Arlington, VA – The Industry Data Exchange Association, Inc. (IDEA) announces the establishment of an Innovation Advisory Council, comprised of innovative thought leaders in the electrical wholesale distribution space from leading distributor and manufacturer companies. The council will initially focus on an Innovating for the Future Plan to enhance manufacturer product content available to distributors through the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW).
The purpose of this new council is to develop an on-going forum to stimulate thought leadership for creative, innovative and visionary thinking. The council will extend IDEA’s domain expertise and offer a forum for stakeholders to communicate their opinions, share their expertise and collaborate on issues of mutual concern.
“These thought leaders bring unique knowledge and skills that complement those of the IDEA Board of Directors and extend the collaborative base of IDEA. The top priority for the council is to guide the enhancement of the product content in the IDW based on what our customers have identified as their most important needs in the growing digital economy,” said Bob Gaylord, President and CEO, IDEA.
As part of the Innovating for the Future Plan, IDEA will work with the Innovation Advisory Council to determine the best ways to deliver additional product information through the IDW that will enable more efficient bids, sales transactions and eCommerce capabilities for distributors.
“This work leverages the significant improvements the manufacturers have made over the last year in the richness and completeness of their product marketing content for their distributor partners,” said John Burke, IDEA Chairman, and President and COO, Kirby Risk Electrical Supply.
IDEA has enhanced the IDW to include more accurate and complete marketing content, pricing, and non-specific manufacturer UPC numbers (i.e. 98-series UPC numbers), and will continue to announce improvements that result from on-going efforts to enhance IDW product content throughout the year.
The Innovation Advisory Council members include:
Distributors:
- Barry Carden, VP & CIO, Mayer Electric Supply
- Greg Chun, VP of Information Technology, McNaughton-McKay Electric Company
- Phil Hale, CIO, Elliott Electric
- Les Johnson, VP & CIO, North Coast Electric
- Jason Seger, VP-Procurement, Border States Electric
- Bob Siegel, VP-Investment & Inventory Management, Graybar
- Jeff Skiles, Director of Technology Support, Kirby Risk Electrical Supply (Task Force Chairman)
Manufacturers:
- Phil Barrios, Sr. Director, Corporate Marketing & eBusiness, Hubbell Incorporated
- Chris Castleberry, Director of Marketing, Thomas & Betts, a member of the ABB Group
- Pat Quinn, CIO, Acuity Brands
- Mark Richards, Director of eCommerce, Leviton
- Iram Shah, SVP Digital Customer Experience, Schneider Electric
- Samer Shehadeh, Manager of EDI & eCommerce, Eaton Electrical Sector
- Phil Tuggle, Senior Vice President, Southwire