Your Data at a Crossroads
Now that the dust has settled, press releases have been issued and frantic calls have been made seeking information, the question becomes, what does the decision by IDEA and Trade Service mean to everyday operations and the industry “vision” of an owned data warehouse?
From our viewpoint, the IDEA press release appeared a little inocuous, not revealing much of how they were going to recapture the data that Trade Service was providing. We’d presume that there are a lot of questions in this area. The first is “what do I do for my data ‘today’ since I assume I can’t get non-IDEA data after July 20?”. The second question is, “What is the long term plan?”
Additionally, if we recall correctly (and we are 10 years older), the agreement enabled IDEA to also use Trade Service’s commodity codes and had something to do with downloading using the PFMS format. Presumably usage of those expire at the same time. For distributors who use them, what does this mean?
We empathize with the IDEA BOD which recently assumed their roles and for Bob Gaylord who is probably still learning the industry and its various nuances let alone challenges that the IDW has faced.
A couple of more questions:
- Was this the answer to An IDEA with Vision?
- Is this representative of A Distributor’s Perspective?
If you are a distributor solely getting your data from IDEA, how do you continue, at least in the short-run, to get your product updates? If you are a Trade Service customer, this is a non-event and possibly an opportunity given that the press release referenced new initiatives/offerings. If you subscribed to both, do you need to pay for both? Can you envision in the future needing both (unless you are a Rockwell distributor)?
For manufacturers, for the most part this is a non-event as, we believe, only Rockwell told its distributors that the IDW was their sole source (but then again, Rockwell doesn’t sell to even 100 customers … Trade Service says it has 1000 customers on its system – manufacturers with a broad-based distribution strategy need Trade Service to reach their customers with product information.)
The end result … this will be a continuing saga to see how IDEA responds (and if they have the financial resources to replicate Trade Service) or if manufacturers are willing to invest in populating data in a down economy (is the payback in the data component or enhancing electronic connectivity via EDI). Lot’s of questions, unfortunately few answers at this time.
Your thoughts?