When searching www.opus.bs.com, you will be searching the OPUS database, containing information for over 1250 suppliers and their products.
You can reach the front search screen at any time by selecting ’Search’
from the central navigation bar at the top of the page.
The search allows you to search across products, supplier names and trade names. There are two main tick boxes below the search box on the home page that enable you to specify the type of search you wish to make
- one for product
- one for supplier / trade name
Both are automatically ticked which means the search criteria entered in the search
box searches across both of these groups. Either group can be de-selected by
unticking the box that is not required.
Tip: Select which type of search you would like to do, a product
or a supplier / trade name search, to bring back results quicker.
The third tick box, ’ISO 9000 Quality assured firm’ allows you to refine
your product or supplier / trade name search to only show companies who have informed
us they are Quality Assurance approved.
Product and Supplier / Trade name search (searching with both boxes ticked)
If you wish to search across both product and supplier / trade name information, leave both tick boxes selected. The default is to search across both data sets.
Enter the supplier name, trade name or product category you are looking for and
press blue ’Go’ button to the right of the search box to start.
Results
Searching in this way will return two sets of results where the search term has
been found in both products and also within supplier / trade names.
The default will be to display in the central results area of the screen all matching
products that contain the criteria entered within the product name or within alternate
terms against a product.
Matches for supplier / trade name that are found by the same search can be accessed
by clicking on the Supplier / Trade name link in the left-hand portion of the
screen, underneath the ’Refine Your Search’ heading.
Click on this link and the matching results will then display in the central results
area of the screen.
Supplier / Trade Name Search (searching with only the Supplier / Trade name box ticked)
Use the supplier / trade name search to locate companies by supplier name or by
a supplier’s trade name. The result of the search is a list showing every
supplier or suppliers with trade names that contain the search criteria.
Tip: Remember to deselect the product tick box under the search
box, to perform a supplier / trade name only search.
Enter the supplier name or trade name you are looking for and press blue ’Go’
button to the right of the search box to start.
Results
The results will then be displayed within the central results area of the screen,
showing any suppliers or suppliers with trade names that contain the criteria entered.
Product search (searching with only the Product box ticked)
Use the product search to locate companies who provide a particular product. Once the product has been found from the hundreds in the system, you can go on to display the suppliers that provide the selected product.
Tip: Remember to deselect the Supplier / trade name tick box under
the search box, to perform a product-only search.
Enter the product you are looking for and press blue ’Go’ button to the
right of the search box to start.
Results
A list showing every product that contains the search criteria entered is displayed
in the central results area of the screen. The search will check for the criteria
entered within the product name but will also search across the thousands of alternate
terms that are included in the Opus database to help you find what
you are looking for.
Results may come from up to three groups:
- product names containing the search term entered
- products with alternate terms containing the search criteria entered - Searching ’textile ventilation’ will return the two products of ’Diffusers’ and ’Ductwork’ in this list of results as an alternate term ’textile ventilation’ is linked to these products.
- products with characteristics data containing the search criteria entered. Searching ’boiler liners’ will return ’Boiler instrumentation’ as boiler liners is a characteristic under Boiler instrumentation. The count alongside ’Boiler instrumentation’ is for the number of manufacturers of boiler liners.
Tip:Entering multiple product search terms may help to refine your results automatically, eg ’boiler liners’ will return more specific results than just ’boiler’.
A total count for the number of products found is shown at the top of the results
list, eg 1-10 of 36. A total count of the number of relevant suppliers is shown
next to each product, eg Diffusers (29).
Select the relevant product from the list to view the companies who produce that
product. From this page you can then go onto access the supplier’s details
by clicking on the supplier name or their entry type icon. Further information on
entry types can be found under the ’Results screen – further information’
section of this document.
Refining product search results
If you choose to select the ’Refine results’ button alongside a product
on the ’Search results’ page you will stay on the same page but open
up the characteristic selection box for the product. This will allow you to refine
your product search further.
Simply click on any of the characteristics that appear in the left hand box to select
them and press the blue ADD button underneath the left-hand box.
The characteristic selected will then move across into the right-hand box. Alongside
the characteristic, a count is displayed showing the number of manufacturers that
match the selection. This will help to narrow your results down from the main set,
to specific suppliers whose product meets your selected requirements.
A maximum of four characteristics can be selected, from any choice of the characteristic
group headings. The count is accumulative and will therefore represent the number
of manufacturers that have a specific product containing all of the characteristics
selected.
To remove characteristic choices from the right-hand box, click on the characteristic
to highlight it and press ’Delete’ button.
Once all selections have been made hit the blue ’Go’ button. This will
take you to the ’Search results’ page showing manufacturers that meet
all of the criteria entered and a reminder of what those criteria are.
To return to the original keyword search results, click the link to go back to results
page.
Multiple supplier names and order of results
If your results contains multiple suppliers the default order, with both standard
and refined product search results, is to display the results with Premier Entry
companies first, followed by Enhanced Entry companies and then Brief Entry companies amongst
the basic listing companies in alphabetical sequence. Further information
on entry types can be found under the ’Results screen – further information’
section of this document.
The sequence can be changed to reflect the information you are looking for.
The results can be sorted using the drop down ’Sort’ box 
Sort options are by:
- Entry type (default)
- Supplier name
- Head Office
- Documents (those suppliers with PDF catalogues in our service)
Tip: If you know the supplier / trade name you are looking for, you
can use the supplier name and/or trade name drop-down lists showing in the top
left-hand side of the screen to go directly to that supplier’s details.
By scrolling down and choose the relevant supplier or trade name, you will then
only be shown that matching supplier(s) in the central part of the screen.
Results screen - further information
Whether doing a product, or a supplier / trade name search, you will eventually
be presented with a list of supplier names. This list will have extra information
visible in each column
Entry types
These are grouped into three categories, indicated by the following
icons:
All entry types will show contact information including: address, telephone
number, fax number, e-mail address, website address, map link, branch locations with telephone
numbers.
Premier Entries
Companies with Premier Entries are shown at the top of the results in alpha sequence
and are represented with the Premier Entry icon: 
Clicking or selecting the supplier’s name opens up a new window and takes you to the supplier’s Premier Entry containing company information, detailed text and illustrations on selected products, as featured in the OPUS Building Services directory, and further basic products/trade names listings. Where links are shown, the entry may also feature recent projects and/or illustrated case studies and company documents in PDF format.
Enhanced Entries
Companies with Enhanced Entries are shown in the next group of results in alpha sequence
and are represented with the Enhanced Entry icon: 
Clicking or selecting the supplier’s name takes you to the supplier’s Enhanced Entry comprising containing company information, detailed text and illustrations on selected products, and further basic products/trade names listings. Where links are shown, the entry may also feature recent projects and/or illustrated case studies and company documents in PDF format.
Brief Entries
Companies with a Brief Entry are displayed amongst basic company listings
in alphabetical order and are represented with the Brief Entry icon:
Clicking or selecting the supplier’s name takes you to the supplier’s Brief Entry comprising company Contact points information, a product summary with an illustration and further basic products/trade names listings.
Basic listings(no icon displayed)
Companies with a Basic listings are displayed with no icon. Clicking the supplier’s name takes you to the supplier’s Directory listing comprising contact points information and basic products/trade names listings.
Sequencing any supplier results
The default is to display the results with Premier Entry companies first, followed
by Enhanced Entry companies and then Brief Entry companies displayed amongst the Basic Directory listings.
The sequence can be changed to reflect the information you are looking for.
The results can be sorted using the drop down ’Sort’ box
Sort options are by:
- Entry type (default)
- Supplier name
- Head Office
- Catalogue (those suppliers with PDF catalogues in our service)
Catalogues
Companies with downloadable PDF documents, which may include documents, are shown on the results page with the documents icon: 
Documents can be accessed from the results page or from a link within a supplier’s
entry.
Selecting the icon or the link opens a new window displaying the titles
of all of the electronic documents held for that company.
To open a document, select the relevant title and the document is displayed in
a new window.
If you have problems downloading the PDF files, check you have Adobe® Acrobat® Reader
installed.
If Adobe® Acrobat® Reader is not installed, click on the Adobe® Icon below and follow
the instructions on the Adobe® website you are taken to.
Alternatively, a link is available within the search results screen underneath the
icon keys in the left-hand portion of the screen.
Contact details
Contact details are available against every manufacturer in the results list. Access
them by selecting the Contact icon: 
Contact details include:
- name and address information
- telephone and fax numbers
- live link e-mail and web addresses
- links to maps
- branch details