This Week in IDEA | March 18, 2009

New IDEA and IDEA IRD Customers

IDEA announces one new IDEA customer ten new IDEA IRD customers. Read more about these companies and how you can begin trading with them electronically to expand your business.

New IDEA Customer

Customer Service Electric Supply, from Knoxville, TN, became an IDEA customer on March 12, 2009. Customer Service Electric is a privately owned electrical supplier that differentiates themselves through high quality service, products, and technical support. They will take advantage of the cost savings and reliability of Industry Data Exchange (IDX). Customer Service Electric is a proud member of IMARK Group and NAED. Find out more at www.cses4control.com. Welcome aboard!

New IDEA IRD 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 ten suppliers:

• Sosmetal Products
• DeCoty Coffee Company
• Truco Enterprises
• Hanamint Corporation
• High Time Products
• Hannon Group Ltd.
• In Zone Brands, Inc.
• Theochem Laboratories, Inc.
• Granite Security Products, Inc.
• Rand International 

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 find out more about the CERICOMX® product, please contact , IRD Product & Customer Support Manager, at .

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Introducing a New Way to Get IDEA News – RSS Feed Now Available!

IDEA recently added an RSS feed to distribute This Week in IDEA headlines, press releases, trade news articles and more. You can now subscribe to IDEA news via RSS to receive updates through a web portal, feed reader or email folder.

This new distribution method allows you to scan all the latest IDEA news postings in one location while still having access to the complete articles. Other benefits of the IDEA RSS feed include:

• Reduced time and effort needed to check the IDEA website for updates. IDEA news comes to you, rather than you having to search for the content.
• Near real-time updates. RSS aggregators or feed readers can be set to check for updates at regular intervals so you can be the first to receive the latest IDEA news.
• Minimized email inbox clutter. If your inbox is overflowing, this is the best way to consolidate all of your IDEA news in one location.

If you have any questions on how to set up your IDEA RSS feed, please contact at .

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Ray Bender, PhD, Selected to Speak at the IDEA E-Biz Forum ‘09

IDEA is proud to announce Ray Bender, seasoned speaker, author and consultant, as a general session speaker of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2009. Dr. Bender will lead a session on the human aspects of change, covering the necessary roles in the corporate change process and the stages organizations must go through to change. His session will provide steps to overcome resistance and actions leaders can take to bring about successful and lasting change.

Ray Bender, PhD, Speaker, Author & Consultant

Prior to starting his own company, Ray Bender was vice president and research director for Gartner Group's North American Executive Program. Dr. Bender also served as a consulting instructor at IBM's Advanced Business Institute. He has over 16 years experience advising senior executives on the management of their technology assets. Dr. Bender has successfully led organizations with over 700 people and $500 million in assets.

Dr. Bender's areas of expertise are corporate culture, the human aspects of change, leadership, communications, creating alliances, and sales training. He also educates non-technical executives on managing IT resources. Ray Bender has served on the Business School facility at Teikyo Post University, Waterbury, CT.

Ray Bender has a B.S. in History and Sociology, an MBA, and a PhD in Management. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and a retired Colonel. Dr. Bender spent 36 years in the Army as an Airborne Ranger in the Special Forces and as a helicopter pilot.

Ray Bender is the co-author of two books; I Should Be Burnt Out By Now...So How Come I'm Not? (2004), and Culture.com: Building Corporate Culture in the Connected Workplace (2000).

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Eaton Corporation: Bronze Sponsor of the IDEA E-Biz Forum ‘09

IDEA would like to thank Eaton Corporation for their Bronze level sponsorship of the IDEA E-Biz Forum 2009. This company demonstrates their dedicated support of the electrical industry’s only annual event focused on advancing the industry through eBusiness and the latest technologies. Their leadership and support is greatly appreciated by all.

Eaton Corporation is a diversified power management company with 2008 sales of $15.4 billion. Eaton is a global technology leader in electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution and control; hydraulics components, systems and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy and safety. Eaton has approximately 75,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 150 countries. Find out more at www.eaton.com.  

Interested in joining this industry leader in their support of eBusiness advancements? Take a look at the sponsor benefits to select and confirm your company sponsorship.

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IDW and IDX April ‘09 Training Schedule

This month IDEA continues to offer focused training sessions for Industry Data Exchange (IDX) and Industry Data Warehouse (IDW). The April dates for these trainings are now available.

IDX Tracker Training Sessions:
Tuesday, April 07 1:30-2:30PM
Tuesday, April 14: 1:30-2:30PM
Tuesday, April 21: 1:30-2:30PM
Tuesday, April 28: 1:30-2:30PM

IDW Distributor Training Sessions:
Wednesday, April 1: 1:30-2:30PM
Wednesday, April 15: 1:30-2:30PM
Wednesday, April 29: 1:30-2:30PM

IDW Manufacturer Training Sessions:
Thursday, April 9: 1:30-2:30PM
Thursday, April 23: 1:30-2:30PM

Net Pricing Training Sessions:
Thursday, April 2: 1:30-2:00PM
Thursday, April 16: 1:30-2:00PM

Inbound Mapping Sessions:
Wednesday, April 8: 1:30-2:30PM
Wednesday, April 22: 1:30-2:30PM

Times don’t work for your schedule? Contact our flexible training experts to schedule a time that works for you.

IDX Training Sessions: Contact at
IDW Training Sessions: Contact at

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

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Did You Know? IDW Hot Fact

IDW is known for its ability to deliver large amounts of high quality data but it also has the power to deliver on-demand filtered downloads based on specific search criteria. This tool can be helpful in various work situations. For example:

• When you need to quickly access data for only one or a few items in IDW and a complete manufacturer download request is not necessary
• When your sales rep quotes prices based on data recently loaded in IDW and your company’s downloads are still processing

Solutions to these situations and other on-demand data needs can be found by following these steps:

• First, limit your data request to one manufacturer.
• At the detail screen of the data request, a new set of request options will appear on the right-hand side of your screen including: UCC (Company Prefix), Seller Class, UNSPSC, Brand, EAN-UCC (Company Prefix), UPC/EAN/GTIN, and Catalog Number.
• You can use any of these categories to filter your search. For example, to download a subset of the manufacturer’s data, you can enter one or more Seller Class codes to download items within a manufacturer’s specific product group (e.g. Fluorescent Fixtures or Flat Head Machine Screws).
• To download a single item, it is best to use the UPC/EAN/GTIN option and enter that specific item which will be 12-digits for UPC, 13-digits for EAN and 14-digits for GTIN.
• In most cases, you will want to select “refresh” instead of “changes” as the data type to download all eligible records within specified groups including both changed and unchanged records.

In the next issue we will discuss how to separate these on-demand data requests from your company’s scheduled enterprise resource planning (ERP) system IDW downloads.

If you have any questions about on-demand data requests, please contact at .

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