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March 18, 2002
FullTilt and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association Partner to Develop Standards and Templates for Product Data
FullTilt's I-Accel™ Product Information Management Software to Help Electrical Manufacturers Create and Manage Product Information
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA, - FullTilt Solutions (www.fulltiltsolutions.com), a premier Internet commerce software vendor and a leader in custom software development and integration services, announced today that it has entered into a strategic alliance with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) to help it develop standards and templates for electronic product data for the association's 400 members. NEMA members include large, medium, and small businesses that manufacture products used in the generation, transmission and distribution, control and end-use of electricity. The electrical manufacturing industry's total annual shipments are $100 billion.
The partnership with FullTilt was created to address the proliferation by third party data service providers of their versions of product hierarchies, categories and attributes that are not developed or owned by the manufacturers and are not based on any industry standard. NEMA will take the lead to establish a standard schema of product hierarchies, categories and attributes for the electro-industry. Product attribute definitions will be defined and centered on product family templates that will enable the industry to easily define their specific products. Standardized product information can then be enhanced and extended to enable manufacturers to differentiate their products.
The NEMA schema will expand and extend the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW), a data repository managed by the Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA), a joint venture between NEMA and the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED). FullTilt also recently announced a similar partnership with IDEA that makes I-Accel the product information management tool of choice for electrical manufacturers and distributors to provide rich, attributed, structured and consistent product content to the IDW.
The first phase of the FullTilt and NEMA partnership is focused on developing standards for the lighting industry. Using I-Accel, NEMA has developed a prototype for lighting products. All of the products for the world's leading lighting companies are represented. These lighting companies will work closely with NEMA to refine the product hierarchies, categories and attribute templates that will act as the industry standard for lighting product information. The prototype is available this month as a pilot to a representative set of users. General availability is scheduled for May 2002.
"NEMA's mission is to promote the competitiveness of its member companies by providing quality services and our relationship with FullTilt is testament to that commitment," said Zack Heckmann, Manager of Electronic Commerce for NEMA. "As the Internet becomes more and more a part of our members' business strategy, NEMA must take the lead to establish standards and in advocating technical positions that are in the best interests of the industry. I-Accel's template centered approach together with its browser-based open standards architecture, configurable workflow and role-based security makes it an ideal choice for the collaborative solution that we are developing," said Heckmann.
The NEMA schema will enable manufacturers to define their products consistently while differentiating them to the market. Multiple, flexible product hierarchies and classifications are supported. Product attribute definition is centered on product family templates. All of the products within a product family share certain attributes. Access to these templates will enable manufacturers to easily define their own product attributes consistent with others in the industry. Product family templates are at the core of I-Accel and are used to drive adaptive learning and rules-based processing to ensure that similar products are defined consistently.
I-Accel provides a repository for the product information needed to enable online buyers to make smart, educated purchasing decisions and online sellers to present their products with a competitive selling advantage. I-Accel enables users to take product data from disparate sources and standardize it through product family templates using product domain expertise. The Product Standardization Engine™ ensures consistent control over product representation. The standardized product information can then be enhanced, extended or reduced to produce customized electronic catalogs organized as needed. Customized product hierarchies are simple to define. Product information can be selected and exported in virtually any format. I-Accel supports images, documents, customer specific pricing, and internationalization.
"Today's demand for rich, attributed, consistent product information has become a requirement for enabling business-to-business Internet commerce," said Bob Moyer, president of FullTilt. "Sellers and buyers need to effectively and efficiently communicate digitally in order to do business online. The entire channel needs to be speaking the same language and communicating digitally leaves little room for ambiguity. Relevant product attributes must be easily accessed and compared. By using I-Accel, electrical manufacturers will be able to provide rich, attributed, structured and consistent product information to the IDW."
About FullTilt Solutions
FullTilt Solutions is a premier Internet commerce software vendor and a leader in custom software development and integration services for enterprises looking to exploit the Internet to improve their competitive position. FullTilt excels in designing, building, and implementing datacentric solutions that focus on large-scale, complex, transaction intensive challenges. Through its world-class Intelligent Acceleration™ methodology and real-world expertise, FullTilt's teams of business experts and technologists leverage clients' existing IT assets and integrate them with emerging Internet technologies, commercial software products and custom software applications. Our solutions unleash the power of enterprise data. Founded in 1987, FullTilt is headquartered in Philadelphia with offices in New York, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta. For more information on FullTilt and I-Accel visit www.fulltiltsolutions.com.
About NEMA
NEMA is the leading trade association in the United States representing the interests of electro-industry manufacturers. Founded in 1926 and headquartered near Washington, D.C., its 400 member companies manufacture products used in the generation, transmission and distribution, control, and end-use of electricity. The electrical manufacturing industry's total annual shipments are $100 billion.
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