This Week in IDEA | November 29, 2012

IDEA Releases Supply Chain Analytics Tool for the IDW: Request a Demo Today

New tool empowers manufacturers to evaluate and improve product data­ quality from a distributor’s perspective

You may remember we featured a sneak peek of this tool in an earlier issue, and Supply Chain Analytics is now officially released. You can email to learn more and/or request a personal demo to find out how your product data stacks up.

Supply Chain Analytics is a tool that evaluates a manufacturer’s product data in the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) based on guidelines and best practices developed by the IDEA Industry Standards Committee (ISC).

“We want to empower manufacturers to measure and improve the quality of their product data and encourage them to provide more robust content to their trading partners. This new tool goes beyond the traditional data validation rules and helps answer the question, ‘is this data useable?’ And if not, the manufacturer can drill down to find out why and correct the specific errors at their source,” said Bob Gaylord, President and CEO, IDEA.

Supply Chain Analytics provides a quantitative assessment of each manufacturer’s product data in the IDW based on critical fields that have been selected and weighted according to their importance to distributors. The manufacturer’s “scores” will be private and only available to them upon secure login.

The tool has multiple views which can be used by individuals with different roles within a manufacturing company. Users can access an executive summary dashboard, drill down to pinpoint specific data quality issues, and export the errors so that they can fix the core problem in their business system.

Rockwell Automation is the first manufacturer to leverage Supply Chain Analytics throughout their business. Hundreds of Rockwell product managers around the globe are now using the tool to proactively monitor and improve their data quality.

To learn more about this new tool, please contact or request a personal demo.

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Request New Webinar about iConex On-Demand

The last live webinar “iConex: Capture. Transform. Deliver.” is now available on-demand. To receive the video recording, please send your request and you will receive the link via email upon approval. The presentation is also available to download and share on .

View the webinar to learn how IDEA’s iConex solution combines an innovative text-to-EDI solution with the Industry Data Exchange (IDX). This integrated application enables you to automate order management with trading partners that are not EDI-capable while leveraging the existing systems, processes and people you already have in place. The webinar includes a demo of iConex to show how it can help lower your operational costs, maximize ROI and improve customer service.

Twitter highlights from the webinar:

• Mark Toffoli, ecmarkets: Companies like experience over 50% cost reduction by using EDI services like iConex #IDEAwebinars
• In comparison, the cost of EDI is 6% the cost of manual processing per research from IBM Smarter Commerce. #IDEAwebinars
• Use fully-automated order processing to save 30% in cycle time improvements and 5-10% in customer service levels. #IDEAwebinars

Please comment on this post or (Don’t forget to mention us and use the #IDEAwebinars hashtag!)

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Highlights from Electrical Contractors Technology Survey

Content courtesy of NAED­­

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NAED recently conducted a ­co-branded survey with the Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) Association and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) to gather data about how electrical contractors use technology. The survey results are now available on NAED’s Strategic Technology site.

The survey can be used by electrical distributors to create more value for electrical contractors, make the supply chain more efficient, and reduce costs for all parties involved.

Survey questions encompassed five general categories:

• Online Business Activities
• Important Website Features
• Searching for Electrical Products Online
• Use of Mobile Technology
• Demographics

While individual responses are confidential, 77% of respondents are 45 or older and 65% of respondents have more than 25 years’ experience in the industry.

Highlights:

• Over 90% of electrical contractors go online to search online product catalogs, research products & applications, and check prices and/or request quotes.
• 68% of electrical contractors use a supplier’s website to obtain information needed to do their jobs either daily, monthly or weekly. 32% rarely or never use a supplier’s website.
• Availability of product specification sheets, easy website searching, technical drawings, online catalog(s), and current price ranked as the most important website features in enabling electrical contractors to easily accomplish their job.

View more survey results from NAED>

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Highlights and Resources from eCommerce #tEDChat

Thank you for joining us on Twitter for the #tEDChat on eCommerce a few weeks ago! IDEA was the guest moderator and we really enjoyed hosting the discussion with NAED and hearing from all the participants on how eCommerce will impact the industry and trade partnerships.

Read a full recap of the Twitter #tEDChat on Storify.com>­

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New IDW Platinum Band of Excellence Manufacturers

Congratulations to the following manufacturers that have recently achieved the Platinum Band of Excellence, the most elite status in the industry’s new banding program which measures the amount of marketing content manufacturers provide to the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) for their distributors. These companies are now providing marketing content for 75% - 100% of their stock items!­

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View all manufacturers with Bands of Excellence ratings>

Contact your Data Quality Analyst at IDEA or email to find out where your company stands and how to achieve IDEA’s Platinum banding level.

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Tags for this post: bands of excellence philips cooper b-line canada egs electrical group

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