screen shots all in one picture, that basically shows the paths I use mostly.

[Tharon]

Originally Posted by BillRobinson

To go along with the Rockwell forums thread.... has anyone noticed how convoluted, complicated and confusing the Rockwell/AB website is? At times I think I would have an easier time finding my way out of corn maze, in the middle of the night, on one foot, than finding information on the Rockwell site. For a company that endorses itself as a leader in technology, efficiency and management....do you think they should be able to put together a decent website? I sure as heck hope that people who programed their website do not program anything else that comes out of Rockwell Automation.

I must respectfully disagree.

I think their website layout is very easily navigated. The product list will lead you to any catalog information you need with just a few clicks. Once you get to the part, from there you can get to any info you may need to find on that particular part.

Ignoring any issues you may have with the access to the knowledgebase, finding the knowledgebase itself is easy. Using it is fairly easy.

I found it much easier than some other automation websites (especially before some recent updates to some of the others in the past few months). Those particular websites were easier to navigate through google rather than through the actual website.

[Jeev]

Rockwell's site isn't the best, but to be honest I find it quite easy to use these days. If you want something that will really ruin your day try the SICK website where 2/3 of it doesn't work properly on any browser I've tried. Everything's fine until you try to use the "Product Finder" or "Applications Finder".... +1 Burning hatred point to SICK.

[pandersen]

At least Rockwell's site has a search feature (nevermind how useless it tends to be). Try looking up a doc on the EX500 DeviceNet gateway on SMC's website. No search box, and none of their product categories obviously contain it. I had to use google to search for the PDF on SMC's website.

[OkiePC]

The search feature in the literature library works great for me.

I have learned to sort by publication type and descending order to get the results in the most relevant order for my purposes.

Paul

[whirlair]

Considering how much information the site houses, it seems fairly simple. Only problem I have is sometimes when getting drivers or files it ask that I log in, or have some other id number I am not aware of. Sometimes it will not let me get to what I want, other times I go forward a few pages and get to the same download anyways.

[dskohio]

I made a comment to my local AB/Rockwell rep about six months ago, that AB must have hired the same consultant that Siemens uses for web development. I never could find a quick way to info from Siemens, and now AB almost as bad.

[surferb]

I don't think it's a bad site.