--- title: "How to Choose Parts Catalog Software: Six Questions" description: "How to choose parts catalog software when most of the category was built for a different buyer: six axes that actually separate the options, and what to ask." image: https://envalo.com/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/Charcoal%20Hardcover%20Parts%20Catalog%20On%20Gray%20Counter.png --- [Skip to main content](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/how-to-choose-parts-catalog-software/#main-content) [![Envalo](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sr-envalo/images/Envalo.png?width=96&height=32&name=Envalo.png) ![Envalo](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sr-envalo/images/Envalo.png?width=96&height=32&name=Envalo.png) ![Envalo](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sr-envalo/images/Envalo.png?width=96&height=32&name=Envalo.png) ![Envalo](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sr-envalo/images/Envalo.png?width=96&height=32&name=Envalo.png)](https://envalo.com) - [Show submenu for Solutions Solutions](https://envalo.com/solutions) - [Interactive Parts Solution (enIPS)](https://envalo.com/solutions/interactive-parts-schematics) - [Product Information Management (PIM)](https://envalo.com/solutions/product-information-management) - [Integrated Data Layer (IDL)](https://envalo.com/solutions/integrated-data-layer) - [Managed Services](https://envalo.com/solutions/managed-services) - [Industries](https://envalo.com/industries) - [How It Works](https://envalo.com/how-it-works) - [Pricing](https://envalo.com/pricing) - [Show submenu for Resources Resources](https://envalo.com/customers/enerco-integrated-customer-service-portal) - [Our Work](https://envalo.com/our-work) - [Our Insights](https://envalo.com/resources/blog) - [Case Studies](https://envalo.com/our-work) - [About](https://envalo.com/about) Open main navigation Close main navigation - Show submenu for Solutions Solutions - Solutions - [Solutions](https://envalo.com/solutions) - [Interactive Parts Solution (enIPS)](https://envalo.com/solutions/interactive-parts-schematics) - [Product Information Management (PIM)](https://envalo.com/solutions/product-information-management) - [Integrated Data Layer (IDL)](https://envalo.com/solutions/integrated-data-layer) - [Managed Services](https://envalo.com/solutions/managed-services) - [Industries](https://envalo.com/industries) - [How It Works](https://envalo.com/how-it-works) - [Pricing](https://envalo.com/pricing) - Show submenu for Resources Resources - Resources - [Resources](https://envalo.com/customers/enerco-integrated-customer-service-portal) - [Our Work](https://envalo.com/our-work) - [Our Insights](https://envalo.com/resources/blog) - [Case Studies](https://envalo.com/our-work) - [About](https://envalo.com/about) - [Pricing](https://envalo.com/pricing) [Request a Demo](https://envalo.com/request-a-demo) [Pricing](https://envalo.com/pricing) [Request a Demo](https://envalo.com/request-a-demo) # How to Choose Parts Catalog Software: Six Questions by [Michael Moores](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/author/michael-moores) ![How to Choose Parts Catalog Software: Six Questions](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/Charcoal%20Hardcover%20Parts%20Catalog%20On%20Gray%20Counter.png?width=1200&height=820&name=Charcoal%20Hardcover%20Parts%20Catalog%20On%20Gray%20Counter.png) How to choose parts catalog software: test every option against six questions: how it builds a catalog, how long it takes to deploy, whether the price is published, how you buy it, whether it connects to the ERP you run, and whether it can hold parts you didn’t make. Most of the category was built for a different buyer. That buyer is large. 93.1% of US manufacturing firms have fewer than 100 employees, but 59.1% of the sector’s employees work at firms with 500 or more (National Association of Manufacturers, from Census Statistics of U.S. Businesses, 2022). The category was built for the firms that employ most people, not the firms that make up most companies. ##### **Isn’t enterprise parts catalog software just outdated?** No, and any guide that tells you enterprise tools are old and yours would be modern is selling you something. Several enterprise products are cloud-native, have mature 2D authoring and don’t require a CAD model. The useful question isn’t which product is better. It’s which was designed around a company shaped like yours. Six axes separate them, and each ends in a question to put to the vendor. ### **1. Can it build a catalog without a CAD model?** Some products build a catalog from CAD geometry. If you maintain current 3D models for everything you sell, that is a real advantage: the exploded views come out of the model. If you don’t, it is a wall rather than a hurdle. Drawings last updated two revisions ago. A line inherited through an acquisition with no model at all. For integrators and machine builders, the gap is wider still: you rarely have CAD for the purchased components that make up most of what you ship. This is architectural, not a setting someone can switch off for you. **Ask: “Build me one from photographs and a parts list. No CAD model. Show me.”** ### **2. How long does deployment take, and whose hours does it use?** At one end you sign up and build your first catalog in days. At the other there is a scoping engagement, a data-preparation phase and a go-live months out. Neither is wrong. A manufacturer with fifty thousand SKUs across nine plants probably should have a structured implementation. A 40-person manufacturer usually can’t, and not because of the fee. Someone has to own that project, and at your size that person already has a full job. **Ask: “What do the first ninety days cost me in my own people’s hours?”** ### **3. Is the price published?** Enterprise licensing in this category is usually quoted rather than published, and quotes are shaped by what the vendor learns about your budget during discovery. A published number tells you in thirty seconds whether a product is in range. A quoted one tells you after three calls. That doesn’t mean nothing exists at small-manufacturer price points. Products are published at prices a small manufacturer could approve. The point is that an unpublished number costs you a month to find. Buyers increasingly expect to buy without a sales process at all: McKinsey’s 2026 Global B2B Pulse Survey found 73% are comfortable placing orders above $50,000 online, up from 59% in 2022 (May 2026). **Ask: “What does this cost, in writing, before we go further?”** ### **4. Can you actually buy it?** This is the axis most evaluations skip, and it surfaces late and painfully. The category is genuinely international, and good products are built outside North America. That isn’t a knock on capability. It’s a question about paperwork. Your controller needs a US contracting entity, an invoice in dollars, a W-9 and sales tax handled for your state. Your service manager needs support hours that overlap the shift when a machine goes down. None of it appears in a feature comparison. All of it appears in the fourth week of procurement. **Ask: “Contracting entity, currency, W-9, data residency, support hours. In writing.”** #### **5. Does it connect to the ERP you actually run?** “Integrates via API” means you are building the integration. For a manufacturer whose IT function is one person and a consultant on retainer, it is a project you won’t start. What you need is a named connector to the system you run, whether that’s QuickBooks, NetSuite, JobBOSS, E2 SHOP, Global Shop, Epicor Kinetic, Fishbowl or ShipStation, not the enterprise suites that dominate this category’s published integration lists. For an OEM, this is where the parts record meets the reorder. Don’t accept a roadmap as an answer, including from us. **Ask: “A named, supported connector to \[your ERP\], live today. Not an API.”** #### **6. Can it hold parts you didn’t make?** Most parts catalog software assumes one manufacturer publishing its own bill of materials to its own dealer network. If you’re an OEM publishing your own parts, that assumption is invisible because it’s correct. If you integrate systems from components other companies made, it’s fatal. There’s no place in a one-publisher structure for a machine whose parts belong to fifteen other firms, each with its own part numbers *\[internal: /spare-parts-documentation-integrators/\]*. The same is true for a service shop carrying several brands *\[internal: /obsolete-parts-catalog-long-tail/\]*. **Ask: “How does this hold a machine whose parts we didn’t author, with each component manufacturer’s part number attached?”** #### **How to choose parts catalog software: the six questions** Screenshot this and take it into the demo. 1. Can you build a catalog from photographs and a parts list, with no CAD model? 2. What do the first ninety days look like, and how many hours of my team’s time? 3. What does it cost, in writing, before we go further? 4. Who is the contracting entity, in what currency, with a W-9, and what support hours? 5. Do you have a named connector to my ERP, live today? 6. How does this handle components we didn’t author? A vendor who answers all six cleanly may still be wrong for you. One who can’t answer three has told you something useful in twenty minutes. #### **Which questions matter most for your business?** All six apply to everyone, but they don’t carry equal weight. - **OEMs publishing parts to dealers and customers:** start with questions 1 and 5. Lines inherited through acquisition rarely have current CAD, and a parts record that isn’t connected to ordering doesn’t win the reorder. - **Integrators and machine builders:** start with questions 6 and 1. Most of what you ship was made by someone else, so the software has to hold other companies’ part numbers in their installed positions, built from supplier PDFs and photographs. - **Multi-brand service shops:** start with question 6. Holding several manufacturers’ parts in one searchable structure is the whole job. #### **Is enterprise parts catalog software ever the right choice?** Yes, for the buyer it was built for: a company with a project team, a CAD department and a procurement process that can absorb a six-month implementation. That’s roughly seven in a hundred US manufacturing firms, employing most of the people. If you’re one of the other ninety-three, the question isn’t whether you can afford the enterprise tier. It’s whether a product designed around that buyer’s constraints will ever fit your week. Tags: [eCommerce,](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/tag/ecommerce) [Interactive Parts Schematic App,](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/tag/interactive-parts-schematic-app) [Online Parts Catalog](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/tag/online-parts-catalog) **[Michael Moores](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/author/michael-moores)** Oct 28, 2026 Michael Moores is the Founder and CEO of Envalo, Inc., an eBusiness solutions company he started in 2012 to give small and mid-market manufacturers a way to compete on customer experience without enterprise-level budgets. Before Envalo, Michael held product and technology leadership roles at companies including Briteskies, PreEmptive Solutions, and Inspherion, bringing close to 20 years in B2B eCommerce and product development to the work he does today. Michael is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program at Cuyahoga Community College. He leads Envalo's work building Interactive Parts Schematics and the broader enVent Suite — tools that turn static parts catalogs into live, ERP-connected ordering experiences for dealers and field technicians. What drives him is a straightforward conviction: mid-market manufacturers shouldn't have to choose between modern systems and healthy margins. He's spent his career building the systems that let them have both. [Email me](mailto:michael.moores@envalo.com) [Follow me on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmichaelmoores/) Test ## FAQ ### What is parts catalog software? Parts catalog software turns parts books, drawings and parts lists into a searchable catalog, usually interactive, where a user clicks a part on an exploded view to identify it and often order it. ### Do you need CAD models to build an interactive parts catalog? Not always. Some products generate catalogs from 3D CAD geometry; others build them from photographs, PDFs and parts lists. If you don’t have current CAD for everything you support, including purchased components and acquired lines, ask the vendor to build a sample without it. ### How much does parts catalog software cost? It varies widely, and enterprise products are usually quoted rather than published. Products with published monthly pricing exist at levels a small manufacturer can approve. Ask for the full cost in writing before a second call, including the hours your own team will spend on implementation. ### Can parts catalog software handle components from other manufacturers? Only if it was built to. Most assumes one manufacturer publishing its own bill of materials. Integrators and multi-brand service shops need a structure that holds other companies’ parts in their installed positions, with each component manufacturer’s part number attached. ### How do I know if parts catalog software will work with my ERP? Ask for a named, supported connector to the system you run, live today. “Integrates via API” means you build the integration yourself, which is a real project for a manufacturer whose IT function is one person and a consultant. ## See it on one of your machines  Interactive Parts Schematics (IPS) builds parts catalogs from photographs, PDFs and parts lists, with no CAD model required, Which of the six would your current setup fail first? [Book 10 minutes](https://envalo.com/request-a-demo) ##### Categories - [eCommerce](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/tag/ecommerce) - [Interactive Parts Schematic App](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/tag/interactive-parts-schematic-app) - [Online Parts Catalog](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/tag/online-parts-catalog) - [Featured Post](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/tag/featured-post) - [Uncategorized](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/tag/uncategorized) ##### Recent Posts - [Parts Attach Rate Starts in the Quote: Obsolescence & TCO](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/parts-attach-rate-obsolescence-in-the-quote/) - [You Didn’t Build the Machine. You Still Own the Phone Call.](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/spare-parts-documentation-integrators/) - [Who Carries the Schematic After the Manufacturer Stops?](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/obsolete-components-integrator-documentation/) - [Nobody Publishes the Long Tail](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/obsolete-parts-catalog-long-tail/) ## Related Articles [![Parts Attach Rate Starts in the Quote: Obsolescence & TCO](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/Industrial%20Parts%20Schematic%20On%20Tablet%20With%20Orange%20Hotspots.png?width=500&height=500&name=Industrial%20Parts%20Schematic%20On%20Tablet%20With%20Orange%20Hotspots.png) Parts Attach Rate Starts in the Quote: Obsolescence & TCO Your Customer Budgets for Obsolescence. Your Quote Doesn't ...](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/parts-attach-rate-obsolescence-in-the-quote/) [![You Didn’t Build the Machine. You Still Own the Phone Call.](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/Workshop%20Table%20With%20Tablet%20And%20Legacy%20Parts%20Catalog.png?width=500&height=500&name=Workshop%20Table%20With%20Tablet%20And%20Legacy%20Parts%20Catalog.png) You Didn’t Build the Machine. You Still Own the Phone Call. Ask an integrator why they bother writing a recommended ...](https://envalo.com/resources/blog/spare-parts-documentation-integrators/) [![Envalo](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sr-envalo/images/footer-logo.png?width=176&height=59&name=footer-logo.png)](https://envalo.com) A Dynamic Parts Platform for Manufacturers - - [Solutions](https://envalo.com/solutions) - [Industries](https://envalo.com/industries) - [Our Work](https://envalo.com/our-work) - - [Our Insights](https://envalo.com/resources/blog) - [Careers](https://envalo.com/careers) - [Contact](https://envalo.com/contact) ###### Connect with Us - [![Twitter](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sr-envalo/images/twitter.png?width=24&height=24&name=twitter.png) X-Twitter](https://twitter.com/Envalo_Inc) - [![Linkedin](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sr-envalo/images/linkedin.png?width=24&height=24&name=linkedin.png) Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/company/envalo/) - [![Facebook](https://envalo.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sr-envalo/images/facebook.png?width=24&height=24&name=facebook.png) Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/EnvaloInc) ©envalo. 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