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March 18, 2002
FullTilt Partners with IDEA to Help the Electrical Industry Develop Product Content
FullTilt's I-Accel™ Product Information Management Software to Help Manufacturers to Create and Manage Attributed, Structured and Consistent 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 Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA) (www.idea-inc.org) to enable electrical manufacturers to easily provide rich, attributed, structured and consistent product content to IDEA's Industry Data Warehouse (IDW). IDEA, a commercial e-business service owned by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED), was created to foster e-commerce transactions within the electrical industry and other vertical markets.
IDEA's Industry Data Exchange, or IDX, enables electrical manufacturers, distributors and service providers to conduct partner-to-partner business via EDI, XML or flat file transaction sets using a private exchange/Internet. The IDX also enables manufacturers and distributors to upload and access product and pricing information from IDEA's Industry Data Warehouse. In 2001, more than 240 electrical manufacturers and distributors subscribed to IDEA.
By using FullTilt's Product Information Management software, I-Accel™ (www.i-accel.com), which 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, electrical manufacturers will be able to provide rich, attributed, structured and consistent product information to the IDW. They will also have the ability to share in the creation, management and syndication of complex product information.
"This is a big step toward eliminating the barriers to business-to-business Internet commerce within the electrical industry," said Mike Rioux, president of IDEA. "I-Accel's browser-based, open standards architecture together with its configurable workflow and role-based security make it an ideal choice for the collaborative solution that we are providing at IDEA."
"IDEA is facing a classic database problem," said Bob Moyer, president of FullTilt. "I-Accel is a sophisticated database solution. We have been building these solutions commercially for more than fifteen years and that experience is evident in I-Accel. It's an industrial-strength enterprise solution. 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."
I-Accel enables users to take product data from disparate sources and standardize it using product domain expertise. The Product Standardization Engine™ ensures consistent control over product representation. I-Accel uses product family "templates" to drive adaptive learning and rules-based processing to ensure that similar products are defined consistently.
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 then be selected and exported in virtually any format. I-Accel supports images, documents, customer specific pricing, and internationalization.
"Our vision is for IDEA to be the central data warehouse for the electrical industry with the majority of the e-commerce transactions flowing through its IDX network," said Rioux. "I-Accel will play a big part in helping us get to the next level."
"We are pleased to have such a complementary and synergistic relationship with such a well-respected industry organization and look forward to working with IDEA to implement joint solutions that help them realize their vision and enable online business," said Moyer.
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 IDEA
The Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA) is a joint National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) enterprise. It was created to manage the development of systems that foster e-commerce through the efficient exchange of standard information and business transactions throughout the electrical industry and other vertical markets. Established in 1998, IDEA is located in Rosslyn, VA. For more information, visit www.idea-inc.org.
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