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This Week in IDEA | February 27, 2008
Our eNewsletter, This Week in IDEA, keeps you informed with the latest news and education about IDEA, our solutions and services, and our customers and partners. IDEA’s knowledgeable staff and other contributing writers share insights, resources and special offers to help you Unleash the power of e. Subscribe now to receive This Week in IDEA in your email inbox every other Thursday and add our RSS feed to your reader.
Contents
- New IDEA IRD Customers
- Stibo Catalog: Silver Sponsor of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2008!
- Don’t Miss Out: Early Bird Sponsorship Closes in Two Days
- Why EDI?
- Sarah Cipriano Joins the IDEA Team
- Industry Data Warehouse March Training Schedule
- Did You Know? IDW Hot Facts
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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 nine suppliers:
- Reagent Chemical & Research, Inc.
- Crikey’s Original Australian Pies LLC
- MaxPower
- Chade Fashions, Inc.
- Global Advantage Trading and Imports
- Crown Clothing Corp.
- The Sports Products
- Great American Appetizers Inc.
- Bio Pulp Works
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 .
Stibo Catalog: Silver Sponsor of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2008!
IDEA would like to thank Stibo Catalog for their support and Silver level commitment to the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2008.
Stibo Catalog is the leading provider in Product Information Management (PIM) for integrated multi-channel marketing solutions - both digital and printed media. Their STEP solution helps businesses to increase revenue while decreasing production costs using efficient ways to manage content and publish cross-channel promotions effectively. For more information, visit www.stibocatalog.com.
Tags for this post: ebiz forum sponsors
Don’t Miss Out: Early Bird Sponsorship Closes in Two Days
Don’t miss your chance to BE A STAR of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2008! Secure your sponsorship level and activity by Friday to enjoy these additional benefits:
- 1st Choice of Sponsored Activity
- Company Logo on Pre-Event Promotions
- Earlier and Longer Visibility on all promotional avenues
Secure your sponsorship by completing the sponsor form or by contacting at .
Tags for this post: ebiz forum sponsors
Why EDI?
Unfortunately, some companies may view Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as a nuisance or as one more necessity for doing business. Their view quickly shifts when they gain a better understanding of EDI and its benefits. Instead of viewing EDI as an expense, they learn to see EDI as a cost saving business development tool. With new technology and new approaches to how EDI is conducted, the cost and the time that once hindered companies have been greatly reduced.
Web based EDI systems are designed to help small to medium size businesses advance into the ever changing world of EDI.
Accuracy: EDI data is received exactly as transmitted, so you eliminate re-keying errors. As a result, you will have fewer product returns, lost orders, backorders, and credit/debit memos.
Traditionally, the manufacturing, and sale of new products and services involves a long paper trail from start to finish. Each step usually involves some sort of data entry to make the whole system match up along the way. EDI simplifies this process and makes it possible to accomplish the following:
- One-time data entry
- Reduced errors
- On-line data storage
- Faster management reporting
- Automatic reconciliation
Informed Decision Making: More accurate information leads to improved decision making procedures.
Competitive Advantage: If you are able to receive point of sales data allowing you to keep the shelves stocked while saving transaction costs for your customer, you will have a competitive advantage over non-EDI competitors. This helps build long term relationships with your customers.
Customer Service: Responding to customer needs is the key to continued long term customer relationships. EDI insures that information is accurate and readily available for maintaining a high level of service within a competitive market place.
EDI saves a lot of time and time is money. Without EDI unnecessary amounts of time are consumed in order to complete the necessary paperwork to process a specific transaction. In our fast paced world, we often overlook this fact until it’s too late…we need to allow time for the document to get from our hands to the appropriate person or department. Otherwise, customer service is jeopardized.
EDI transactions are faster, more efficient and accurate. EDI enables us to process business data up to the last minute because it is processed instantaneously through electronic transmissions. The data is transmitted in an electronic format that allows for uniform communications with all your trading partners, including customers, suppliers, carriers, and financial institutions.
Enhanced Partnership: Once you become EDI compliant, even if it may have been reluctantly induced through pressure or urging from your customers, you are the real winner in this win-win situation. EDI makes doing business with your company easier and more cost effective. This will advance you from being merely a vendor to a full business partnership where both sides work together for mutual profitability. This enhanced partnership will bring about the following:
- A reduction in deductions and credits for mistakes
- An improvement in the number of quality purchase orders
- Hours saved in paper administration and data keying
- An improvement in the speed to retail of new items, price change and promotions
- Major improvements in retail scanning accuracy
Improved Cash Flow: EDI allows you to instantly turn over invoices on purchase orders and immediately begin transmitting electronic funds transfers (EFTs) to your account. This will greatly reduce your turnaround on outstanding account receivables.
Inventory Control: EDI will decrease the cost of storing inventory because it reduces the lead-time necessary to process an order. As EDI is further integrated into the organization, you will be able to move towards a Just in Time (JIT) environment.
Labor Cost Reduction: Data entry, manual reviews and reconciliations, sorting, copying, filing documents and, most importantly, errors are significantly reduced by limiting the number of person hours involved in processing an order from bid request to invoicing.
Responsiveness: Integration of EDI with point of sale information allows you to respond more quickly to immediate changes in market conditions.
Paper and Postage: Since transactions are completed electronically, EDI will eliminate the expense of paper, envelopes, preprinted forms and postage.
Shipping: EDI communicates with bar codes that allows for tight tracking of inventory. This eliminates isolated or small shipments which could be more efficiently shipped with other parts of the order. EDI provides quick and accurate information. Better shipment planning, through a well designed EDI system, saves you time and money.
Streamlined Processes: With EDI, information is shared, human intervention is reduced, customer response is increased, and you gain the ability to respond to the market fluctuations almost instantaneously.
Tags for this post: edi technology
Sarah Cipriano Joins the IDEA Team
Sarah Cipriano recently joined the IDEA team as the Accounting Assistant. Her primary responsibilities include payables, expense reports, collections and administration. She will report directly to the Finance and Administration Director.
Sarah can be reached at or . Please join us as we welcome Sarah to IDEA!
Industry Data Warehouse March Training Schedule
IDEA continues to offer Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) distributor and manufacturer trainings and focused sessions on Net Pricing and the Inbound Mapper. The March dates for these trainings are:
IDW Distributor Training Sessions:
Wednesday, March 5: 1:30-3:00PM
Wednesday, March 19: 1:30-3:00PM
IDW Manufacturer Training Sessions:
Thursday, March 13: 1:30-3:30PM
Thursday, March 27: 1:30-3:30PM
Net Pricing Training Sessions:
Thursday, March 6: 1:30-2:00PM
Thursday, March 20: 1:30-2:00PM
Inbound Mapping Sessions:
Wednesday, March 12: 1:30-2:30PM
Wednesday, March 26: 1:30-2:30PM
Additional training sessions are announced each month in This Week in IDEA.
To sign up for a training session, please contact , IDW Tech and Training Representative, at .
Did You Know? IDW Hot Facts
Manufacturers can add Canadian data in IDW in one of two ways:
1) Add a Canadian price sheet with Canadian Currency Code & Canadian Price Zone defaults to your existing IDW account
2) Add another IDW account with the word Canada in the company name
The IDEA Standards Committee has written a best practice on this subject and recommends that companies choose option 2 because it is easier to manage for manufacturers and their customers. Contact your account manager to start supplying Canadian data to expand your business today!