This Week in IDEA | December 5, 2007
This Week in IDEA is a bi-monthly eNewsletter created to keep the supply network informed about new IDEA happenings and other helpful resources regarding eBusiness trends and industry news. Become an eBiz expert and subscribe today!
Contents
- New IDEA Customer: Tender Corporation
- New IDEA Customer: Evergreen Oak Electric Supply
- New IDEA Customer: Midtown Electric Supply
- EGS Electrical Group Completes Data Quality Training
- Robert E. Gaylord Joins the IDEA Team
- A Note from the President, Robert E. Gaylord
- The Dominos Effect of Data Errors
- Did You Know? IDW Hot Facts
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New IDEA Customer: Tender Corporation
Tender Corporation, a manufacturer from Littleton, NH, became an IDEA customer on November 29, 2007. Tender Corp. manufactures the world famous insect bite treatment, After Bite® and a full line of well known insect repellents, first aid treatments, sunburn and windburn products. They will be relying on the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) for suppliers’ product and pricing information as well as taking advantage of the cost savings and reliability of the Industry Data Exchange (IDX) to exchange business information. Visit www.tendercorp.com for more information. Welcome aboard!
New IDEA Customer: Evergreen Oak Electric Supply
Evergreen Oak Electric Supply, an electrical distributor from Crestwood, IL, became an IDEA customer on November 30, 2007. Evergreen Oak ES supplies a broad range of electrical material and equipment to Chicago and surrounding areas through their six branch locations. They will be taking advantage of the cost savings and reliability of the Industry Data Exchange (IDX) to exchange business information. Evergreen Oak ES is a proud member of NAED and IMARK. Visit www.evergreenoak.com for more information. Welcome aboard!
New IDEA Customer: Midtown Electric Supply
Midtown Electric Supply, an electrical distributor from New York, NY, became an IDEA customer on December 4, 2007. Midtown ES offers a large selection of manufacturer products and has served the electrical industry with since 1912. They will be taking advantage of the cost savings and reliability of the Industry Data Exchange (IDX) to exchange business information. Midtown ES is a proud member of IMARK. Visit www.midtownelectric.com for more information. Welcome aboard!
EGS Electrical Group Completes Data Quality Training
IDEA is proud to announce that EGS Electrical Group completed the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) Data Quality Maintenance Training and will now submit their own pricing and product updates directly to IDW. The completion of this program demonstrates EGS's dedication and commitment to providing the most timely and accurate data to their trading partners and customers.
EGS Electrical Group is a global manufacturer of industrial electrical products for explosion proof, hazardous and ordinary location environments with some of the most well known brands in the industry. Find out more at www.egseg.com.
If you would like to follow EGS's lead and start taking full control of your data updates, please contact Beth Badrakhan, Data Content Manager, at (703) 562-4602 or bbadrakhan@idea-esolutions.com to sign up for the IDW Data Quality Training Program.
Robert E. Gaylord Joins the IDEA Team
Brigadier General Robert E. Gaylord (Retired), formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Leader to Leader Institute, joined the IDEA team as the President on December 3, 2007.
General Gaylord retired from the United States Army on January 1, 2005 after a long and distinguished career culminating in his assignment as the senior Public Affairs Officer in the Army.
Bob is a graduate of The Ohio University with a degree in Fine Arts, and was a Distinguished Military Graduate commissioned as a Signal Corps Officer. He subsequently earned a Master of Technology degree from Georgia Southern College and a Master of Science degree in Public Relations from The American University. He is a graduate of numerous military schools including the Army Command and General Staff College and the Army War College.
General Gaylord became the Chief of Public Affairs in July 2003, responsible for public relations and strategic communications for the U.S. Army during the Global War on Terrorism. During his career, he served in a variety of command and staff assignments in the United States and overseas including the U.S. Army Recruiting Command as Chief of Staff and later Deputy Commanding General from 1999 to 2002. A few of his awards and decorations include the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with three oak leaf clusters and the Bronze Star.
Bob serves on a number of Boards including the Housing and Community Services of Northern Virginia and the Military Child Education Coalition.
He is married to the former Donna M. Verne of Fayetteville, North Carolina. They have a daughter, Elisa, two granddaughters, Skyler and Nastasja and they are in the process of adopting a beautiful 23 month old girl, Haley.
Bob can be reached at (703)562-4632 or rgaylord@idea-esolutions.com. Welcome to the IDEA team!
A Note from the President, Robert E. Gaylord
Valued Customers, Partners and Industry Colleagues:
I am honored to have the opportunity to serve and work with you in this exciting time at IDEA. The company has achieved many accomplishments since its establishment in 1998 and has moved many businesses forward with the service of an extremely knowledgeable staff and the tools of robust eCommerce products and data quality programs. With your help and support, the IDEA team will continue this legacy and lead the company to even greater levels of success and significance. IDEA is a unique organization with great industry supporters, a staff dedicated to serving your needs, and tremendous opportunities for unprecedented achievements ahead. I am confident that together we will make a tremendous impact on the industry and the entire supply network. I look forward to meeting and working with each of you throughout my journey here at IDEA.
Best Regards,
Bob Gaylord
IDEA President
The Dominos Effect of Data Errors
IDEA would like to share a message and personal objective with the key product people at each manufacturer operation.
When solving a problem, it is always better to start at the source of the problem, get the whole story and try to deliver the right product or product information on the first trial.
Manufacturers who are creating new products to satisfy customer requirements and improve efficiencies have to wear many hats and feed information throughout the organization.
What you may not realize
As you document attributes for the new products, this information will be distributed throughout the entire supply network. There are industry standards for those product attributes and it is helpful to your organization and your trading partners if they are applied.
For instance, the unique identifier, usually a GTIN number, is meant to represent not only the product but the packaging level associated with that GTIN. This number must not only be unique when compared to other GTIN’s at your company but also unique within the entire supply network.
Another important fact
The Catalog Number is also a unique number for all items sold by your company. We want you to be aware because there are popular distributor business software products that use the Catalog Number as the unique key.
The IDEA Standards Committee established a requirement in late 2006 which states that each Catalog Number must be unique and the associated GTIN must also be unique; then they are matched together for the product lifecycle. This rule has been in effect for over 15 years at GS 1 (formerly the Uniform Code Council). Even so, there are times when the manufacturer chooses to re-use the UPC number. They do this by either:
- Changing it to the Catalog Number while tying it to the same UPC code or,
- By choosing to assign an entirely different catalog number against this particular GTIN.
Everything is seemingly connected with all the technology changes. It is nearly impossible to perform changes that don’t impact others at some point. That is where we are at today.
An item’s GTIN identifier is to the actual item much like a person’s social security number is to the person. Without it, that person could be considered someone else without distinction.
When GTIN’s are changed incorrectly, it makes it difficult to maintain the integrity of the original component’s attributed information. Then the catalog number and description, or even price, could be confused between the old and the new item.
For example, the accuracy of GTIN’s and attributed information prevents warehouse managers from dealing with wrongfully shipped items due to inaccurate UPC’s. When that box is opened, there have already been many resources exhumed into getting that product to a certain location. Then the receiver is left with intensive steps to return this item including:
- Request credit
- Ship it back
- Inspect it upon receipt
- Begin a returns process
All of this work is created just because the Catalog Number has changed from the UPC number in which it was originally charged.
Note: The IDEA Standards Committee handles all of the EDI and Flat File standards, as well as researching suggestions or issues and making recommendations for the industry. Please make sure that you company has representation on this important committee. You may contact Mary Shaw, IDEA Standards Director, at (647) 722-3406 or mshaw@idea-esolutions.com to become a participant of the committee.
Did You Know? IDW Hot Facts
If you place a data request for one manufacturer or a group of manufacturers and then change the name of the manufacturer(s) before the data request is completed, both requests will fail. In this case, the Extraction Failure message will end with “Failed: 57001”. To prevent this error from occurring, do not change the data request parameters until that request has been completed.
