The material is well presented but there isn’t much of it. The Vitros 950 is summed up in five pages which are basically powerpoint slides. For a trainee this could be a very good primer but may still leave them wanting a bit more technical detail. This detail is available via “hidden” slides. Numerous slides contain links for more detailed information but these slides are hidden from the outline and there seems to be no way of downloading the content for off-line browsing.

Though this content is available on the American site, it seems to be lacking from the UK site (It may be lurking on the site, it just isn’t in an obvious place). It is possible to obtain reagent kit inserts via a search function.

Compared to some of the other companies, especially Abbott, the material is sparse to say the least. Though it is accessible to anyone, you don’t have to register and login to get some simple details about the underlying technology.

I would like to see the UK site take more of a cue from the American site but to correct the spellings! I don’t think it paints a company in a good light when simple spelling mistakes are repeated. If that if the effort they put into their site, what effort do they put into supporting their customers (I know it is a bit rich for me to pick up on someone elses spelling bu then I’m not a multi-national company employing thousands of people!).

The main site is http://www.orthoclinical.com/ which then asks for your location. Fair enough. So I then go the UK link, noticing that quite a few countries don’t have native language sites e.g. Greece, Denmark, Scandinavia. When I arrive at the destination of the UK link, I see a little flag waving in the corner to reinforce the fact that I have reached the UK site.

So I go to look at what appears to be their big product the Vitros 5,1. I know I am being REALLY picky here, but shouldn’t that be 5.1? Maybe the 5,1 section will inform me of why it is 5,1 and not 5.1.

When I reach the 5,1 section, I am confronted with a large animated gif extolling the virtues of the machine. It does allow the site to produce some flash-like graphics without the requirement of having flash installed. BUT. Yes, you knew it was coming. I have selected the UK site, a fact reinforced by the flag waving but still I am confronted with american spellings. This kind of thing is fine if I am using an american site, because thats how they spell! If I have selected the UK version, I do expect the site to have more than token localisation. Having an address in the UK does not count as localisation in opinion.

I will post some more about the training content later