LONDON, November 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Danfoss Drives and its partners now offer online ordering of the VLT(R) Micro Drive. Customers can order customised drives through a special web site and take delivery from their local distributor. The benefits include minimum processing time for orders, direct follow-up and the shortest possible delivery time.

The new web site, at http://www.vltmicro.co.uk, allows users to customise the drive, select their local distributor and pay for the order using PayPal or major credit cards.

It's simple, easy and fast, says Anthony Pickering, Senior Sales Director at Danfoss Drives. We wanted a platform that reflects the simplicity and ease-of-use of the VLT(R) Micro Drive itself and that allows the customer application to be up and running in the shortest possible time.

Colm Toolan, Danfoss Drives' e-Business Manager, sees this platform as the basis for new relationships with the sales partners: The Internet has the potential for disintermediation - to take the distributor out of the equation. Danfoss has a tradition of strong relationships with strong distributors. VLTmicro.co.uk leverages the technology to enhance that tradition for the benefit of everyone. He goes on to explain that Danfoss has implemented the web site as a broker - matching customers and partners and ensuring secure and confidential payment. The customer does business directly with the local distributor, who can provide local support, products from stock, installation assistance etc. This is not B2C and it's more than B2B, Toolan says. This is B2C2B - Danfoss collects the customer, brokers the deal and passes the process to our business partners for fulfilment.

Jacob Thomsen, Web Master at Danfoss Drives, was responsible for the implementation. It's an interesting problem - we needed to orchestrate a process with changing roles and responsibilities and to manage the communication between the various system elements. We also needed a common payment mechanism across multiple distributors that could support our sales process. The PayPal API gives us the functionality we require and provides reliable acknowledgements of the payment transaction. That way, we know that payment was successful, without needing to know either the customer's or the distributor's credit card or account details. But Thomsen is already thinking about the next versions of this platform: Real-time assignment of distributors, based on stock levels would be pretty cool!

About VLT(R) Micro Drive

VLT(R) Micro Drive is developed and manufactured by Danfoss Drives, the leading drives experts since 1968 and creators of VLT(R) - The Real Drive. That's what makes all its condensed and reliable functionality easy to use.

Danfoss Drives have packed the full VLT(R) quality in components, features and user-friendliness into the small VLT(R) Micro Drive.

VLT(R) Micro Drive is a full member of the VLT(R) family, and shares the overall quality of design, reliability and user-friendliness.

High quality components and genuine VLT(R) solutions make the VLT(R) Micro Drive extremely reliable.

All VLT(R) Micro Drives - are tested at full load before being dispatched from the factory - have built-in RFI filters - comply with RoHS directives - are designed according to WEEE

Despite the compact size and the ease of commissioning, the VLT(R) Micro Drive can be set up to perform perfectly even in complex application set-ups, with approximately 100 parameters that can be set to optimize energy efficiency and operation.

About Danfoss Drives

Since 1968 Danfoss Drives has been dedicated to developing VLT(R) electronics to control speed, torque, acceleration, synchronisation, positioning, and the overall performance of AC motors.

The reliable and innovative VLT(R) drives are designed to support any automation application and provide major energy savings. An award winning, innovative modular design makes VLT(R) drives extremely flexible, enabling us to deliver within days highly customised drives, tested from the factory.

Contact Mr. Hans de Groot, NER Marketing Services Phone: +31-10-249-2046 Fax: +31-10-249-2141 E-mail: hans.de.groot@danfoss.nlGraphics etc for download: http://www.vltmicro.co.uk/pressroom

Contact: Mr. Hans de Groot, NER Marketing Services, Phone: +31-10-249-2046, Fax: +31-10-249-2141. E-mail: hans.de.groot@danfoss.nlGraphics etc for download: http://www.vltmicro.co.uk/pressroom