This Week in IDEA | September 12, 2007

New IDEA Customer: Wolfers Lighting, Inc.

Wolfers Lighting, Inc., a distributor from Allston, MA, became an IDEA customer on September 10, 2007. Wolfers Lighting is a contemporary full-service lighting retailer serving Boston, MA and surrounding areas. They will be taking advantage of the cost saving features and reliability of Industry Data Exchange (IDX). Wolfers is a proud member of IMARK. Learn more at www.wolfers.com. Welcome Aboard!

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New IDEA Customer: Eastern Electric Supply

Eastern Electric Supply, an electrical distributor from Rocky Mount, NC, became an IDEA customer on September 11, 2007. They will be relying on Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) for their suppliers’ product and pricing information and taking advantage of the cost saving features and reliability of Industry Data Exchange (IDX). Eastern ES is a proud member of NAED and IMARK. Contact Eastern ES 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 five suppliers:

- Ceaco Company
- Lisa Frank, Inc.
- Hooters Foods
- Neoptx
- Sunshine Growers

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, IRD Product & Customer Support Manager, at (703) 562-4624.

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Stibo Catalog, Inc.: Bronze Sponsor of Electro E-Biz Forum 2007

The Electro E-Biz Forum 2007 Committee would like to thank Stibo Catalog, Inc. for their Bronze Level Sponsorship.

Stibo Catalog, Inc. provides solutions that manage product content for multi-channel marketing to some of the world’s largest product and catalog-centric businesses. Their STEP solution is a synchronized combination of product information management (PIM) and publication management for both print and web. STEP allows companies to manage product information centrally and deliver consistent messages through multiple channels. Find out more at the Stibo Catalog Website.

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Stay Tuned for the New and Improved IDEA Website: Live on 9.19.07

IDEA has redesigned its website and brand to more accurately portray where we are leading the supply network. We are excited to launch the new site next week to provide our customers and affiliates with additional benefits and resources. Some significant improvements of the new site include:

• Clearer Navigation
• Better online tools and improved functionality
• More descriptive information
• New sections and features
• Fewer document downloads
• Secure Customer Portal
• Live Chat
• On-demand demos and videos
• Direct Comparison Tools
• More news resources
• Stand alone IDEA E-Biz Forum website

Experience the simplicity and ease-of-use of the new site at www.idea-eSolutions.com on 9.19.07.

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Webinar Reminder: Register By 9.14.07 to Win Over $10,000 in epaCUBE Software

epaCUBE, a Product Information Management (PIM) and Gross Profit Optimization solutions provider from Dallas, TX, will give away multiple modules from their software suite, a minimum value of $10,000 each, as a contest prize to multiple companies at the Electro E-Biz Forum. You may enter to win by visiting their booth at the Forum Tech Center or by attending their webinar Friday, September 14. Attend both events to increase your chances of winning by 90%.

What: epaCUBE Webinar - Gross Profit Optimization over Cleansed Product Data
Date: Friday, September 14, 2007
Time:11:00AM-12:00PM EDT

Register Now to Win

The epaCUBE product suite gives you the ability to:

• Easily manage & update your pricing systems with IDW data
• Reduce the costs of cleansing product data
• Establish processes to keep data clean and synchronized
• Model the IMPACT of cost and sell price changes on Gross Margin, Actual Cost & Price Changes
• Perform “What If” Analysis - modeling future pricing and margins
• Configure business rules & approval processes for price and cost changes

Don’t miss this chance to win a prize that keeps giving back to your company. For more information about this contest or the epaCUBE software suite, contact Gary Stone at (469)693.3010 or Randy Hughes at (719)930.4074.

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5 Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Understand IT

By Doug Bartholomew

When it comes to being an entrepreneur, Luddites are at a distinct disadvantage.

That's the bottom-line message gleaned from a survey of 152 CEOs and senior executives at mid-size companies who have grown their enterprises from small businesses. The more IT-savvy business executives were, the faster they were able to expand.

Almost three out of four reported having been "totally involved" in decisions about information technology during their companies' early growth years. What's more, almost half of those who rated themselves as "total geeks"—48 percent— reported reaching the 100-employee milestone inside five years of launch, compared to only one-third of all survey respondents whose companies grew as fast.

Conducted online in July with 152 business executives and owners, the Business Rearview Mirror survey was done by CDW, a diversified technology services firm with $6.8 billion in revenues in 2006. "We wanted to learn from both an IT and a business perspective what it took for them to reach 100 employees," says Lauren McCadney, Senior Segment Manager for small business at CDW, in Vernon Hills, IL. The bulk of the survey participants (84%) represented companies with 100 to 500 employees; the remainder ran companies with workforces of 500 to 5,000.

Among the lessons from the responses:

1. Integrate IT into the business strategy.

According to the survey results, while 98% of small companies had a defined IT strategy, those that viewed IT as a strategic or competitive resource tended to grow faster than those that merely "spent just enough" on technology so that employees could do their jobs.

2. Understand the technology.

The owner or top executive's own technology savvy was directly related to business success; 73% of respondents who rated themselves as "total geeks" had companies that attained 100 employees inside five years of launch.

3. Get involved in IT decisions.

Seventy-four percent of respondents said they were "totally involved" in IT decision-making in the early years of their business. As soon as their companies grew large enough, though, they saw the wisdom of assigning this responsibility to a fulltime IT professional.

4. Delegate IT management to professionals.

Almost half of the fastest growing companies in the survey—those that expanded at more than 20 percent annually over the past 5 years— had hired or assigned a dedicated IT person or staff prior to reaching the 100-employee level. Among the entire survey population overall, just 24 percent had a dedicated IT leader or staff before attaining the 100-employee threshhold.

5. Find ways to apply technology to improve processes.

Production, project management and supply-chain management were the parts of IT that had the most significant impact on the respondents' bottom lines.

Does all this mean that CEOs and other top executives at small and medium-size businesses had an easy time of understanding and implementing technology? Hardly. When asked what ranked as the most significant challenges they faced in growing their businesses, "managing IT to our advantage" ranked second only to recruiting and retaining employees.

Editor Note – Quite often executives defer the decision to participate in IDEA products and services, especially IDX and IDW, to their IT department. While IDX and IDW are hardware and software application centric systems, the decision to implement the products as part of their supply chain management program requires business savvy and understanding of how these tools will help drive up the company’s bottom line.

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