This Week in IDEA | August 19, 2009

New IDEA and IDEA IRD Customers

IDEA announces one new IDEA customer and eight new IDEA IRD customers. Read more about these companies and how you can begin trading with them electronically to expand your business.

New IDEA Customer

Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI) from Rockville, MD became an IDEA customer on August 18, 2009. OAPI is an innovative, fast-growing healthcare company that commercializes Otsuka-discovered and other product opportunities in North America, with a strong focus on and commitment to neuroscience, cardiovascular, oncologic, and gastrointestinal therapeutic treatments. OAPI is part of the Otsuka Pharmaceutical Group, and was established in 1989 by Otsuka America, Inc. (OAI), which is wholly owned by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (OPC).

OAPI will take advantage of the cost savings and reliability of Industry Data Exchange (IDX) to trade their B2B documents. For additional information, please visit www.otsuka-us.com. Welcome Aboard!

New IDEA IRD Customers

IDEA, a 1SYNC Data Pool On-Board Solution (OBS) partner, implements suppliers that subscribe to the 1SYNC data pool using IDEA's IRD CERICOMX® application. IDEA was recently assigned eight suppliers:

• EcoSMART Technologies, Inc
• Anaheim Manufacturing Company
• J.Y. Rays, Inc.
• Capitol Cups, Inc.
• Brittle-Brittle
• Lamco Print Tees
• Hometex, Inc.
• Croakies, Inc.

These companies will be trained to use IRD CERICOMX®, an IDEA branded product for supporting and uploading supplier product information into the GS1 Registry® and GDSN via the 1SYNC Data Pool.

If you would like to find out more about the CERICOMX® product, please contact , IRD Product & Customer Support Manager, at .

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Forum Anticipation Surges with Only One Month to Go

Congratulations to the final Forum raffle winner, Greg Wong from Heiler. Greg won the Flip Mino™ Pocket Video Camcorder for referring a friend to the event. With only a month to go, you don’t want to miss final announcements. Be sure to nominate your company for the Richard Buzun Award by this Friday and secure your hotel room by August 28th to get IDEA’sspecial group rate.

Richard Buzun Award Nominations Closing this Friday

Your company's nomination for the Richard Buzun Award for Leadership and Innovation in eCommerce is due by this Friday, August 21. Be sure to complete the nomination form on behalf of your company to promote your eCommerce accomplishments in 2009. A few minutes of your time could result in endless possibilities for your company. If you don’t tell us about your company's accomplishments – who will?

Complete your nomination form

Forum Hotel Group Rate Ends August 28

If you are a procrastinator, now is the time to act. Be sure register for the Forum ASAP and secure your hotel room at The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa in Tucson, Arizona by next Friday, August 28. The IDEA group rate of $195 will not be honored after that date. Take a look at the 2009 Attendee list to see who you can expect to meet at the event this year.

Register for the event and secure your hotel stay

Find Your Competitive Advantage at the Tech Center

The Tech Center is the place to find new ways of doing business and embracing innovation in this economy. Here are the companies you can expect to meet this year:

• Activant
• Billtrust
• DATAgility
• dataZen
• Element Five Solutions
• Endeca
• epaCUBE
• IDEA
• Infor
• LG CNS
• Material Express
• Stibo Systems
• TechniCon Systems, Inc
• Tour de Force
• U.S. Transactions Corp.
• Unilog Content Solutions

Find out more about our exhibitors

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Sterling Commerce and Lutron: Sponsors of the IDEA E-Biz Forum

Thanks to Sterling Commerce for their Platinum level sponsorship and Lutron for their Bronze level sponsorship of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2009. These companies demonstrate their dedicated support of the electrical industry’s only annual event focused on advancing the industry through eBusiness and the latest technologies. Their leadership and support is greatly appreciated by all.

Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), helps customers thrive in a global economy by connecting their business communities, processes, people and technology. More than 30,000 customers worldwide – including 80 percent of the Fortune 500 – use Sterling Commerce solutions for business process integration, multi-channel selling, and supply chain fulfillment to improve profitability inside and outside their company walls. Find out more at www.sterlingcommerce.com.  

Lutron Electronics Co., Inc, headquartered in Coopersburg, Pa., is the world leader in the design and manufacture of lighting control solutions for both residential and commercial applications. The company offers a wide variety of light controls, whole-home and whole-building dimming systems, and controllable window treatments. In homes and public buildings around the world, Lutron products save energy while enhancing the appearance and atmosphere of any space, from a single room to an entire structure. Find out more at www.lutron.com.

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IDEA Customers Recognized for Marketing Excellence at NAED AdVenture Conference

The 2009 TED Magazine “Best of the Best” marketing awards were presented at a luncheon hosted by the magazine during the NAED AdVenture Sales & Marketing Conference in Chicago on August 12. Congratulations to IDEA customers, Summit Electric Supply and Leviton Manufacturing, for taking the “Best of the Best Overall” award as well as the winners of the other categories.

The awards recognize the best electrical marketing campaigns fielded in 2008. More than 300 entries were received this year, all of which were on display at the meeting. Categories are split by sales volume, to ensure that competition is fair and occurs between like-sized firms.

Of the 52 separate category awards presented, only two—one distributor and one supplier—were selected to represent this year’s overall best marketing practices in the electrical distribution industry. Summit Electric Supply received the “Best of the Best Overall” distributor award, and Leviton Manufacturing took the “Best of the Best Overall” supplier award.

In the Distributors Over $200 Million category, Summit Electric received two “Best of the Best” awards for its entries in the Direct Promotion & Website categories. In the Manufacturer Over $250 Million category, Leviton Manufacturing received four category awards for its entries in the Literature & Selling Tools, Product Launch, & Public Relations categories.

Leviton Manufacturing was also recognized as the 2008 manufacturer winner of the Richard Buzun Award for Leadership and Innovation in eCommerce at the IDEA E-Biz Forum last September.

Other IDEA customers recognized as “Best of the Best” winners:

Suppliers: Federal Signal Corporation, Southwire, Pass & Seymour/Legrand, Service Wire, Acme Electric, FCI-Burndy Products, Philips Lighting Electronics, RAB Lighting, NSI Industries, 3M, Columbia Lighting, Hoffman, Klein Tools, Thomas & Betts, Halco Lighting Technologies, Fluke Corporation, GE Consumer & Industrial

Distributors: Frost Electric Supply, Gexpro, The Reynolds Company, First SOURCE Electrical, Summit Electric Supply, Western Extralite, Cooper Electric Supply, Springfield Electric Supply, Gross Electric, Wiedenbach-Brown Company, Graybar, The Hite Company, North Coast Electric, Capital Lighting & Supply, Dakota Supply Group, Stuart C. Irby Company, Van Meter Industrial

Read more about the 2009 “Best of the Best” winners and take a look at their work. Congratulations to all!

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IDW Hot Fact: Get Help Spending Recovery Dollars using IDW

IDEA created a new flag in IDW for manufacturers to denote a product is eligible for the American Reconstruction and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding. We also added the “Country of Origin” field to the latest EZ View Pipe version 2.4.2 which is now available for download on the IDEA Portal. It is essential that manufacturers communicate product data related to the ARRA to maximize these funding opportunities.

The ARRA, commonly referred to as the Economic Stimulus Package, provides funding for certain public buildings or public works construction projects. As stipulated in the bill, one major requirement affecting our industry is that the construction materials used for these projects be produced in the United States (The ARRA of 2009, Public Law 111-5, Title XVI Sec. 1605 can be found at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr1ENR/pdf/BILLS-111hr1ENR.pdf on page 189).

All manufacturers should check the “Country of Origin” field in IDW for accuracy because over 95% of manufacturers in IDW have this field defaulted to USA per the settings in their IDW administration web page. Manufacturers can update this field for all products via EDI or by using the EZ View Pipe version 2.4.2. This file is located on the IDEA Portal under Training>Standards>Standards Type: Data Content.

It is important for distributors not to assume the information in the “Country of Origin” field is being populated by the manufacturer to identify ARRA compliancy. This should be confirmed directly between trading partners.

Another new way to communicate the products eligible for the ARRA funding is to flag the products as such using the new “ARRA Eligible” flag in IDW. Manufacturers can set the ARRA eligible flag for their products by sending a list of the UPCs that should be flagged to . IDEA will perform a complimentary mass update service for IDEA customers to ensure all ARRA eligible UPCs are flagged appropriately.

Distributors can get the “ARRA Eligible” indicator flag and/or the “Country of Origin” field added to their outbound data map by requesting it through their account manager. IDEA recommends that distributors contact their suppliers directly if there is a concern about the accuracy of this important information in IDW.

As always, IDEA support staff is available to train manufacturers on how to populate these fields. If you have any questions or concerns about this information, please contact at .

You can find out more about how the ARRA affects our industry in the “Finding Funding for Green Projects” article in the August issue of TED Magazine on page 71 or visit www.recovery.gov.

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September IDW and IDX Training Opportunities

This month IDEA holds user-group sessions at the IDEA E-Biz Forum in Tucson, AZ. Get more information and submit the topics you would like covered. IDEA also continues to offer on-demand training sessions for customers online.

We encourage you to attend the IDW and IDX User Groups at the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2009. These new sessions will provide hands-on training and the opportunity for you to share ideas with our IDW and IDX experts. Topics covered in these user groups will be determined by your feedback - please submit topic suggestions to the IDW and IDX training contacts listed below.

IDX User Group - Tom Guzik, IDEA
Wednesday, September 23: 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM

This session will provide a platform for connecting with other Industry Data Exchange (IDX) users. The IDX User Group is formed to cultivate relationships, share experiences and exchange ideas regarding electronic commerce within the IDX. Attendees will experience hands-on training on the IDX Tracker application as well as discuss challenges, solutions, tools and resources. Specifically, users will discuss how to most effectively use IDX to accelerate commercial velocity, enabling your business to do more and react faster. The session will focus on how you can leverage IDX to drive more revenue and reduce costs. IDX users and attendees interested in implementing an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solution should attend.

Please submit the topics you would like covered in the IDX User Group to .

IDW User Group - Josh Given, IDEA
Wednesday, September 23: 2:05 PM - 2:55 PM

This session will provide an overview of new Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) features and on-going projects that will enhance the solution for future use. Users will share their experiences and gain insight from others on ways to effectively use the Data Synchronization Platform (DSP) to drive costs out of their business processes. This is also your opportunity to share your ideas about new services or helpful features to include in IDW. Please attend to help us continue to improve and shape IDW into the tool that meets your business needs.

Please submit the topics you would like covered in the IDW User Group to .

On-Demand IDW Training

IDEA offers on-demand one-on-one IDW training sessions. The trainings are divided into two parts for manufacturers and distributors. Part one reviews the essential business elements of IDW and part two dives deeper into the application. Niche training (e.g. net price, inbound mapping, etc.) is also available upon request.

Customers interested in scheduling an IDW one-on-one training session should contact , Data Sync Platform (DSP) Support Administrator, at .

IDX Tracker Training Schedule

Tuesday, September 01: 1:30-2:30PM
Tuesday, September 08: 1:30-2:30PM
Tuesday, September 15: 1:30-2:30PM
Tuesday, September 22: 1:30-2:30PM

Times don’t work for your schedule? Contact our flexible IDX training expert, at to schedule a one-on-one training at a time that works for you.

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