What is happening with the 4specs - Conspectus Alliance?

Since the announcement of the 4specs alliance with Conspectus, Inc., my industry network has been asking why it was done and where it is headed.

Simply put, both platforms share a singular vision: helping design and specification professionals easily find, research, and specify manufacturers' products. Together, 4specs, coupled with Conspectus's SaaS-based specification platform, Conspectus Cloud, will combine the power of the 4specs network of manufacturers and design/specification professionals with the award-winning specification tool designed by specifiers for specifiers, Conspectus Cloud.

Conspectus Cloud offers a bidirectional industry value proposition: one for the project architect and specifier community through Conspectus Cloud, and the other for building product manufacturers through The Specifier's Portal.

For project architects and professional specifiers: Conspectus Cloud offers an alternative to office masters, MasterSpec/SpecPoint, and SpecLink. With an open license agreement, it provides full stakeholder collaboration for members inside or outside your firm under one subscription.
For building product manufacturers: The Specifier's Portal provides an alternative way to access information on the manufacturer's website. A specifier visiting a website is typically looking to validate or select products in a specific spec section, not browse the manufacturer's complete offering. Unfortunately, most manufacturer's websites do not offer a straightforward way to find products used in a specific spec section.

In the summer of 2000 (yes, 24 years ago), 4specs first suggested a "specified product" web design format outlined in our WebFormat. More recently, 4specs offered a profile page to help specifiers find the information they need on an existing website. Two examples are here:

As part of the Conspectus Cloud manufacturer package they are offering a Specifiers Portal. The Conspectus Cloud offering to manufacturers is described here.

Here is an example of a Specifier Portal:

https://specs.conspectusinc.com/specifier-portal/mcgrory-glass

The Conspectus Cloud package includes showcase listings on 4specs (image and longer description) and 4specs will link to the manufacturer's Specifiers Protal and provide a Conspectus Cloud icon indicating the Conspectus Cloud page.