Avoid Sticker Shock with Real-Time Electronic Parts Pricing

Every designer and procurement team faces the challenge of keeping projects on time and within budget, all while navigating unpredictable supply chains, fluctuating pricing, and the looming threat of part obsolescence. A single missing component can throw a project off course, leading to costly delays, missed deadlines, and even lost opportunities.

Altium offers several methods for managing electronic parts procurement. From basic supplier links in your libraries to the advanced ActiveBOM tool, these solutions help teams manage their Bill of Materials (BOM). However, when the stakes are high, and you need real-time data and seamless collaboration, the BOM Portal in Altium 365 is the optimal solution. It goes beyond pricing, providing up-to-date inventory data, lifecycle status, risk mitigation, and integration with Z2Data. The BOM Portal ensures that your project remains on track, even when the supply chain throws unexpected curveballs.

In this article, we'll take a deeper look into three methods of managing parts pricing within Altium, using real-world examples to highlight the limitations of each—and why the BOM Portal is the best solution for avoiding sticker shock.

1. Supplier Links in Your Libraries: The Single-Source Disaster

For many teams, using Supplier Links in component libraries is a simple, effective solution. This method connects your components directly to your preferred suppliers, pulling in their pricing and availability data. This is an easy way to spot component availability right at the beginning of your design phase because preferred vendor inventory can be seen when selecting components for a new design.

Of course, inventory from suppliers can change quickly, as I found out the hard way on a recent project. We were nearing the final stages of a product design, and everything seemed to be on track. Our schematics were finalized, suppliers were lined up, and all of the components were linked directly to manufacturers and distributors. One critical component—a surface-mount transformer—was tied to a specific supplier, and we didn't think much of it. The pricing was right, the lead times were reasonable, and we had relied on this supplier before without issue.

Then, the bomb dropped. Three weeks before production was scheduled to start, we found out that this supplier had run into manufacturing delays, and the transformer was now back-ordered for the next two months. This single part—one tiny transformer—threw the entire project into chaos.

Our team scrambled to find an alternative. There was a through-hole version of the transformer available from another supplier, but redesigning the PCB to accommodate it would take valuable time. Three weeks of back-and-forth later, we finally completed the redesign and resubmission to the manufacturer and secured the part. But those three weeks were costly—so costly, in fact, that we missed a critical funding round from shareholders. A single supplier had derailed the entire project.

This disaster highlighted a crucial flaw in using a small number of supplier links: you're locked into the data provided by that one supplier. While these links are very helpful when starting a new design, there's no immediate visibility into alternative options until you review the BOM periodically during the project. This experience made it clear we needed a solution to comprehensively review the BOM during the project—something like ActiveBOM.

2. ActiveBOM: The Roller Coaster of Real-Time Decisions

After that experience, we turned to ActiveBOM in Altium Designer, which gave us much more ability to control the BOM after parts were added to the project. ActiveBOM displays more information than what is available from Supplier Links and it can be accessed at different stages of the project. ActiveBOM compiles real-time pricing from multiple suppliers, alternative parts, and even warnings when a component was at risk of obsolescence.

But even ActiveBOM has its limitations, as we learned from another project. We were designing a new product with a tight deadline—everything had to be ready for a big product launch in six months. This time, we felt more prepared. ActiveBOM allowed us to monitor part pricing and availability in real-time, compare options from different suppliers and verified lifecycle data from 3rd party providers like Octopart and IHS Markit.

But once again, we hit a snag—though this time, it wasn't as obvious. Everything was on track until we discovered that several components we had selected were being phased out, with limited quantities remaining across all suppliers. We quickly adjusted our design to use alternative parts, but the clock was ticking, and procurement wasn't fully in the loop.

Then came the roller coaster drop. Procurement secured the parts just in time—but at a cost. Due to a delay in finalizing the parts list, one of the alternative components we had switched to had already seen a significant price hike. We had sourced everything, but the sudden spike in pricing pushed us over budget. What we gained in real-time data, we lost in collaboration and communication between departments. Procurement, design, and management weren't all on the same page.

This project didn't crash as spectacularly as the last one, but the turbulence highlighted ActiveBOM's limitations. It gives the PCB designer a lot of flexibility and visibility into part pricing, but the document can't be shared outside of the design application without exporting and sharing a file. This meant our collaboration efforts still fell short. We needed a solution that could bring all stakeholders—designers, procurement, and management—into the same environment, working from the same real-time data. That's where the BOM Portal in Altium 365 comes in.

3. BOM Portal in Altium 365: The Solution to Avoiding Sticker Shock

The BOM Portal in Altium 365 is the solution that bridges the gaps left by supplier links and ActiveBOM. It offers everything we need to avoid the disasters we experienced in previous projects, plus so much more.

Real-Time Pricing and Availability: No More Surprises

With the BOM Portal, we finally had access to real-time data from multiple suppliers in a fully collaborative environment. Unlike the static supplier links, the BOM Portal updates continuously, pulling in the latest pricing and availability data from trusted sources. The days of last-minute price hikes or sudden part shortages were over.

We could see instantly if a part was becoming scarce, giving us the opportunity to adjust our design early—before it was too late. No more redesigning the PCB at the last minute, no more frantic searches for alternatives. The BOM Portal's integration with Z2Data took it a step further by providing insights into the lifecycle of each component so we could avoid parts that were nearing obsolescence and choose components with a secure future.

Seamless Collaboration: Keeping Everyone Aligned

Perhaps the biggest advantage of the BOM Portal was its collaborative environment. We no longer had to deal with silos between design, procurement, and management. Everyone had access to the same data in real-time. Procurement could see exactly which components were being considered and check availability early in the process. Management could track pricing trends and approve parts with confidence, knowing that the data was current.

This level of collaboration ensured that everyone was aligned from the beginning, preventing the communication breakdowns that had plagued us in the past using time-frozen data in static spreadsheets and software. We were able to keep the project on track, meet our deadlines, and stay within budget—all while avoiding the stress of unexpected part shortages or price hikes.

Lifecycle Status and Risk Mitigation: No More Blind Spots

With the BOM Portal, we no longer had blind spots when it came to the lifecycle status of our components. The integration with Z2Data provided detailed insights into potential supply chain risks, including geopolitical factors, market shifts, and even potential future shortages. We could make proactive decisions to avoid parts that might be affected by these risks, ensuring the long-term viability of our designs.

In one instance, we avoided what could have been another disaster by choosing a different microcontroller after the BOM Portal flagged a potential shortage in our original choice. This insight saved us weeks of delays and thousands of dollars in expedited shipping costs to achieve project funding before a shareholder's product review. The risk mitigation features built into the BOM Portal gave us the confidence to move forward without the fear of unforeseen obstacles.

Conclusion: Altium 365 BOM Portal—Your Key to Avoiding Sticker Shock

Our journey through the ups and downs of supplier links and ActiveBOM taught us one thing: real-time data and collaboration are critical to success in electronic design. The BOM Portal in Altium 365 is the ultimate solution for avoiding sticker shock. With its real-time pricing, collaborative environment, and lifecycle insights, it gives teams the tools they need to make informed decisions, avoid costly surprises, and keep projects on track.

For design teams looking to minimize risk, improve collaboration, and make better decisions faster, the BOM Portal in Altium 365 is a clear choice. Whether you're managing a small project or a complex, multi-stakeholder design, the BOM Portal ensures that your project stays on time, on budget, and free from sticker shock. Enhance your BOM management workflows today!