ARLINGTON, Vir. — The Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA) is excited to announce the new IDEA Connector data syndication platform is live, and all customers have been successfully migrated from the legacy IDW system. IDEA Connector is a Master Data Management (MDM) platform that enables manufacturers and distributors to share trusted electrical product content, eCommerce attribution, and pricing information, ensuring an efficient and secure supply chain process.
The IDEA Connector provides the ability to receive all available product content from manufacturers in a variety of formats. In addition to delivering a user-friendly interface to maintain product information, users have access to a graphical mapping tool to generate any required product and pricing extracts. The IDEA Connector data model fully supports the current ETIM 7.0 classification and is ready for ETIM 8.0 and eCl@ss, extending the Standards-based model used today for validation and normalization of product information.
Users can look forward to seeing IDEA Connector updates featuring many of the state-of-the-art technologies the platform can provide. This roadmap includes API integration, microservices, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), language translation, and global syndication.
The electrical industry is rapidly adopting IDEA Connector. In less than a week, IDEA Connector has imported more than 1,500 product and pricing files, as well as exported over 25 million product attributes to distributors from a portfolio of 2.5+ million products and 4+ million digital assets, including 360-degree images and video installation instructions.
The new IDEA Connector will improve operational efficiencies among trading partners and their ultimate customers. Feedback from users of the new platform regarding its flexibility has been very positive: “It works great. I was able to easily double-check our authorizations, do another extract, look up products, suppliers, check out contacts, and make sure our branches are loaded correctly,” said Nick Becker from Standard Electric Supply Company.
“We couldn’t be happier with how smoothly this transition has gone. IDEA wants to thank the hundreds of companies who have taken advantage of our comprehensive onboarding program,” said Bill Ferguson, IDEA’s Vice President of Products and Services. “IDEA Connector is a game-changer for both manufacturers and distributors. The feedback we have received on the system so far has been great, and we are excited to have a platform that IDEA will continue to grow and perfect with our customers.”
The IDEA Client Solutions Team is available to answer and address any questions or concerns regarding IDEA Connector. They can be reached at either ideaclientsolutions@idea4industry.com or 866-479-0484.
About IDEA
The Industry Data Exchange Association, Inc. (IDEA) is the official technology service provider and eBusiness standards body of the electrical industry. Since its founding by the partnership between National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) and National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) partnership in 1998, IDEA’s applications provide value to vertical markets such as industrial, retail, and consumer packaged goods. Every year, thousands of manufacturers and distributors find the most cost-effective methods through IDEA’s innovative products and processes. IDEA’s applications help connect the supply chain and make business processes efficient, easy and profitable while maintaining the highest standards of data quality. IDEA is headquartered in Arlington, VA (idea4industry.com)