Barb Marusiak, chair of the Association’s Internet SIG, was a judge for the award. "The e-try.com site is very user friendly and very user interactive. It is like going to a science museum and conducting experiments. The site simulations were very hands on, encouraging the user to experience a product," said Ms. Marusiak. "Also, the site worked faultlessly and the user-downloadable simulations contained all the necessary browser plug-ins. Individual simulation downloads went uninterrupted and were accomplished flawlessly." She noted that while interactive web sites are the latest trend in web design, many sites they reviewed did not function properly.

e-try.com promotes experiential marketing by developing and then hosting realistic product simulations on its web site, in a showroom format. With e-try.com buyers now have the ability to test drive a product in a virtual environment, right on their PC or laptop. The site currently provides interactive simulations for a variety of products and services, including semiconductor manufacturing equipment, medical equipment, industrial equipment, and communication and information services. The number of showrooms and product simulations available on the site will continue to grow in the future.

With e-try.com simulations, suppliers benefit from a more efficient and cost effective marketing and sales cycle. "Suppliers have found that product simulations allow their customers to fully understand all of a product’s features and abilities, in the comfort of their environment. This has been accomplished with a reduction in both sales cost and sales cycle time for the supplier," said Rich Madarasz, e-try.com’s CEO. "Business buyers and consumers both experience a more convenient and less time consuming purchasing process by employing e-try.com simulations during this process."