This Week in IDEA | May 14, 2012

Introducing IDW ‘Bands of Excellence’ Rating System: Congrats to the Leading Manufacturers!

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As part of the industry’s ongoing efforts to populate the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) with robust product marketing content, IDEA, with support from owners NAED and NEMA, is introducing an IDW ‘Bands of Excellence’ rating system, to increase visibility on the progress that’s being made by manufacturers.

The ‘Bands of Excellence’ rating system measures each manufacturer’s completion percentage for populating the most-requested marketing content in the IDW, otherwise known as the “SAID” information (see definition below). This rating is only applied to the manufacturers’ stock/quick-ship products. In this case, stock/quick-ship products are defined as all products ready for sale through distribution, which are usually on-hand or inventoried by the manufacturer. The target deadline for populating IDW with all “SAID” information before the manufacturer bands go public is June 30, 2012.

In order to help sell manufacturers’ products, distributors have “SAID” they need manufacturers to provide the following essential marketing elements:

• Spec Documents: Specification sheets or product brochures that provide technical details about a product, including what the product is and does
• Attributes (defined in the industry’s Electrical Attribute Schema): Product information based on its characteristics, such as: brand, voltage, size, material, application, color, etc., which enable customers to search and select products
• Images: A good visual of the product that customers can view to confirm they are making the right choice
• Descriptions: An easy-to-understand text summary of a product’s key features that help define and/or differentiate it from other like products

Once the “SAID” elements are populated in the IDW, distributors can download the information to build a robust web storefront or print collateral that differentiates manufacturers’ products and makes it easier for customers to search, filter and select the best product to suit their needs.

IDW ‘Bands of Excellence’ rating metrics:

• Platinum: Manufacturers that have populated 75-100% of their stock/quick-ship products with all SAID elements
• Gold: Manufacturers that have populated 50-74% of their stock/quick-ship products with all SAID elements
• Bronze: Manufacturers that have populated 10-49% of their stock/quick-ship products with all SAID elements
• Not-Rated: Manufacturers with less than 10% of their stock/quick-ship products completed or those companies that opt-out of participating will not be rated. There will be no differentiation between those with less than 10% completion and those that opt-out.

Congratulations to the manufacturers that have already populated nearly 100% of the SAID elements for their stock/quick-ship products in the IDW, reaching the highest Band of Excellence, Platinum: ­

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“Attention to detail allows us to provide added value solutions, such as those that IDEA provides, for our distribution partners, and reinforces Eiko’s business philosophy that doing business should be easy and uncomplicated,” said Mitch Carney, Director of Sales for Eiko NA states, Eiko Ltd.

­“Hubbell Lighting understands the importance that robust product data plays in an effective eCommerce strategy. We feel it is our responsibility to provide this data to our distributor partners to ensure our mutual success as more of the business moves online,” said Scott Muse, President, Hubbell Lighting, Inc.

“No question that pulling all the data together can be a challenge for a manufacturer, but the long term rewards resulting from this investment in time will benefit Burndy and the electrical channel in the future,” added Rodd Ruland, President, Burndy LLC, an affiliate of Hubbell Incorporated.

“As a leader in the electrical industry, ILSCO strives to be at the forefront of an ever-changing m­arketplace. Our distributor partners continue to require increasing amounts of electronic data, so it is essential that we make it available to them in the most current and accurate way possible. We feel that taking the lead by reaching IDEA’s Platinum Band of Excellence is one of several factors contributing to the market growth that ILSCO has been experiencing in recent years,” said Jim Kosciolek, Senior VP, Sales & Marketing, ILSCO.

“Data attribution is a critical element to the success of OSRAM SYLVANIA and our distributors. We are thankful for the expertise, tools and vision of IDEA as we continue to navigate through our ever-evolving product lifecycles,” said Valerie Jones, VP, Customer Service & Inside Sales, OSRAM SYLVANIA.

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“Providing clean and complete marketing data to our distributors through the IDW has allowed STI to make it very easy for them to have all the information they need to promote our products. This not only helps project our brand in a consistent manner across various media, it is also the most efficient way for us to help our distributors meet their customers' needs,” said Charbel H. Tagher, President, Specified Technologies, Inc.

Manufacturers should contact their Data Quality Analyst at IDEA to check their current SAID element population for their stock/quick-ship products. We can work with them to help boost their marketing content in the IDW before the IDW Bands of Excellence go public after June 30th.

Tags for this post: idw naed nema hubbell osram sylvania manufacturers ilsco eiko bands of excellence progress lighting

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