Lessons from the implementation of an adaptive parts acquisition ePortal.

In recent work we have developed a novel approach to the design and implementation of an online portal (ePortal) to help application engineers find replacements for electronic parts that have become obsolete (and hence will no longer be produced). Our approach makes use of machine learning techniques to improve the performance of a database search function. However, the purpose of this note is not to describe in detail the application nor our technical solution - that has been done elsewhere (see [1,2]). Rather, it is our intention to present some of the lessons learned from our project. Below, we provide a brief introduction to the technical approach, concentrate on several of the most salient lessons, and conclude with a description of the current state of the project.