News & Events
This Week in IDEA | July 22, 2009
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 and IDEA IRD Customers
- Nominate Your Company for the 2009 Richard Buzun Award
- Submit Your Standards Needs to IDEA
- Last Week of Major IDX savings – Deadline is July 31!
- IDW Hot Fact: Using Seller Class Codes for Product Categorization
- Upcoming IDW and IDX Training Opportunities
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New IDEA and IDEA IRD Customers
IDEA announces one new IDEA customer and two 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
Atlanta Light Bulbs, Inc., from Tucker, GA, became an IDEA customer on July 14, 2009. Atlanta Light Bulbs sells commercial, specialty and hard to find lighting products. They will take advantage of the cost savings and reliability of Industry Data Exchange (IDX). Find out more about Atlanta Light Bulbs at www.atlantalightbulbs.com. Welcome aboard!
Interested in reducing costs with IDEA? Contact at .
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 two suppliers:
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: customers idx ird atlanta light bulbs
Nominate Your Company for the 2009 Richard Buzun Award
Award for Leadership and Innovation in eCommerce to recognize industry’s best
Nominations for the third annual Richard Buzun Award for Leadership and Innovation in eCommerce are open. One manufacturer and one distributor company will be recognized for innovatively using trading partner interactions to increase the speed and accuracy of communication and improve supply chain efficiencies.
The winners will be announced at the close of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2009 in Tucson, Arizona on Thursday, September 24. Past winners are OSRAM SYLVANIA, Viking Electric Supply, Leviton Manufacturing and Van Meter Industrial. Representatives from the 2008 winning companies will share eCommerce best practices during the break-out sessions of the 2009 Forum.
“Recipients of this prestigious award understand the value of innovation in the channel. They invest in the future by exploring and adopting more efficient and effective ways of doing business with their trading partners. It is fitting to recognize the thought leaders and change leaders in the electrical channel shining a light on the future because of the influence they have and the leadership they demonstrate,” said Bob Gaylord, President and CEO, IDEA.
The award nomination form is based on criteria that measures company involvement in eBusiness activities and programs that help the electrical industry reduce costs and boost sales. Nominations must be submitted by an employee of your company and a representative must be present at the Forum to accept the award on your company’s behalf.
Please complete a nomination form for your company and get more award details at https://idea-esolutions.com/ebizforum/awards.
Don’t delay... nominations close Friday, August 21!
Tags for this post: ebiz forum richard buzun awards
Submit Your Standards Needs to IDEA
The IDEA Standards Committee (ISC) has implemented a Standards Development Request Form and process to support it in an ongoing effort to streamline standards processes and more efficiently utilize the efforts of the committee’s volunteers. By having all requests submitted through this form, the committee can put appropriate effort into developing standards and guidelines that offer the most value to the industry.
Anyone with a need for a new standard, a White Paper guideline, or a change/ addition to an existing standard should fill out this form and submit it to , Standards Director, for review and consideration by the ISC Executive Committee. Each submittal will be assigned a tracking number which will be used to communicate status updates to the requestor. All request forms will then be posted on the ISC’s SharePoint website for accessibility.
Last Week of Major IDX savings – Deadline is July 31!
The Industry Data Exchange (IDX) Independence Day promotion deadline for new and existing customers is almost here. Time is running out to enjoy great savings on IDEA’s custom mapping service (up to a $1,000 value per map!) and a month of free or discounted IDX traffic. To take advantage of this promotion, you must contact IDEA by Friday, July 31 and take next steps by Tuesday, September 15.
This promotion lowers costs so that your company can increase electronic activity with more trading partners.
Here is what your company could be qualified to receive based on your status:
- 2 for 1 maps*
- Free month of document specific transactions**
- Free month of IDX traffic ***
*Order by September 15, 2009 (limit 10 maps per company)
**First time senders of specific documents can sign up by September 15, 2009
*** Must be in production by September 15, 2009
To secure your discount, IDEA customers can contact their account managers and non-customers can contact at .
Not sure who to call? Send an email to and we will direct you to the right person.
IDW Hot Fact: Using Seller Class Codes for Product Categorization
What are Seller Class Codes and Seller Sub-Class Codes?
Seller Class Codes and Seller Sub-Class Codes in the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) are manufacturer-specific product categorization codes used for a multitude of processes within the manufacturer and distributor business system. Seller Class Codes should be used for broad product categories and Seller Sub-Class Codes should funnel the broad categories into more narrow categories. For example, the Seller Class Code for “building wire” could have Sub-Class Codes for “stranded”, “solid” and “multi-conductor” products. Refer to image below for an example within IDW.
An example of how a manufacturer should store product category codes and descriptions in IDW
Why are Seller Class Codes and descriptions essential in IDW?
These categorization codes are used by manufacturers to group similar products for discounting, authorizing distributors, sales reports, routing support inquiries and other business requirements. Distributors use them for website drill-down searches, catalog table of contents, sales promotions and various forms of data analysis. They can also be used in conjunction with a manufacturer’s pre-established pricing discount matrices to determine Net Price.
Manufacturers should provide Seller Class Codes and Sub-Class Codes to IDW in conjunction with meaningful descriptions that can be interpreted by trading partners. A description translates the code into terms that are understood and useful to a trading partner’s business processes. The use of at least one Seller Class Code is mandatory in IDW.
These codes are essential to the future of eCommerce. IDEA will use these manufacturer-specific codes and descriptions to apply UNSPSC (United Nations Standard Products and Services Codes) in IDW. UNSPSC are industry-specific codes based upon a global schema established by the United Nations. UNSPSC provides a single classification system that can be used for company-wide visibility of spend analysis, cost-effective procurement optimization and full exploitation of eCommerce capabilities. These product category codes will be recognized throughout the world for all business transactions and the combination of UNSPSC and Seller Class Codes at the item level create valuable tools for data analysis. The UNSPSC field in IDW will become mandatory in IDW on 1/1/2010.
Who should I contact to help populate my company’s Seller Class Codes and descriptions?
Contact your account manager if you are unsure of where your product category codes are located in your business system or if you need help to ensure your Seller Class Codes and descriptions are accurate and complete in IDW.
Ready to provide your product category codes? Please provide the data via Excel or csv file and email to .
Tags for this post: idw unspsc hot facts categorization seller class codes
Upcoming IDW and IDX Training Opportunities
This month IDEA continues to offer training sessions for Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) and Industry Data Exchange (IDX). Get the August schedule and more details.
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, August 04: 1:30-2:30PM
- Tuesday, August 11: 1:30-2:30PM
- Tuesday, August 18: 1:30-2:30PM
- Tuesday, August 25: 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.
In addition to these trainings, 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 above.