This Week in IDEA | December 17, 2008

New IDW and IDEA IRD Customers

IDEA announces one new IDW 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 IDW Customer

Electrical Wholesale Supply of Utah, Inc. (EWS), from Salt Lake City, UT, recently expanded their eCommerce services. They will rely on Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) for their core/transactional and extended product and pricing information beginning January 1, 2009.

EWS has diverse in-house design and engineering capabilities, covering everything from power substations to fire alarm systems to full energy conservation projects. EWS has a strong reputation with large and small users and contractors alike. Find out more at www.ewsutah.com.  

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:

• Turkey Creek Pork Skins, Inc.
• Vincent’s Food Corp.
• One Source Network, Inc.
• Shield Industries, Inc.
• Thompson Center
• Impact International
•  
• Codino’s Italian Foods, 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 .

Tags for this post: idw customers ird electrical wholesale supply

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Ten Years Old, Another Year Wiser: IDEA’s 2008 Recap

Over the past 10 years, IDEA has played a crucial part in the growth and efficiency of the electrical industry. From day one, the mission was to transmit standardized, accurate product information between manufacturers and distributors. Among those values, is moving the industry forward. Under new leadership and a more focused strategic plan, IDEA is constantly working to achieve the mission of its early visionaries. Take a quick recap of 2008:

• Industry celebrated 10 Years of IDEA (1998-2008)
  • IDEA E-Biz Forum 2008 reached record-breaking attendance and participation
  • Founding members and current customers celebrated at IDEA’s 10 Year Anniversary Gala held in conjunction with the Forum
    
  
  
• Conducted a strategic plan for 2008-2011 with the IDEA board of directors – new mission and vision developed
  • New IDEA Mission: To drive costs out of the electrical supply chain as the electrical industry’s standards-setting, data synchronization, and eCommerce service provider.
    
  
  
• The Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) and Industry Data Exchange (IDX) departments merged
  • Grew IDEA customer base by 42 companies
  • IDW contains over 1100 manufacturer brands to date (over 2M SKUs)
  • Milestone VAN traffic of 6.9M kilo characters reached in October 2008
  • 10 year data share agreement ended in July 2008, IDW data sourcing project will continue through 2009
  • IDX completely overhauled with new virtual servers ensuring 100% IDX uptime
  • New IDW security monitoring code implemented to ensure IDW content is safe and protected from unauthorized access
    
  
  
• Developed IDEA Standards as a standalone business unit
  • Revamped IDEA Standards Committee (ISC) charter and restructured committee
  • New EDIPro transaction released (1 total) and EDIPro 4010 transactions revamped (4 total)
  • Published “Purchase Order Best Practice for Special Circumstances” and “Unit of Measure” white papers
  • Developed guidelines similar to EDIPro for the European EDI standard - EDIFACTPro transactions (3 total)
  • Created electronic registration and voting process for ISC
  • Developed XML standard for attributed data
    
  
  
• Implemented data synchronization awareness and educational campaign
  • Published “Top 10 Reasons to Adopt Data Sync”
  • Released data sync educational webinars based on four roles (IT manufacturer, IT distributor, business manufacturer and business distributor)
  • Implemented data sync mentor program
  • Three cover stories in 2008 – Electrical Wholesaling –January and December issues, TED Magazine – September issue
  • 16 traceable articles in trade publications and two new case studies
    
  
  
• Grew IDEA Industry Retail Database (IRD) customer base by 158 (from 427 to 585)
  • Successful roll-out of IRD CERICOMX ® product version 6.3 and value-added Data Management Services (DMS) program
  • Recognized as GS1-US top performing solution partner for customer satisfaction
    
  
  
• Redefined Account Management and IT departments
  • Introduced account management support program –primary contact assigned to each IDEA customer
  • Integrated IDEA IRD customer support into account management support structure – over 550 customers added
  • Digitalization of all customer paper documents – digitized over 500 Folders
  • Launched customer introductory training sessions

Thanks to all of our customers and partners who helped make 2008 a success. We look forward to working with you in 2009 and beyond.

Tags for this post: ebiz forum idw idx standards news data synchronization ird isc support

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IDEA president responds to IDW Comment

Your input was received and read by IDEA's president and CEO, Bob Gaylord. Now you can hear Bob's response to feedback from an electrical distributor in Albuquerque, NM. In this month's post, Bob addresses data in IDW and how it can be utilized in your business to cut costs.

“You do not need data sitting on a shelf. What you need is a data sync platform that allows you to utilize that data to do eCommerce and cut costs in your business,” said Gaylord.

Are you ready and capable to synchronize enriched data with trading partners? Take the one-click poll to let us know. We will report the poll results and respond to more of your ideas on our next post.

Hear more from Bob and share your opinion now!

Tags for this post: idw data synchronization bob gaylord b2b ecommerce

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Bob Gaylord to speak at NAED Western Region Conference

Catch up with IDEA at NAED Western next month, in Palm Desert, CA. Bob Gaylord, President and CEO, will provide insights on how you can reduce errors in your business processes to increase profit margins using IDEA.

Session Title: “Protecting Profits and Eliminating Mistakes Using IDEA”
Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 1:15 - 2:45 PM

About the Session: Even the best sales organizations can see their margins dissipated by backend mistakes and errors. This session focuses on how IDEA will reduce errors to ensure that sales increases go to your bottom line, not into a technological black hole. In this session, you will gain:

• The opportunity to impact IDEA’s strategic direction;
• Firsthand knowledge of new IDEA offerings; and
• A greater understanding of how data standards can remove your company’s limitations.

IDEA will also conduct one-on-one sessions throughout the event. Come share stories about your business and ideas with the electrical industry’s data synchronization service provider. Bob will select one of your comments to respond to in his February post on www.highvoltageideas.com.  

How to save your seat: Call Pat McCartin at or !

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IDEA spreads holiday cheer throughout the community

IDEA participates in the Housing & Community Services of Northern Virginia (HCSNV) holiday adopt-a-family program and wins first place in the holiday suite door decorating contest.

Over 40 gifts were delivered today to a family of five in Washington, D.C. courtesy of IDEA staff. The staff dedicated time and resources this season to shop for a family in need with hopes to brighten their holiday season. Thanks to IDEA, the Wright family will get the holiday they deserve with new clothes, gift certificates and educational toys to use throughout the year.

IDEA is also proud to announce the first place suite in the Century Building holiday door decorating contest – Suite 450! IDEA staff took advantage of this contest to bring holiday cheer to the building with a “Snoopy Christmas” themed door (See picture to right).

We wish you a safe and happy holiday season and a prosperous new year!

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IDW and IDX January ‘09 Training Schedule

This month IDEA continues to offer focused training sessions for Industry Data Exchange (IDX) and Industry Data Warehouse (IDW). The January dates for these trainings are now available.

IDX Tracker Training Sessions:
Tuesday, January 08: 1:30-2:30PM
Tuesday, January 15: 1:30-2:30PM
Tuesday, January 22: 1:30-2:30PM
Tuesday, January 29: 1:30-2:30PM

IDW Distributor Training Sessions:
Wednesday, January 7: 1:30-3:00PM
Wednesday, January 21: 1:30-3:00PM

IDW Manufacturer Training Sessions:
Thursday, January 15: 1:30-3:30PM
Thursday, January 29: 1:30-3:30PM

Net Pricing Training Sessions:
Thursday, January 8: 1:30-2:00PM
Thursday, January 22: 1:30-2:00PM

Inbound Mapping Sessions:
Wednesday, January 14: 1:30-2:30PM
Wednesday, January 28: 1:30-2:30PM

Times don’t work for your schedule? Contact our flexible training experts to schedule a time that works for you.

IDX Training Sessions: Contact at

IDW Training Sessions: Contact at

Additional training sessions are announced each month in This Week in IDEA.

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Did You Know? IDW Hot Fact

There are two key parameters for manufacturers to determine how much of their net price sheet submission was successfully loaded into IDW. The parameters can be found in the 'Loaded' section of the Load Summary notification and the IDW Load Summary screen. The parameters include:

• Net Item Cnt Current – total number of unique items that were successfully loaded into IDW
• Net Cnt Current – total number of net prices that were successfully loaded into IDW

The “Net Cnt Current” will be higher than the “Net Item Cnt Current” number when your net price file is directed to multiple distributor accounts. The 'Accepted', 'Rejected' and 'No Change' section of the Load Summary report works the same as with regular price sheet loads.

Tags for this post: idw hot facts net price data loads

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