From kenmac@annapurna.lcs.mit.edu Wed Aug 25 16:34:31 1993 Return-Path: Date: Fri, 6 Aug 93 09:11:34 -0400 From: kenmac@annapurna.lcs.mit.edu (Kenneth Mackenzie) To: nhm@im.lcs.mit.edu Cc: frank@annapurna.lcs.mit.edu Subject: re: FAST Reply-To: kenmac@hing.lcs.mit.edu Hi Norm, > I understand you've used this: perhaps you could give me some > advice, or maybe even some help. Thanks, Both Frank and I have used this service a bit. The Alewife machine is being put together partly by a group at ISI and they naturally insisted on setting up FAST to do all their purchasing. There is a single, LCS-wide account so that anyone can get quotes by sending mail to FAST and can make orders by passing the order to Bob Donahue in HQ. Unfortunately, my name was associated with the account to begin with, so shipments from FAST often end up in my office regardless of who placed the order :-) so it's just as well that I be involved in FAST orders. I'm not sure about Frank's experience, but I generally avoid using the service when I make orders for Alewife because (1) their prices vary unpredictably from pretty good to truly atrocious so I feel obligated to sanity-check with local vendors anyway, (2) they often run up against annoying minimum quantity requirements from their vendors and (3) there is a percentage surcharge added to each order for using the service. On the other hand, I've found them great for finding _rare_ parts because they make it easy to query a lot of vendors and their purchasing agents know where to look. For instance, I haven't found a more reasonable source for Motorola HC11s, especially in terms of short delivery times, and I just used FAST to dig up a discontinued 74F-series part we had designed into a board. As far as advice vs. help, how many different parts do you have to order? If it's a small number (5-10), then it's simple for me to order them using FAST. Beyond that, I'm not sure I want to take on any more purchasing reponsibilities than I already deal with because they tend to be very time-consuming. In any case, I can certainly set up you or your group purchasing person with the right info to use FAST. I have some emacs code that partly automates the generate of 'quote' and 'order' forms that makes the process pretty simple. -- Ken