Buyers Guide

TIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide

A powerful ICT-only online vendor search.

• Desktop Search Tool
• Why it's better than Google
• Firefox search

When ICT leaders are ready to buy, they turn to the TIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide to cut through the clutter of traditional search engine results.  Imagine blending GoogleTM with the Yellow Pages. Now imagine a green alternative to printed directories. It’s all there with this online guide.

With the TIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide, online searchers easily locate products and services unique to our industry without the clutter of a general Internet search engine. Users have the option of performing keyword-driven searches or a category-specific search. Both methods produce the most industr- relevant results on the Web.  The electronic TIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide is updated and corrected continuously, unlike a printed directory, which is often outdated by the time it is printed.  And the way leaders have to multi-task these days, it is more convenient to toggle from the online guide to spreadsheets and other Web data than it is to refer back to print directories. 

• TIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide search page

From there, you can search for specialized providers of desired goods or individual products by part number. And by clicking the on the words “Desktop Search” located at the top of the guide’s main search page, you can easily download the Desktop Search Toolbar directly to your computer. You’ll then have instant, one-click access to the buyers Guide and the TIA Web site at any time – even if you are not logged on to your browser. The TIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide also includes Request for Information (RFI) functionality. This feature allows users to contact participating suppliers with a click of their mouse. With a downloadable desktop search application available, association members also have the ability to search for items directly from a small search window on their desktops – making the search process as convenient and time-efficient as possible. 

A new Firefox search application is now an integral part of theTIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide. Industry professionals using a Firefox Web browser to search the online buyer’s guide for the products they need for their customers can now incorporate the guide’s search engine into their browser’s tool bar. This makes the guide accessible anytime the Firefox browser is open, regardless of what Website the user may be visiting.

Online Supplier Directories (OSDs) are emerging as the preferred method of searching within a business sector. Unlike traditional search engines, OSDs focus on a small niche of products and services, producing extremely relevant search results for the end user. By nature, OSDs service a specific industry and are usually maintained by seasoned veterans in the industry, such as associations like TIA.

“General search engines are leaving business professionals with much to be desired,” said Dan Maitland, president of Irving, Texas-based MultiView Inc., a technology company that partnered with TIA to develop theTIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide. “The obstacles created by these search engines result in failure to find critical content and information needs. These obstacles are overcome by the association’s vendor search, ultimately increasing productivity in businesses that rely on this type of search.”

If you are an industry supplier not currently listed in the TIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide, our members will miss your company as they research the suppliers prominently displayed in this one-o- a-kind, industry-specific search environment.  A completed listing will make your company stand out from the competition. Packages start at just $395 for an entire year. If you’d like more information on advertising options, contact (800) 816-6710 for a media kit.

Desktop Search Tool

In just seconds, association members can download the search toolbar from the Web, by simply clicking on the words “Desktop Search” located at the top of the guide’s main search page. (Located online at telecom-ictbuyersguide.com)

The toolbar loads directly to their computer giving them instant, one-click access to the Vendor Guide at any time – even if they are not logged on to an Internet browser.

Why use the Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide instead of Google?

If to you, OTS means the Organization for Tropical Studies, then Google is for you!

If to you, OTS means Optical Transport Systems, than stick with our Buyers Guide.

Firefox Search

Use Firefox? TIA has included a Firefox search engine tool that allows you to select the TIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide as the search engine in the top right search box. That little Google search box can be switched over to search the Buyers Guide directly, and then switch back to Google (or your other preferred search engine).

Just head over to the homepage of the TIA Telecom/ICT Buyers Guide in Firefox and you'll see the button to add the Firefox Search Engine.