OSRAM SYLVANIA and Viking Electric Supply named recipients of the Richard Buzun Award for Leadership and Innovation in eCommerce

Winners recognized at The Electro E-Biz Forum 2007 in Vancouver, B.C.

Arlington, VA– September 26, 2007 – IDEA, an eCommerce service provider, announced OSRAM SYLVANIA and Viking Electric Supply as the manufacturer and distributor recipients of the first annual Richard Buzun Award for Leadership and Innovation in eCommerce. Liz Norman, EDI Business Manager, Siemens Energy & Automation, announced the winners at the Electro E-Biz Forum 2007 in Vancouver, B.C.

The award is named after the late Richard Buzun, the second IDEA Chairman, and former President and CEO of Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. It was created by IDEA to honor an individual manufacturer and distributor company that continue to reach the highest standards of excellence in eCommerce practices and promote these practices throughout the supply network.

“Richard Buzun’s family and the Siemens organization are pleased to have this new industry award named in Richard’s honor. Siemens continues to support all IDEA initiatives as well as explore future opportunities to increase efficiencies,” said Norman.

John Wilson, Manager eCommerce & Business Development, OSRAM SYLVANIA, and Rich Passmore, IT Manager, Viking Electric Supply, accepted the award on behalf of the their companies.

While recognizing SYLVANIA, Norman highlighted the company’s willingness to test the newest technologies and automate new processes to improve the supply network, their dedication to quality data, their continued support and participation in the IDEA Standards Committee and their recent accomplishment of providing the highest amounts of enriched data fields online to their trading partners.

"As a founding member of IDEA, OSRAM SYLVANIA has always enthusiastically supported industry initiatives that improve and provide additional productivity to the electrical wholesale industry. We place a high priority on providing and transmitting our data with our trading partners through IDEA's Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) and Industry Data Exchange (IDX) because we recognize the importance of data synchronization and the benefits of providing and controlling our own product data in a single secure industry owned source," said Charlie Jerabek, President and CEO, OSRAM SYLVANIA.

Viking Electric Supply was recognized for their development of an online customer order management application, a successful EDI program used to exchange transactions with close to 50 trading partners and their rapid integration of Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) to improve price and rebate information processes.

“Viking Electric is grateful for the recognition this award brings to our Information Technology group. Viking has a long history of software innovation going back to 1975. We have had an active EDI development program in place since 1993. Our success is due, in no small part, to collaborative efforts with our trading partners such as Siemens. Since becoming an IDEA customer, we have seen the pace of our eCommerce development efforts accelerate as a result of the wealth of vendor product data at our fingertips. We appreciate that by improving our own internal processes, we also make Viking a better trading partner for our suppliers,” said Greg Hames, President, Viking Electric Supply.

The second annual Richard Buzun Award for Leadership and Innovation will be awarded at the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2008 in Washington D.C, September 15.

About IDEA

IDEA is the only standard-setting organization offering a full range of eCommerce products and services designed to drive supply network efficiencies, reduce costs, slash cycle times, and ensure standardized, timely, and accurate data. IDEA provides Industry Data Warehouse (IDW), a database of product, pricing, and marketing data; Industry Data Exchange (IDX), a centralized and standardized document exchange solution; Industry Retail Database (IRD) a central repository of manufacturer retail product data powered by CERICOMX® which helps users meet retailer mandates and CPG and GS1 US requirements; IDEA eCredit (IeC), a hosted industry account receivables reporting database and the Data Audit and Certification (DAC) Program which assures the accuracy and completeness of the manufacturer data found in IDW.

About OSRAM SYLVANIA

Headquartered in Danvers, Mass., OSRAM SYLVANIA is the North American operation of OSRAM GmbH. Together with their parent company; they are the second-largest lighting and materials enterprise in the world, serving customers in more than 140 countries. SYLVANIA manufactures and markets a wide range of lighting products, including automotive, electronic and magnetic ballasts, and precision materials and components for industrial and commercial users, original equipment manufacturers and consumers, sold primarily under the SYLVANIA brand name, but also under the OSRAM brand. OSRAM SYLVANIA also offers lighting systems installation and maintenance services. For further information, please refer to their website at www.sylvania.com.

About Viking Electric Supply

Viking Electric Supply was founded July 1964 in St. Paul, Minnesota to serve the needs of the Electrical Industry. The organization has enjoyed continuous growth and now serves Electrical Contractor, Industrial, Tool and many related markets from locations throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. In June 2000 Viking Electric was acquired by Sonepar Distribution USA (www.sonepar-us.com). Sonepar is a leading distributor of electrical products in the United States and is a member of the global Sonepar Distribution group which is the world's largest, privately held electrical distributor. Visit www.vikingelectric.com for more information.

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