This Week in IDEA | June 10, 2009

New IDEA and IDEA IRD Customers

IDEA announces one new IDEA customer and five 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

Sunrise Electrical Supply, Inc., from Addison, IL, became an IDEA customer on June 2, 2009. Sunrise Electrical Supply is an owner operated supply house. They will take advantage of the cost savings and reliability of Industry Data Exchange (IDX). They are a proud member of NAED and IMARK. Find out more about Sunrise Electrical Supply at www.sunriseelectric.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 five suppliers:

• In Zone, Inc
• Whalen Furniture
• Extreme Color, Inc.
• Fantasia World, Inc.
• Wisner Minnow Hatchery, 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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IDEA Announces New Directors and Officers for 2009 - 2010

Ronald D. Schlader, Vice President of Operations and Quality at Crescent Electric Supply Company, named IDEA Chairman

The IDEA Board of Directors elected Ronald D. Schlader, vice president of operations and quality at Crescent Electric Supply Company in East Dubuque, IL, as the IDEA Chairman of the Board for 2009-2010. Schlader previously held the Vice-Chair position and has been involved with IDEA since its inception in 1998. He has served on several committees and task forces for both IDEA and the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED).

“I am a long-time advocate of synchronizing data between manufacturers, distributors, manufacturer reps and end-users. Our company and many of our trading partners have experienced significant benefits of reduced manual intervention first hand. IDEA has tremendous momentum going forward with several key projects being finalized and rolled out. I take this role very seriously and will work hard to improve the effectiveness of IDEA’s capabilities and services that will help our industry increase sales growth opportunities and decrease operational costs,” said Schlader.

Outgoing IDEA Chairman, David J. FitzGibbon, CEO, ILSCO Corporation, who served at this position from 2008-2009 will continue to serve on the 2009-2010 Board as a voting director.

“It has been a privilege to serve as the IDEA Chairman and as a member of the Strategic Planning Task Force during a monumental year in IDEA’s history. We ended the first decade with a reevaluation of the electrical industry’s business needs, resulting in a new strategic direction for 2009-2011. IDEA’s focused mission is to drive costs out of the electrical supply chain as the electrical industry’s standards-setting, data synchronization, and eCommerce service provider.” said FitzGibbon. “IDEA has already made tremendous progress toward the goals of the current plan through the development and education of the Electrical Industry Product Attribute Schema standards and Net Pricing standards. Complete data synchronization is readily within reach.”

“I’m extremely appreciative to the 2008-2009 Board and thank them for their leadership, vision and wisdom in creating IDEA’s strategic plan and direction for the future. As IDEA embarks upon a new decade with leadership and oversight from the 2009-2010 Board, we will continue to enhance our services and keep a steady focus on communicating with and creating value for our customers,” said Bob Gaylord, president and CEO, IDEA.

The 2009-2010 IDEA Officers:

• Ron Schlader, IDEA Chairman - Vice President of Operations and Quality, Crescent Electric Supply Co.
• Del Nickel, IDEA Vice Chairman - President, Hoffman Enclosures Inc.
• Larry Stern, IDEA Treasurer - President and CEO, Standard Electric Supply Co. (WI)
• Phil Barrios, IDEA Secretary - Sr. Director, Corporate Marketing and E-Business, Hubbell, Inc.
• Robert Gaylord, IDEA President - President and CEO, IDEA

The 2009-2010 IDEA Board of Directors:

• Phil Barrios, Sr. Director, Corporate Marketing and E-Business, Hubbell, Inc.
• Dave FitzGibbon, CEO, ILSCO Corporation
• Valerie Jones, Vice President of Customer Service and Inside Sales, OSRAM SYLVANIA
• Del Nickel, President, Hoffman Enclosures Inc.
• Ron Schlader, Vice President of Operations and Quality, Crescent Electric Supply Co.
• Larry Stern, President and CEO, Standard Electric Supply Co. (WI)
• Greg Thrall, Sr. Vice President, Operations, Border States Electric
• James Tinker, Manager, Master File Maintenance Officer, Rexel, Inc.
• Joe Wallace, Data Pricing Administration Manager, Van Meter Industrial, Inc.

The 2009-2010 Non-voting Directors:

• Tom Naber, President and CEO, National Association of Electrical Distributors
• Evan Gaddis, President, National Electrical Manufacturers Association
• Robert Gaylord, President and CEO, IDEA

About IDEA
IDEA (idea-esolutions.com) is the only standard-setting organization offering a full range of eCommerce products and services designed to drive supply network efficiencies, reduce costs, slash cycle times, and ensure standardized, timely, and accurate data. IDEA provides Industry Data Warehouse (IDW), a database of product, pricing, and marketing data; Industry Data Exchange (IDX), a centralized and standardized document exchange solution; Industry Retail Database (IRD) a central repository of manufacturer retail product data powered by CERICOMX® which helps users meet retailer mandates and consumer packaged goods (CPG) and GS1 US requirements; and the Data Audit and Certification (DAC) Program which assures the accuracy and completeness of the manufacturer data found in IDW.

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Economic Business Strategies from a former White House Advisor

Many others just like you are trying to sustain sales growth in a highly-competitive and uncertain global economy. You can come out of this recession on top by making the right business decisions. Join us at the IDEA E-Biz Forum to gain business strategies and recommendations from Todd Buchholz, former economic advisor to President Bush Senior.

Keynote Presentation, Wednesday, September 23
How to Compete in a Global Economy
Never before have businesses felt such excruciating pressure to compete. While riding a roller coaster stock market, firms have struggled to raise prices, even when their costs go up. Loyal customers seem ready to jump to a competitor. How can your company and industry survive and thrive? What will Congress do to help or hurt your industry in the coming year? Learn how to anticipate the new trends that open up fresh opportunities for the electrical supply chain, service and technology companies.

Take a sneak peek at Buchholz’s insights on the global economy – of his radio broadcast at South Africa's leading source for independent investment information, Moneyweb. Buchholz chats about the economics of the Obama presidency and gives an outlook for global markets. (November 2008)

About Buchholz
Former economic advisor to President Bush Senior, this author, economist, and award winning economics professor at Harvard has been featured on ABC News, PBS, CBS, and recently hosted his own special on CNBC. Buchholz is a Co-Founder of Enso Capital Management, LLC and Co-Founder and Managing Director of Two Oceans Management, LLC. He is also an editor for Worth magazine and has penned articles for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Readers Digest. Buchholz has authored numerous books that have been translated into a dozen languages and are used in universities nationwide including: Market Shock: 9 Economic and Social Upheavals that Will Shake Our Financial Future, the best-selling New Ideas from Dead Economists and From Here to Economy, which were lavishly praised by The New York Times and Financial Times.

Sign up by June 30th to save $100 per registrant! 

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Electro Federation Canada: Bronze Sponsor of the IDEA E-Biz Forum ‘09

IDEA would like to thank Electro Federation Canada (EFC) for their Bronze level sponsorship of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2009. This company demonstrates 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.

Electro Federation Canada is a national, not-for-profit industry association. Together, its five councils represent over 300 member companies that manufacture, distribute, and service electrical, electronics, and telecommunications products; contributing over $50B to the Canadian economy and employing more than 130,000 workers in more than 1,400 facilities across Canada. Find out more at www.electrofed.com.

Interested in joining this industry leader in their support of eBusiness advancements? Take a look at the sponsor benefits to select and confirm your company sponsorship.

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IDX Hot Fact: What They Charge, We Don’t

Once you become an IDX customer, you have access to several value-added services at no additional cost. Taking advantage of these tools and resources is a smart way for you to increase your sales opportunities and cut costs without incurring additional up-front expenses in this down economy. Many other VAN providers charge additional fees for the services below. IDX customers get these extra perks for free:

• Trading partner set-up – increase the number of trading partners in which you do business electronically without the extra hassle and expense.
• Send and receive data to and from Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) – sell more products by providing or using transactional and marketing product data in IDW without paying kilocharacter charges.
• Interconnections to all public and most private VANs – exchange documents with all of your trading partners regardless of which VAN they use without paying additional connection fees.
• FTP, S/FTP and AS2 connections - there is no additional charge for using one connection type over the other. You only pay additional for dedicated direct connects.
• Any to any file translation – send documents in one format and enable receipt in another (format examples: Flat File, EDI, Fax, XML) without paying extra or investing in expensive software.
• IDX Tracker - track the real-time flow of your business documents with our free online application.

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