E-Biz Forum highlights: making synchronization easier

Bob Gaylord, president of IDEA, in his opening general session comments to the E-Biz Forum in Tucson today, ran through several initiatives the organization is introducing that will make it easier for manufacturers and distributors to keep data in the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW) fresh.

Among these, a new "utilities work station" interface where manufacturers can make line-item changes to their product data, which will go live in the next 30 days; a new IDEA "portal 2.0" for users in all parts of the chain that will go live October 5; and a standardized web ordering platform for distributor web storefronts that automatically populates with IDW data (in six languages) that will be available by the end of the year.

Gaylord also said UNSPSC codes on every product item in the IDW will become mandatory in December.