This Week in IDEA | Special Edition: Final Thoughts from Mike Rioux, IDEA President 2000-2007

“If you want to be successful in a particular field of endeavor, perseverance is one of the key qualities. It's very important that you find something that you care about, that you have a deep passion for, because you're going to have to devote a lot of your life to it” - George Lucas.

After nearly 8 years as IDEA president, I will end my tenure on November 30. The new IDEA president, Robert (Bob) Gaylord, assumes the position on December 3, 2007. It has been quite a ride and I want to express my great appreciation and thanks to all the customers and individuals that helped make IDEA a success.

Back To Top

A Brief History of IDEA

No other industry backed provider offers the spectrum of eBusiness standards and services that are available from IDEA. The credit for setting the program in motion goes to industry visionaries such as Steve Tecot, Dave Crum, Clyde Moore, Sandy Cutler, Jim McClung and many others in the mid to late 90’s (my apologies to those I may have inadvertently left out). Originally established on March 20, 1998 as a not-for-profit non stock corporation, IDEA’s certificate of Incorporation was amended on November 3, 1999 to a for-profit stock corporation with NAED and NEMA each owning one share of common stock. Subsequently, 23 companies became preferred stock holders of IDEA when their 2001 loans were converted to Stock.

The nature of the business set by the founding company representatives was for IDEA “to be or act to improve conditions in the electro-industry and other vertical markets by fostering the introduction and application of electronic commerce among market participants,” with the initial focus being the establishment of the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW).

After evaluating many different organizations to assist in the IDW project, a contract was signed with Triad Systems in 1998 (subsequently CCITriad and now Activant Solutions) to develop and operate the IDW on behalf of IDEA. John Haluksa (Thomas & Betts) and Jim Ford (Graybar) were the co-chairs that led a team of 22 industry distribution and manufacturing experts in the design of the IDW system with Triad Systems.

A no cost data sharing agreement was signed with Trade Service Corporation (TSC) in 1998 whereby IDEA and TSC agreed that it would be to their mutual benefit for TSC to participate in IDEA and promote the success of the IDW. Today IDEA and TSC share data, but other parts of the agreement did not turn out the way it was envisioned by industry for a variety of reasons that will not be discussed here.

The IDW was and still is the center piece for industry eCommerce collaboration allowing trading partners to exchange product and price information electronically through a common interface point. Global in scope, the IDW enables product manufacturers to deliver all their important business and price information through a central information bank, eliminating other more costly and less effective methods. In turn distributors and other authorized users have a single source 24x7 location for obtaining product and price using the same data standards.

To facilitate the delivery of the information to/from the IDW and to enable the exchange of business documents between manufacturer and distributor trading partners, a parallel effort was initiated to develop a private industry extranet called the Industry Data Exchange (IDX). MCI Worldcom was selected to design, deploy and manage the IDX for IDEA.

Both the IDW and the IDX became operational in November 1999. Since those formative years a lot has transpired and with the tremendous help and support of the industry as well as a superb staff, IDEA has grown to be a very successful enterprise. IDEA provides tremendous value to NAED and NEMA members as well as many other customers that use IDEA products and services. Notable milestones include:

• The IDEA electrical manufacturer, rep and distributor customer base has grown from 125 in 2000 to 530 today.
  
• The IDW system was completely redesigned and relaunched as the IDW version 2 in 2005. Since 2005 end user participation grew from 50 to 150. Reliability, accessibility and features are the strengths of the new IDW including the ability to deliver Net Prices. The IDW database has nearly 2M SKUs of transactional and enriched data representing over 500 brands of electrical manufacturer products. 
  
•  Following a near death (end of business) experience with MCI WorldCom, a new IDX was developed under agreement with CCITriad (Activant Solutions), and launched in just 4 months. IDX version 2 became operational on April 1, 2001 with 50 loyal customers and 1M kilo characters of B2B traffic. Today, there are 350 IDX customers and 7M kilo characters of business documents transacted monthly via the IDX. Reliability and service are the cornerstones of the IDX service.
  
• Following two years of fiscal challenges that were due to the terms of the MCI WorldCom contract, 23 electrical industry companies generously contributed funds in to help IDEA add staff and the redesign of IDW. Since that cash infusion IDEA has remained fiscally sound and profitable since 2003.
  
• In 2002 IDEA assumed the responsibility for managing the electrical industry eBusiness data and EDI standards. The IDEA Standards Committee (ISC) was established and over 40 industry volunteers have supported this very important activity. The committee through its Data Content, EDI, Product Code, Product Identification, EDIFACT, Flat File and XML subcommittees has developed and revised over 50 standards documents. Standards and schemas were crafted for enriched data as well as Flat File versions and maps for enabling eCommerce for non EDI companies. In 2005 IDEA assumed management of all electrical product United Nations Standard Product Service Codes (UNSPC) through an agreement with UNSPC, a major “win” for the industry in managing version control for these public, global and non proprietary product codes.
  
• In 2003 electrical manufacturers that also serve the retail channel requested IDEA’s assistance in addressing data synchronization mandates from Home Depot and Lowe’s. To answer that request, IDEA developed the Industry Retail Database (IRD). In 2005 IDEA completed an asset acquisition of ISS which gave IDEA ownership of the first Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) certified data sync application. As a result, IDEA became one of the three prime On Board Support (OBS) partners for the 1SYNC Data Pool and the GDSN. IDEA is now regarded by GS1 and GS1 US as one of the prominent leaders in global eCommerce. The IRD customer base has grown from 22 in 2003 to over 400 today, and IDEA is positioned to be a key player as the GDSN grows in the wholesale distribution channel.
  
• In 2004 the Data Audit Certification (DAC) program was in full swing with 165 manufacturers getting their data evaluated against industry standards and business requirements. While the data validation process shifted from a manual to an automated component of the IDW, the DAC remains a key differentiator for data quality in the electro-industry.

Other recent milestones worth mentioning:

• IDEA has been instrumental in helping IMARK and its members meet their eCommerce program goals with adoption of the IDX and the industry EDI and Flat File formats.
  
• IDEA implemented a FAX to EDI service with its new business partner Faxinating Solutions.
  
• Affiliated Distributors (AD) selected IDEA’s IDX to serve as its EDI service platform for processing 820 documents with its members.
  
• DATAgility and IDEA formed a partnership to provide a new and very cost effective data synchronization service whereby distributor and manufacturer business information is matched showing where differences exist and recommending solutions and processes to eliminate the discrepancies.
  
• A new IDEA website and product branding was recently unveiled, and IDEA will unveil its new customer portal by the end of 2007, allowing customers access to all services, knowledge base and account information through a single log on.

Back To Top

Moving Forward

Going forward there are many more opportunities for IDEA to provide leading edge solutions for the channel, be it electronic product code, level 3 processing, software as a service (SAAS) and other services that will help IDEA customers cut costs and grow their business. However, the ability to take advantage of new applications, services and technologies remains business formation because information (data) is the fuel that runs eBusiness. Without standardized, complete, accurate, timely and synchronized business information none of the services mentioned above are worthwhile; they are just expensive applications and services that deliver and process bad or inaccurate information faster and more efficiently.

For some unexplainable reason, the power of information has not been totally embraced. Sure there are many of the key suppliers and distributors that support data sync and the IDW, but when you pull back the covers, even some of those companies come up short.

In November 2005 discussions were initiated again (3rd time) between IDEA and Trade Service to explore new ways for the two organizations to cooperate and deliver a single data content solution to the electro-industry that would enable data sync throughout the supply chain. In the following 18 months, a joint venture agreement and business model was crafted that would have, if approved, gotten the industry to the data sync goal line much faster. Both IDEA and Trade Service would have worked together in sourcing information from suppliers, driving data quality and delivering products under the IDEA brand. With the combined resources, over 50 IDEA and TSC industry experts would have been dedicated together to meet the business needs of the channel. There was no doubt from those of us that crafted the program that this would have been a major positive tipping point for the industry. Unfortunately, the proposed partnership did not get industry approval, and from this author’s perspective, a great opportunity was missed. Hopefully, this program will be reconsidered in the near future.

In the mean time, everyone in the channel should make data synchronization and data quality a top priority at their company. This needs to be done with specific actions, concrete processes and C-level responsibility and accountability, not just lip service, to ensure that the information that trading partners and customers need to sell and buy more products is available 24x7 through the most reliable, seamless and burden free method possible, the IDW.

Back To Top

Farewell Thanks and Closing

This has been a very challenging but rewarding job and I would like to give a special thanks to those that taught me so much about the industry. Dave Crum, Bernie Westapher, Deb Weis, Richard Buzun, Stuart Irby, Tim Powers, Phil Barrios, Liz Norman, John Wilson, Bob Cuirzcak, Dave Starr, Dave Pratt, Dave Pala, Neil Gillespie and Malcolm O’Hagan are just a few of the many folks that I would like to say a special thanks. And for many others that I may have inadvertently left out in this column, my apologies for not mentioning your name.

To our friends and partners at Activant Solutions in Livermore, CA, Steve Bieszczat, Dirk Heartman, Tom Brown, George Warren, Ken Ruff, Ken Shawver, Jason Miles, Paulette Ortiz, Harry Bradfield and the engineering team – you were awesome to work with and without your support and dedication there would be no IDX and IDW.

Thanks to the NAED and NEMA staff who were very supportive, especially in the early years. Your resources and staff helped IDEA stay above ground and in front of your members.

Finally, thanks to the great staff at IDEA (Beth Badrakhan, Andrea Crowder, Mary Dempsey, Isabel Dupont while no longer with IDEA was a great asset, John Etrie, Tony Gaffney, Robert Gregg, Tom Guzik, Rita Hagopian, Steve Horton, Amanda Johnson, Hong Li, Edwin Lopez, Nick Manzo, Pat McCartin, Silvio Rodriguez, Supriya Reddy, Marcy Rogers, Maggie Root, Fahad Shamshad, Ayesha Thomas, Bob Whitehouse, Lily Saad, Mary Shaw) who have listened to me rant and rave about customer care and let me steer them through endless strategic planning sessions and meetings. You have much to be proud of with your accomplishments at IDEA. Thanks so much – you are the best.

This will be a tough act to follow and I only wish we could have gotten more accomplished, but with the hard working and dedicated IDEA staff there is no doubt that IDEA will continue to prosper and provide even greater value and benefit to its customers.

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge

Press on,

Mike Rioux

Back To Top

A Note from the IDEA Staff

The IDEA Staff would like to thank Mike for his hard work and dedication to ensure the success of IDEA and our customers, partners and industry colleagues. He has made a positive impact on all of our lives as a mentor/boss and a friend. Thanks for eight years of excellent leadership!

Back To Top