This Week in IDEA | November 10, 2010

Get to Know IDEA’s Board Officers

The IDEA Board of Directors provide leadership and vision to IDEA; their insights along with the continuous feedback we receive from customers help shape our goals and objectives. Our Board Officers have extensive experience in the industry and unique professional backgrounds. Get to know each of them on our updated “About Us” page. Here’s a preview – you can learn more at About Us>Board of Directors.

Chairman: Del Nickel, former President (retired), Pentair's Technical Products global business unit (GBU)

The IDEA Board of Directors elected Delton D. Nickel, former president (retired) of Pentair’s Technical Products global business unit (GBU) in Anoka, Minnesota, as the IDEA Chairman of the Board for 2010-2011. He previously served on the Board as the Vice Chair from 2009-2010 and Secretary from 2008-2009. Nickel brings over 40 years of experience in the electrical industry, including a distinguished 18-year career at Pentair. His retirement was announced by Pentair March 2010…

Vice Chairman: Larry Stern, President and CEO, Standard Electric Supply Co. (WI)

Larry Stern has been with Standard Electric Supply Co. since October 1989 and has held the position of President since 1994. He is actively involved with the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) as a member of the Board of Directors. He previously served on NAED’s Your Emerging Talent (YET) Committee as a member of the Regional Council and most recently led the South Central Region as the Vice President…

Treasurer: Stephen Sokolow, Chairman of the Board Of Directors, Leviton Manufacturing Company

Stephen B. Sokolow is Chairman of the Board of Directors for Leviton, a position he has held since 2007. Prior to being named to Board Chairman, Sokolow served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and as Executive Vice President for Leviton. As Executive Vice President, Sokolow directed the company’s manufacturing, engineering, distribution and information technology operations and has been the driving force behind many process improvements in the company’s operations…

Secretary: James Tinker, Director of eBusiness, Rexel

James Tinker joined Rexel as a consultant in 2005 and was quickly promoted to the role of Manager of the Master Item File group where he built the processes and the team that manages the item file database at Rexel. Tinker spent time as a Business Development Analyst, using critical market intelligence to diagnose improvement opportunities and to guide executive decisions before being tasked with setting the vision and strategy for Rexel and Gexpro eCommerce initiatives in his current role, Director of eBusiness…

President: Robert Gaylord, President and CEO, IDEA

Brigadier General Robert Gaylord (retired) has been president and CEO of IDEA since December 2007. For the first time since the inception of IDEA, Gaylord asked the Board of Directors to give a rigorous look at IDEA’s vision and mission. The new strategic plan completed under his leadership resulted in a set of strategic goals that guide the staff and a new corporate vision and mission that truly outlines IDEA’s purpose - to drive cost out of the electrical supply chain. Previously, Gaylord was president and CEO of the Leader-to-Leader Institute in New York City…

Learn more about our Board Officers at About Us>Board of Directors.

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Helping You Reach Data Quality Excellence

The Data Audit & Certification Professional service was created to help manufacturers consistently populate and maintain quality product information in the IDW Data Synchronization Platform. Find out how IDEA has worked with manufacturers to add value through this service.

Questions for manufacturers to consider:

1. Is your product information in IDW outdated, inaccurate and/or incomplete? What is your company’s definition of current and accurate? Does your interpretation meet your distributors’ expectations?
2. Do you struggle with what type of product information to populate in IDW?
3. Are you unsure of how to properly format data to load into IDW?
4. Do you hear complaints from distributors about the quality of your data in IDW?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, you may want to consider taking advantage of our data quality service. If you’ve used the service in the past, we encourage you to take a look at what’s changed. A few recent improvements:

• Dedicated Data Quality Analyst (DQA)
  • All manufacturers that sign up for the service are assigned a dedicated Data Quality Analyst who proactively follows up on Load Summary reports and helps correct any errors that may occur.
  • Your DQA is available to format and load data for you when you don't have the time.
  • Your DQA can help answer any questions you have about your product information including how and/or what to populate.
  • Your DQA’s ultimate goal is to make sure you load the highest quality data in the most efficient way.
    
• Monthly report on the status of your data
  • The report includes data quality metrics to help you prioritize your data improvements.
  • It also provides a percentage of population total for key fields your distributors have requested. For example, you can find out the percentage of your products in IDW that have the UNSPSC code populated at the category level or the percentage that have a catalog description.

In addition, all manufacturers that use this data quality service will be labeled as “Certified” in IDW which is displayed for all your distributor trading partners. Your distributors will know that you take data quality seriously and that they can expect fewer order errors when using your product information to place orders.

If you are interested in learning more about the changes to this data quality professional service, please contact your account manager. Additional service enhancements will be implemented in 2011.

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Congratulations to the 2010 NEMA and A-D Award Winners

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) handed out awards at the annual meeting, Illuminations, on November 4 and Affliated Distributors (A-D) recognized their top affiliates and suppliers during their annual division meetings this past September. We congratulate the many IDEA customers that were honored by our partner companies.

NEMA Awards

Bernard H. Falk Award

Joel A. Spira, founder, chairman, and director of research of Lutron Electronics, was awarded the 2010 Bernard H. Falk Award which recognizes an important contribution to the industry through technology, marketing, education, and public affairs. Spira formed Lutron Electronics in 1961 to market his invention of the first electronic solid state dimmer for incandescent lighting. It ultimately paved the way for contemporary digital lighting controls. He also invented the first electronic dimming ballast for fluorescent lamps, as well as hundreds of devices, systems, and processes for controlling electric and natural light. He is credited with 266 design patents and 226 utility patents.

Kite and Key Awards

Kite and Key Awards, which were established in 1987, recognize individuals from NEMA member companies who have advanced the interest of the electroindustry through active and sustained involvement in NEMA activities. This year’s recipients are John Goodsell, PE, vice president research and engineering at Hubbell Electrical Systems; Helen J. Harris, financial analyst at Schneider Electric; Frank K. Kitzantides, who has held various positions at NEMA, including senior vice president and chief technical officer; Vince Saporita, PE, vice president, technical sales at Cooper Bussmann; and Harry Solomon, interoperability architect at GE Healthcare.

Learn more about the winners in NEMA’s press release.

Affiliated Distributors (A-D) Spirit of Independence Awards

The 2010 Electrical Supply Division’s award winners:

• A-D MVP: Deb Ricci, Werner Electric Supply of Minnesota
• Affiliate of the Year, Performance: Hunzicker Brothers
• Affiliate of the Year, Leadership: Maureen Barsema, B.J. Electric
• Affiliate of the Year, Canada: Liteco Electrical Distributor
• Supplier of the Year, Performance: Panduit
• Supplier of the Year, Leadership: Bill Marshal, Leviton
• Supplier of the Year, Canada: IPEX
• Best Conversion to A-D Supplier: Eckart and Generac Power Systems
• Supplier of the Year, Marketing Excellence: RAB Lighting
• Best Annual Planning Process: North Coast Electric Company

Congratulations to all award recipients!

Content courtesy of the NEMA Communications and TED Magazine

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New B2B eCommerce and Synchronization Customers

IDEA welcomes one new B2B eCommerce customer and 10 new Synchronzation customers. Read more about these companies and how you can begin trading with them electronically to expand your business.

New IDX Customer

Joval Manufacturing of Jefferson, LA recently became an IDEA customer. They are a family owned and run manufacturer of prefabricated duct and fittings located near the border of Jefferson and New Orleans. They are taking advantage of the cost savings and reliability of IDX to exchange B2B documents. Find out more here.

New IRD CERICOMX® Customers

As a 1SYNC Data Pool On-Board Solution (OBS) partner, IDEA implements suppliers that subscribe to the 1SYNC data pool using the IRD CERICOMX® Data Synchronization Platform. IDEA was recently assigned 10 suppliers:

• Producers Dairy foods
• Pope Food group, LLC  
• AW Distributing, Inc
• Schulze & Burch Biscuit Co 
• Novelty Greens, LLC
• BP Industries, Inc
• Structured Solutions, LLC
• Asael Farr & Sons Company 
• Slovacek Foods, LP 
• Trisales Marketing

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 such as Lowe’s and Walmart.

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