Industry Data Warehouse 2007 Year in Review

IDEA has made great strides with the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) in 2007. During the year, numerous features were added to the system such as Net Into Stock pricing and the Inbound Mapper. The security rating tested by a third party, verified the IDW security was of the highest level, assuring sensitive data such as the Net Into Stock prices are delivered to the distributor’s main house or branch offices with only the authorized receiver having access to the data. Furthermore, IDEA published two user specific reference manuals for manufacturers and distributors to make IDW easier to use. Additional accomplishments related to IDW development and growth in 2007 are noted below.

2007 IDW Fun Facts

• 100% uptime, no unplanned outages!
• 37 manufacturer and distributor training sessions were given
• 23 customized maps were built for customers and made available to others who had similar backend systems
• 2 Million Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) were loaded by Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Flat Files
• 27 data quality maintenance training sessions were provided to manufacturers
• 12 manufacturers qualified to submit their own Flat File data
• 35% is the percentage increase of manufacturers who began providing new pricing information at least 30 days in advance; this is a trend we want to continue in 2008
• 4 Canadian manufacturers began providing data directly to IDW

2007 IDW Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) Breakdown

• 1,609,909 total SKUs in IDW
  • 80% come directly from over 150 manufacturers
  • 78% are active items with current prices
  • 33% of the active SKUs include enriching data (i.e. images, detailed descriptions, specification sheets) and some even include brochures, technical bulletins, drawings and installation instructions

The 2007 year proved to be a successful year for expanding Industry Data Warehouse and supporting our customers. We look forward to even more enhancements to the system and expansions of our customer base, both manufacturers and distributors, in 2008.

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January IDW Training Schedule

IDEA continues to offer distributor and manufacturer trainings, Net Pricing sessions and the most recently added Inbound Mapper training. The January dates for these trainings are:

IDW Distributor Training Sessions:

Wednesday, January 9: 1:30-3:00PM
Wednesday, January 23: 1:30-3:00PM

IDW Manufacturer Training Sessions:

Thursday, January 3: 1:30-3:30PM
Thursday, January 17: 1:30-3:30PM
Thursday, January 31: 1:30-3:30PM

Net Pricing Training Sessions:

Thursday, January 10: 1:30-2:00PM
Thursday, January 24: 1:30-2:00PM

Inbound Mapping Training Sessions:

Wednesday, January 2: 1:30-2:30PM
Wednesday, January 16: 1:30-2:30PM
Wednesday, January 30: 1:30-2:30PM

Additional training sessions are announced each month in This Week in IDEA.

To sign up for a training session, please contact Supriya Reddy, IDW Tech and Training Representative, at (703) 562- 4616.

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Did You Know? IDW Hot Facts

The IDW has detailed reference manuals for manufacturers and distributors available for quick and easy reference. These manuals are located under “Documents” on IDW’s main menu and they will soon be available for download on the IDEA Customer Portal in January 2008. In addition to the detailed manuals, the Outbound and Inbound Mapper applications include documentation that can also be found under “Documents” in the IDW.

Please contact Priya Reddy at 703-562-4616 or sreddy@idea-esolutions.com if you have any questions about the IDW manuals and mapper documentation.

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Happy Holidays from the IDEA Team

As the 2007 year comes to an end, the IDEA staff would like to express our gratitude to you for supporting our initiatives to advance eCommerce throughout the industry. We are optimistic and excited about the opportunities the New Year will bring, and we look forward to working with you and continuing to help you reach your goals in 2008.

We wish you and your company a Happy Holiday Season and a Prosperous New Year!

Sincerely,
IDEA Staff

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