Electrical Industry Extranet Offers E-Commerce For Manufacturers, Distributors

A new industry-wide extranet for electrical industry manufacturers and distributors will provide e-commerce, potentially reducing transaction costs and errors. Called IDXchange, the extranet is being built by the Industry Data Exchange Assn. (IDEA), an organization formed by the National Assn. of Electrical Distributors (NAED) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Assn. (NEMA). The closed, members-only network will permit transmission of batch EDI (electronic data interchange) transactions, carrying electronic traffic to and from an Industry Data Warehouse (IDW). A repository of product information, the IDW will provide centralized management and retrieval of product information, and will have standardized definitions for products. Future offerings on the extranet could include Web hosting, online distance learning, media streaming, and other Internet protocol-based applications.