The one-click way of adding your product to a specification

For all you marketers who've ever wished you could magic your product onto any project specification with just a click of a mouse... you can. Except that it's not magic. It's called NBS Plus.

NBS specification software allows architects and engineers to draft specifications quickly using standardised language and clauses, thereby saving time and minimising the risk of errors. Unsurprisingly, it's been embraced by 96 per cent of the UK's Top 100 architectural practices (2009 AJ Top 100) and literally tens of thousands of smaller ones besides.

NBS Plus takes an already simple idea one step further, by enabling users to specify products by name, and at the same time add all information necessary for the contractor to make the actual purchase. And all with just a single click of the mouse.

NBS Plus has been a part of the NBS software suite for over a decade, but in the last eighteen months has undergone a dramatic transformation. Specifiers now have a choice of around 20,000 product specifications from over 500 manufacturers. This not only represents a healthy increase in volume, but extends to an even greater depth of information available on each. High quality product shots and useful third-party documentation, such as kite marks and Agrément Certificates, are now included. Manufacturers' data is automatically filtered to only display products relevant to those being specified at the time. For example, if natural stone slabs are being specified, then only manufacturers of natural stone slab products will be displayed. As an example of serving the 'right product, in the right place, at the right time' it is without equal and therefore never fails to impress architects and engineers.

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Adding a product from a selected manufacturer to a specification simply involves browsing to it and then clicking an 'add' button. The product's details are automatically added in the form of a concise clause. Additional drop-down menus may be tailored to the item selected, allowing the user to complete the specification clause quickly and accurately.

One of the most recent improvements to NBS Plus is the links to electronic product catalogues hosted in ribaproductselector.com. Where available, electronic catalogues are displayed next to products so that specifiers can access additional information direct from the manufacturer. Catalogues are of course often also kept for reference, making the facility to download and save them quickly into a project folder particularly useful. Should even more information be required the site includes access to all RIBA-assessed CPD material published by the client.

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NBS Plus was created by architects and engineers for architects and engineers (and other specifiers) and so represents one of the most practical approaches to 'product placement' available today. It may not be magic but it remains a wizard idea.

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