Touch-Base has been involved in the touch business since 1987, mainly with the development of touch screen drivers. Over the years we have remained independent from the touch screen industry retaining impartiality towards the technologies and the suppliers.  Our drivers support hundreds of touch devices from all sectors of the industry and therefore we deal with literally hundreds of touch related queries each year from customers seeking all manner of general touch advice.  We also spend a great deal of time and resource trying to help users with current, legacy or unidentified touch hardware to find software solutions, ranging from support for latest operating systems, unusual Linux distributions or specialist software functionality.

With a global customer base and the growing demand for such information particularly relating to the availability of touch software, hardware, the technologies involved and location of manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, we decided last year to develop a web based touch portal.

The resultant system can be found at www.touchit.com.

This system is a repository for touch related information that can be accessed by anyone with a touch query. General users can access all the information on the site or register for advanced usage. Registered users can perform more comprehensive database searches, directly email the supplier’s marketing contact and opt to receive suppliers’ broadcasts as and when information is added and selected for broadcasting to the user base.

The core element of the TouchIT database is the list of manufacturers, suppliers and distributors with touch related products. At the launch of this service the initial supplier list comprises all the current touch device manufacturers. This list is now being actively expanded to cater for other touch related products as seen on the Welcome page.  Supplier’s details will either be entered by the TouchIT administrator or registered directly by the supplier via the Registration option.  Supplier registration is a straightforward procedure that initially captures the obvious general information. Supplier registration details are reviewed and approved to ensure only genuine suppliers are added.  Once registered on the system a supplier can log in to add and update all the other associated information, such as products, newsletters, forthcoming exhibition details, press releases and whitepapers.  This information is then available to all site visitors.  There is a broadcast facility whereby the information added or updated by the supplier can be sent to all registered users.

We have aimed to provide a flexible and intuitive system that will allow users to obtain the information they need, when they need it, using powerful search features, links to other related sites and software download services.

Users of the system can access the information in a number of ways. Suppliers can be located directly, alphabetically, or via specific search criteria, as seen on the search page below:

Registered users are able to perform advanced searches on product criteria, textual matches and product keywords. A quick search option is also available.

Having performed a search, a results list is displayed showing the supplier’s name and short description from which the user can select for viewing individual supplier’s details:

The supplier’s general information is displayed together with contact details and a link to the supplier’s web site. Contact information is shown for Sales, Customer and Technical Support. Where appropriate there are also links to software drivers.

The lower part of the screen is used to display the supplier’s associated information, such as Products, Events, White Papers, News Letters and Press Releases.

From this screen the user can print all relevant details as well as directly email the supplier’s marketing contact.

One important feature of this system is to aid users locate suitable drivers for their touch hardware as this is one of the principal requests we receive from users.  For each supplier there is a “Software” column that contains a number of software links.

Although the site will hold a great deal of static information it is also our intention to ensure that users are kept up-to-date with current developments, product releases and events within the touch industry.

Having established a worldwide presence in the touch arena our aim is for the TouchIT site to offer a valuable service to the wider touch industry and its’ users and customers. The success of the site will depend on the quality and usefulness of the site content.  With this web site we believe we have built the foundation of a comprehensive touch portal and trust that with sufficient exposure and momentum that this site will grow to become the primary portal for the touch industry. To this end we would encourage all suppliers not already registered to do so and anyone with a touch interest to register.