This Week in IDEA | April 18, 2007

New IDEA Customer: F & M Electric Supply Co., Inc.

F & M Electric Supply, a full service electrical distributor from Danbury, CT became an IDEA customer on April 12, 2007. F & M Electric has been supplying contractors, builders, commercial and industrial institutions, as well as municipal, state and federal government facilities in Western Connecticut and parts of New York for over 30 years. They will be taking advantage of the cost saving features and reliability of the Industry Data Exchange (IDX2), and they will be taking advantage of the low prices of the IDEA eCredit (IeC) Focus Reports. F & M Electric is a proud member of IMARK and NAED. Visit the F & M Electric Supply Website for more information. Welcome aboard!

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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 the following five suppliers:

-Stoner, Inc.
-Great Kitchens, Inc.
-M Group, Inc.
-Maxitt Industries
-CIPA-USA

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 learn more about the CERICOMX® product, please contact John Etrie, IDEA IRD Product Manager, here or at (703) 562-4624; or Tony Gaffney, IDEA CERICOMX® Implementation Manager, here or at (508) 386-0261.

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Electro E-Biz Forum 2007 Line-Up Revealed

Behold The Power of Information by surrounding yourself with leading business experts and the industry's most innovative eCommerce technology at the Electro E-Biz Forum 2007!

KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS:
Adam Fein
Author, “Facing the Forces of Change”

Gene Randall
Former CNN journalist - Power of Information Panel

Bob Hirschfield
Cybersatirist

Ed Orlet, NAED
“Media View of eCommerce” and “What Distributors Want” Panels

EVENTS:
Forum Shamble at Furry Creek Golf & Country Club
Tech Center
First Forum Night Out: “Can you dig it?” Salmon Bake
Second Forum Night Out: Dare to board the Murder Mystery Cruise along the Vancouver Harbor

LOCATION:
Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel
1088 Burrard Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 2R9 Canada

For more information, please view the official Electro E-Biz Forum page or contact Mary Dempsey at (703)562-4632 to learn more.

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25% of Data is Bad; What Should You Do?

First, Get A Handle On How Messy Your Data Is;

More than 25% of your critical data is flawed, inaccurate, incomplete or duplicated, according to a release issued by Gartner last month.

Perhaps more disconcerting than knowing a quarter of all critical information is wrong, is that the overall state of data quality has not improved in the last two years. Gardner reported the same stats two years ago and does not expect much improvement in the near future.

What steps can your company take to clean up one of your most important strategic assets?

1. Acknowledge the problem – the first step is admitting there is a problem. Data quality experts say every company (not just manufacturers) has bad information.

2. Determine the extent of the problem – There are data cleansing software tools that can monitor and count the number of files, omissions, duplications, etc. As a minimum, companies can use Microsoft Access as a way to query records and pinpoint duplicate records and omissions. Companies should also conduct accuracy assessments to test the validity of their business information.

3. Put a dollar figure on it – One company estimated that it would take $500K -$1M to improve their data and quality processes. That may seem like a lot of money but it is minimal when you consider the expense companies incur due to inaccurate business information, customer turnover, missed sales opportunities, poor planning and production distribution. Companies can lose 155% or more of their revenue due to problems stemming from bad business information.

4. Put someone in charge – Companies should create a management position focused on data quality; some call it a Chief Data Officer, others Chief Information Quality Officer. Regardless, this person should be responsible for measuring data accuracy, bringing in tools to keep it clean and most importantly, putting in processes to ensure that the data is correct and current at all times.

5. Understand and comply with industry data standards – Whether your company is serving wholesale or retail channels, data attributes have to be uniform and standardized to enable distributors and retail trading partners the ability to accept data from multiple suppliers and ensure a smooth and hopefully error free order management system. Standardized data structure serves as the foundation for the supply chain; without standards there would be chaos. Therefore, know, understand and implement industry data standards – it will make doing business with your trading partners that much easier.

6. Use available tools – companies should employ root cause analysis tools to find out the origin of their data flaws and to define process improvements. The best tactic is to pursue a master data management solution offered by product information management application companies like Full Tilt Solutions, SAP, Heiler and Thomas Tech.

Improving data quality requires a concerted effort that includes a combination of people, processes and technology. All three aspects must be brought to bear in order to achieve lasting positive results, and this applies to distributors and manufacturers alike.

Contact Beth Badrakhan at (703) 562-4602 to find out how to participate in the IDEA Data Audit and Certification Program, which provides specific error reports and feedback that will help you address process and problematic areas.

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Did You Know? IDW2 Hot Fact

Here’s a tip: If your web browser is prohibiting access to your ftp folder (and your data), try using Windows Explorer instead. Certain versions of Internet Explorer do not interact well with ftp.

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Global Trade Item Number Facts

What is a GTIN? How is it used? What are the benefits?

The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is the unique GS1 System identification number used for trade items or products and services. It is used for identifying trade items that are sold, delivered, warehoused and billed in commercial distribution channels.

GTINs are used to identify trade items as they move along the supply chain to the ultimate end user. GTINs are encoded in data carriers such as bar codes and electronic product code compliant RFID tags. Also, as an important component of electronic commerce, GTINs are key identifier numbers used to synchronize business information between trading partners

• A GTIN is a number containing 14 digits, 13 digits, 12 digits or 8 digits.
• The Universal Product Code or UPC contains a 12 digit GTIN
• The EAN contains a 13 digit GTIN.

GS1 recommends that GTINs be represented in software applications as 14 digits by right justifying and zero filling left, as appropriate. A unique trade item is assigned a unique GTIN. Therefore, an individual item, an inner pack of six individual items, and a case of six inner packs of individual items require three different GTINs.

Common uses of GTINs are the scanning of UPC symbols at receiving docks warehouses or at retail check outs. The UPC symbol is scanned, the 12 digit GTIN is read and the data is used to look up the price or is stored in the user’s business system for other purposes.

GTINs enable trading partners to identify their trade items worldwide creating supply chain efficiencies and cost savings such as:

• Facilitating flow of trade items along the supply chain
• Identifying products at all levels of packaging such as pallet, case and item
• Allowing accurate machine readable identification of trade items when encoded in data carriers such as bar code
• Globally accepting GS1 standards

Like all GS1 identification numbers, the GTIN is based on the GS1 company prefix, the global unique number licensed to a company or organization by GS1 US. The first step to receiving your GS1 Company prefix is joining Partner connections, the program supported by GS1 US BarCodes and eCom.

When you receive your GS1 company prefix you will be able to create identification numbers and bar codes to communicate product and location information with your trading partners, getting your products to the selling phase faster and making your supply chain more efficient. Go here to get started.

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