This Week in IDEA | June 06, 2007

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:

- Southworth
- SportPet, Inc.
- Garden Depot Corporation
- Omnimount Systems
- Apex Medical Corporation

The following supplier signed up directly for the IRD/CERICOMX®:

- USP Structural Connectors

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, at (703) 562-4624; or Isabel DuPont, IRD Sales Manager, at (847)720-4106.

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Electro E-Biz Forum 2007 Update: Complete Agenda Now Available

Waiting for more information before registering for the Forum or wondering what to expect once you get there? Now you can access all the important details online on the Forum Agenda Page. Make sure to register before June 30th to receive the early bird rate!

The Forum Agenda Page provides detailed descriptions of the topics that will be addressed in each general and breakout session as well as keynote speaker biographies. The complete agenda including networking activities can be found here. The agenda page highlights all the educational and networking opportunities the Electro E-Biz Forum 2007 offers.

View the Online Forum Agenda Page or print out your own copy of the Forum Agenda and Activities Brochure.

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GE Consumer and Industrial: Sponsor of Electro E-Biz Forum 2007

The Electro E-Biz Forum 2007 Committee would like to thank GE Consumer and Industrial for their Bronze Level Sponsorship.

GE Consumer and Industrial is a global supplier of appliances, lighting products, and a wide assortment of integrated equipment and systems that ensure safe and reliable power delivery. They make some of the world's most energy-efficient household products and offer these products to more than 150 countries. Visit the GE Consumer and Industrial Website for more information.

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Vantage Point & Associates: Canadian Supporter of the Electro E-Biz Forum 2007

The Electro E-Biz Forum 2007 Committee would like to thank Vantage Point & Associates for becoming a Canadian Supporter. Their support helps IDEA bring this event back to a Canadian city every fourth year.

Vantage Point & Associates is an independent source for eCommerce and EDI resources, news and vendor information. Their goal is to bring sellers of the technology together with buyers for mutual benefit. They provide information to help buyers educate themselves and make informed decisions, as well as offer advertising, promotional and marketing support to sellers to help them get their message out to buyers. Visit the Vantage Point & Associates Website for more information.

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IDX2 Meets Global Market Requirements

The IDX2 core recently underwent an upgrade to meet global market requirements. The IDX2 now allows users to track and manage their EDIFACT (United Nations Directories for Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport) documents via the product’s Tracker tool. The goal of this enhancement served the purpose of completely negating the need to rely on other non-reliable services for their EDIFACT needs. The IDX2 now fully supports ANSI X12, EDIFACT and other global EDI formats.

EDIFACT is comprised of a set of internationally agreed standards, directories and guidelines for the electronic interchange of structured data, and in particular that related to trade in goods and services between independent, computerized information systems. These detail the requirements and procedures related to the flow of information needed for the international movement of goods.

Some of the benefits that users will notice are:

1. More company visibility on IDX2
2. Zero delays
3. Traffic routed directly through

The release of the newly updated IDX2 core software programming allows users to manage their EDIFACT documents in the same manner as their EDI or Flat File transactions.

“Conducting EDIFACT completely through the IDX2 will translate into a highly simplified infrastructure for us,” said George Droder, Director, Worldwide e-Commerce, ERICO.

IDEA will be offering training on:

• Migrating your company’s EDIFACT documents to the IDX2
• How to use the IDX2 Tracker to manage your EDIFACT traffic

The IDX2 is available to be your company’s Global Document service provider today!

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IPv6: Internet in for Retooling

Excerpt from Electrical Wholesaling Magazine

A new Internet protocol has created a Y2K moment for network providers such as IDEA.

Some have compared it with changing the engines on a moving airplane, others speculate that purveyors of pornography will benefit most. To most Internet users, the change may go unnoticed. But for Tom Guzik and his team of consultants and technical staff at the Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA) in Arlington, Va., the transition to a new Internet protocol recalls the run-up to the year 2000, when programmers everywhere were working around the clock, racing to upgrade computer systems before a hard deadline.

The urgency comes from a mandate sent down by the U.S. government that starting in June 2008, everyone who wants to do business with the Department of Defense (DOD) must do so over networks equipped to handle Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Many electrical distributors do huge business with the DOD, and some of the largest do so over IDEA's IDX2 network.

The transition is hardly trivial. It involves substantial changes to base-layer coding on the network, reconfiguration or replacement of routers and other networking devices, hours upon hours of work and substantial costs.

Guzik, IDX2 product manager, asked his programmers to estimate what it would take to get the IDX2 reconfigured for IPv6 by the end of the year. They gave their professional opinion: "It can't be done." Faced with no choice, Guzik brought in a consulting engineer to look at the code and the details of the IPv6. The engineer's answer: "We'll have to start right now."

IPv6, a complete rethinking of the Internet protocol that governs how data moves across the network, offers a solution to a problem that's not yet a problem, but will be soon. The Internet is running out of IP addresses. Every device that connects to the Internet must have a unique address. With the explosion of Internet usage seen thus far, and the added surge that will come as telephone signals and electronic appliances increasingly communicate over the Web, the pool of ten-digit addresses in the current IPv4 will soon be exhausted. IPv6 replaces them with a 20-digit address protocol that makes the available number of addresses essentially limitless.

IPv6 has many other advantages over IPv4 that will result in better security, mobility, stability and speed. Making the change by the end of the year so the system can be tested and verified before the June deadline will require both stability and speed from the IDX2 technical crew, and perhaps patience and perseverance as limitless as the pool of addresses IPv6 will create.

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Did You Know? IDW2 Hot Fact

The IDW2 has the capability to schedule data extractions for users. This feature allows flexibility for the user to select the time, date and occurrence of the data downloads. Distributors can also create a layout of how the data will be displayed through the IDW2 outbound mapper feature. This feature gives distributors the option to select what fields they would like to see in the data download.

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