IDEA Introduces the Attribute Fulfillment Service for Manufacturers

Facilitates Faster, More Efficient Population of the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW)

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• ARLINGTON, VA – IDEA (idea-esolutions.com/), a business-to-business technology service provider owned by the electrical industry, today announced the launch of the Attribute Fulfillment Service (AFS).

  The AFS gives manufacturers the opportunity to outsource some or all of the work involved in populating standardized product marketing content into the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW). The IDW is the data synchronization platform of the electrical industry, and provides a centralized location for manufacturers to synchronize product information electronically with their trading partners. Previous case histories have shown that the AFS outsourcing option helps manufacturers populate the IDW with marketing content in half the time and one-third the price compared to using internal resources.

  “We listen to manufacturers and distributors daily, and through these conversations, we recognized a need in the channel,” said Robert Gaylord, president and CEO, IDEA. “Most manufacturers understand the value and ROI associated with providing marketing content to distributors, but they can’t just push a button and it’s done; there is a lot of work involved behind the scenes, and many just haven’t had the time or resources to dedicate to the project. As the electrical-industry data experts, it’s our job to help them make it happen.”

  The AFS includes populating the industry-approved attributes defined in the Electrical Attribute Schema. With the launch of the Schema 2.0, manufacturers have new opportunities to differentiate their products, and help their distributor trading partners and end-users make better buying and selling decisions. The Schema is an internationally-harmonized template that is based on a global product categorization standard and provides a guide to populate marketing content for nearly 2,500 product categories.

  IDEA collaborates with the manufacturer to complete the service using a proven data quality methodology, resulting in a turnkey process the manufacturer can use to sustain the effort. IDEA partners with DATAgility (www.datagility.com/), a leading data management service company, to deliver the Attribute Fulfillment Service. ILSCO Corporation (www.ilsco.com/) was the first manufacturer to leverage the AFS.

  “I knew the importance of utilizing the Schema and tried to undertake the project internally at first. However, I quickly realized that this was going to take more resources than were available, so I turned to IDEA for support. The team I’m working with is very responsive and has kept me involved throughout the process. The AFS has proven to be valuable for our company; instead of waiting at least another year to reap the benefits of the Schema, we expect to see results by the end of the summer,” said Randy Shelley, Product Specialist, ILSCO.

  Please visit the Attribute Fulfillment Service (AFS) web pages to learn more.

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  About IDEA: Our deep category knowledge was born of the electrical industry in 1998. IDEA was founded through a partnership rooted in the collective leadership, vision, wisdom and expertise of the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) members. IDEA is the official eCommerce standards creating and setting body for the electrical industry and those same standards translate to other industries. Our Business-to-Business eCommerce, Synchronization, Standards Adoption, and Professional solutions and services optimize your business to run lean, gain efficiency, synchronize data flow, streamline processes and standardize systems. Find out more at idea-esolutions.com/.

  Tags for this post: idw attribute schema datagility ilsco afs

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