WHY THE EDATA DATA POOL IS GOOD NEWS FOR CONTRACTORS

Contractors need easy access to reliable information about the products they are using. They often spend hours searching the web to get the information they need and cannot be certain that the information is accurate, up-to-date or reliable. What’s more, it’s difficult to compare like for like product performance.

Now there is an industry data pool –established three years ago and getting bigger every day – that has been created for electrical wholesalers to enable them to provide the highest quality product information to their contractor/electrician customers. It’s called EDATA and is an initiative that has brought leading manufacturers and wholesalers together to improve the quality of data available in the supply chain.

The cloud-based data pool, EDATA, was launched by the trade body representing UK electrical wholesalers – the Electrical Distributors’ Association (EDA) – in 2020 to facilitate the smooth and efficient flow of high quality product information from manufacturer to wholesaler and on to electricians and contractors.

High quality product information is at the heart of EDATA. If the information on which buying decisions are made is inaccurate, vague or incomplete, then the product chosen may not be right for the job in hand. Purchasing errors are expensive for everyone in the supply chain, plus there’s the additional negativity around poor customer service and dissatisfaction.

Accurate product attributes, images and performance data means the contractor knows they are getting the right product that will deliver the right performance for the job.

Margaret Fitzsimons, CEO of the EDA, explains more, “The concept of an industry data pool where trading partners can obtain, maintain and exchange information about products in a standard format and access it in one place is relatively new to the UK compared to other markets.

“Our colleagues in Europe have long-established industry data pools that are central to the efficient operation of the supply chain.

“EDATA was only launched in 2020 and has come a long way in a short space of time.

“The EDA works closely with manufacturers to help them create the best quality and most complete data in our sector and make it freely available to wholesalers through the EDATA data pool. There are well over 60 leading brands in EDATA currently, with more approaching us every week asking for more information. Not only will the number of products continue to grow but also the quality of the data that is key to EDATA’s success will improve as manufacturers work to obtain our Bronze, Silver and Gold data standards.”

Reassuringly for the contractor, behind the scenes in the EDATA data pool there are data quality scores built in. These benchmarks show the manufacturers and wholesalers that use EDATA just how complete the product data is: Gold, Silver and Bronze. Manufacturers constantly strive to achieve EDATA’s Gold standard – this is fast becoming the de facto standard for their data and ensures that any gaps in information are filled, images provided and technical features included.

Plus, manufacturers update their product data regularly as products are discontinued or as new products are put on the market. This is another reason why the EDATA data pool is crucial – manufacturers can log in and update their product data exactly when they need to. Wholesalers will be notified of the change and can ensure that their websites are kept up to date with the very latest information that contractors need.

Contractors need the answers to questions quickly and efficiently. Inside EDATA, wholesalers have access to high quality product information on over 190,000 products from 68 electrotechnical manufacturers and the data pool is growing all the time. As part of their service to contractor customers, wholesalers can use EDATA in a number of ways:

• Use search filters to find individual products to answer your questions at the trade counter.

• Download and print out live product data sheets and offer them to you as part of a quote or tender, or in an operation and maintenance manual.

• Download the data in bulk to use in their business systems including e-commerce, where you can search, filter and buy the right product for the job.

If you are using an EDA Member Wholesaler, there’s a good chance that if you are given a product data sheet as part of a quotation, tender or operation and maintenance pack, it will have been generated from live data in EDATA.

Equally, if the wholesaler has an e-commerce offering, the data that you search on their website may have been generated from EDATA.

Richard Appleton, Head of Digitalisation at the EDA, explains more, “Wholesalers run busy trade counters and it takes time to contact each manufacturer separately to request product information. EDATA Data Sheets solve that problem by giving wholesalers access to tens of thousands of products in just a few clicks.

“EDATA Data Sheets are created on demand by pulling in the latest product information and product images stored in the EDATA Data Pool. Wholesalers can print out the data sheets, which follow a standard template, or email them to their contractor customers, who may wish to use them as part of a submittal or an operations and maintenance manual for their clients.”

So, the next time you visit a trade counter or call your wholesaler, ask if they are using EDATA and request a live data sheet.

Electrical Distributors’ Association (EDA), eda.org.uk

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