News & Events

This Week in IDEA | March 17, 2010

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.

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New Resource! Net Price Synchronization eLearning Module Available on Portal

Pricing is without question an essential component to manufacturer and distributor business processes. Specifically, net price is defined as the agreed upon price a distributor will pay a manufacturer for a product – in other words, the distributor’s cost for that product. Synchronizing this valuable pricing information helps streamline supply chain processes related to payments, inventory management and rebates. A new interactive eLearning module is available on the IDEA Portal to educate the industry on the benefits of net price synchronization and the standardized options IDEA provides to facilitate a more efficient exchange.

This course covers the fundamental concepts and helps you understand your options for more efficient net price synchronization with your trading partners. This course will help you:

  • Understand how net price is used in your business today
  • Identify roadblocks of net price synchronization
  • Clarify the ways net price can be exchanged between trading partners
  • Understand how IDEA can help streamline and automate net price synchronization today and our vision for the future

The module demonstrates the four standardized net price exchange methods provided by IDEA:

  • B2B Document Exchange (EDI 845 Direct) *Most efficient method*
  • EDI to Flat File
  • Simple Net Through the IDW Data Synchronization Platform
  • EDI to IDW FTP Folder

The module is available for public use and is accessible on the IDEA Portal under Training>Training Modules. The new module will display at the top of the file list.

Take the Net Price Synchronization course now or access it later on the IDEA Portal!

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Barbara Prince Joins the IDEA Team

Barbara Prince, formerly of Thomas & Betts (www.tnb.com) and Carlon/Lamson & Sessions (acquired by T&B in 2007), has joined the Data Synchronization Platform team as a Data Quality Analyst. Prince will monitor and manage activities and processes that impact the quality of data available to IDEA customers. She will work with manufacturers, distributors and software providers to help resolve data quality issues and define and execute strategies to improve data quality.

Prince has a variety of technical and business skills with proven expertise in:

  • Customer service management    
  • eCommerce standards including EDI, barcoding, and data synchronization
  • SAP order management, quotation and contract management, and pricing procedures
  • SAP master data
  • Process improvement

While at Thomas & Betts, she played an active role in developing and maintaining pricing guidelines to optimize market share and profit margin goals for the Carlon product lines, and she was responsible for integrating Carlon’s SAP customer service and pricing procedures with Thomas & Bett’s system. Prince also served as a main contact for IDEA and was an active member of the IDEA Industry Standards Committee (ISC). She graduated with a B.A from Notre Dame College (OH).

Barbara can be reached at or at . Welcome to the IDEA team!

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First Sponsors of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2010: Unilog Content Solutions, DATAgility, Sterling Commerce, Pentair Technical Products and Eaton

­IDEA would like to thank Unilog Content Solutions for their exclusive Premiere level sponsorship, DATAgility and Sterling Commerce for their Platinum level sponsorship, Pentair Technical Products for their Silver level sponsorship and Eaton for their Bronze level sponsorship of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2010. We’d also like to thank Van Meter Industrial for their Supporter level contribution to the event. These companies are the first to demonstrate their support of the training and educational event where B2B leaders in the electrical supply chain and other related verticals discover how to utilize the latest eBusiness strategies and technologies. Their leadership and support is greatly appreciated by all. The Forum, themed “eOptimizing Performance and Profitablity”, will take place on September 20-22 in Dallas, TX. Detailed information about the event is now available at www.idea-ebizforum.com.  

About Unilog
 Unilog is India’s leading catalog management and data synchronization company. Unilog employs close to 300 people, is ISO 9001:2000 certified and supports customers in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

Unilog provides Classification, Cleansing, Attribute Extraction and Enrichment services for all major industry verticals. Unilog in association with Datagility was instrumental in creating the UNSPSC attribute templates for IDEA users. Unilog has dedicated teams available to assist your company with UNSPSC classification and fulfillment of all your data sync needs. Unilog has excellent relationships with most PIM / ERP and SCM implementation companies and can be your one-stop-shop. Find out more at www.unilogcorp.com.  

About DATAgility
DATAgility, the premier provider of data services, helps suppliers and their distributors achieve and maintain quality data. Their Electrical Data Sync process is designed to measure how a distributor and manufacturer product data is aligned, and offers recommendations for correcting and avoiding data discrepancies. They provide synchronization & data validation tools, and guide the implementation of data governance. Suppliers have exceeded their distributors’ data quality expectations with their guidance, and achieve increased sales as a direct result. Find out more information at www.datagility.com.  

About Sterling Commerce
 Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) company, helps companies optimize and transform their Business Collaboration Network to accelerate revenues and reduce costs. Sterling Commerce provides more than 30,000 customers worldwide applications and integration solutions to connect, communicate and collaborate inside and outside their enterprise. More information can be found at www.sterlingcommerce.com.

About Pentair Technical Products
 Pentair Technical Products, a Pentair global business unit, is the leading provider of worldwide product and service solutions for enclosing, protecting and cooling electrical and electronic systems. Its industry-leading brands—Hoffman, Schroff, McLean Cooling Technology, Calmark, Birtcher, Aspen Motion Technologies and Taunus—provide a broad variety of standard, modified and custom solutions to the commercial, communications, energy, general electronics, industrial, infrastructure, medical, and security and defense markets. Find out more at www.pentair.com.

About Eaton Corporation
 Eaton Corporation is a diversified power management company with 2009 sales of $11.9 billion. Eaton is a global technology leader in electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution and control; hydraulics components, systems and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy and safety. Eaton has approximately 70,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 150 countries. Find out more at www.eaton.com.  

Join the ranks of these eBusiness leaders - take a look at the sponsor benefits to select and confirm your company sponsorship. Early sponsor benefits end March 26, 2010!

Tags for this post: ebiz forum sponsors datagility van meter unilog eaton pentair sterling commerce

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New B2B eCommerce and Synchronization Customers

IDEA welcomes new IDX and IRD CERICOMX® customers. Read more about these companies and how you can begin trading with them electronically to expand your business.

New IDX Customers

Premier Purchasing & Marketing Alliance (PPMA), of Glens Falls, NY, became a new IDX customer on March 8, 2010. PPMA is the newest buying group serving the electrical supply industry. PPMA provides distributors the tools and support to be more efficient and profitable. Distributors and manufacturers both benefit from participation in PPMA. PPMA will begin transacting business at the beginning of the second quarter of 2010. They will be taking advantage of the cost savings and reliability of Industry Data Exchange (IDX) to exchange B2B documents. Find out more at www.premierpma.com.  

Upchurch Electrical Supply Company, of Fayetteville, AR, became an IDX customer on March 4, 2010. Upchurch Electrical was the area’s first wholesale electrical supply facility designed to serve the needs of residential, commercial, industrial and utility customers in the Northwest Arkansas area. In addition to wholesale, they also serve individual customers at their drop-in sales counters. They will be taking advantage of the cost savings and reliability of Industry Data Exchange (IDX) to exchange B2B documents. Find out more at www.upchurchelectrical.com.  

New IRD CERICOMX® 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 35 suppliers:

These companies will be trained to use IRD CERICOMX®, an online catalog that suppliers use to register product data with the GS1 Registry® and GDSN via the 1SYNC Data Pool. Suppliers also use this solution to publish product data to demand partners including retailers like Lowe’s and Walmart.

Tags for this post: customers idx ird

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