1Sheet :19 April 2023

Product classification Standard for international e-

Commerce

ETIM InternationalWarsaw, 28th of May, 2009

2Sheet :19 April 2023

Marc Habets - ETIM NL

– Director ETIM Netherlands• Employed since 2003

– President ETIM International• Since foundation in 2008

3Sheet :

Agenda

• ETIM Netherlands

• Standards in product data management

• ETIM model : what is it, how and why?

• ETIM International

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4Sheet :19 April 2023

ETIM Netherlands

• ETIM = European Technical Information Model

• ETIM NL = Foundation (started in1991)

• Participants– Manufacturers 76 companies, majority position

– Wholesalers federations ECEG and TGF

– and installers federation UNETO-VNI

• Standards for product classification and communication formats (e-business)

• Electrotechnical, heating and sanitary

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- To make the ever increasing material

databases easily accessible for the user

- in a user (customer) - friendly way.

Necessity of standards in product data management

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- rapid growth of product range(90.000 in 1995, 160.000 in 1997, 280.000 in 2000, 500.000 in 2002, > 1.000.000 in 2009)

- further growth of information needs per article

- shorter product life cycle and quicker TTM (time to market)

- product database quality more important

This necessity is demonstrated by:

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- Maintenance of product databases in an efficient way

- Automated processing of article information

- The suppliers are the owner – and responsible – for product information and distribution of product data in a standard way !

- All participants have to use the same standards - Names- Structure- Interfaces

Requirements

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- Networks- Interfaces for data-exchange

- Data carrier / media

- Identification- Classification of products

Standards in product data management

All this aspects are important individually – don‘t mix!

All this aspects are requirements for efficient eBusiness

– but only in a standardized way!

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Overview

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Overview

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

Assortment growth

Identification modus

Type of grouping

„100“ articles

Article number and article name

Identification

„1.000“ articles

Grouping of

articles

Codification

„10.000“ articles

Basic product description

Classification

„100.000“ articles

Structured product description

Product selection sources

Product offering

Type of communication

From stock

Buy, what you can touch

Face - to -

face

+ from catalogues

Buy, what you can read

+ from company database

Buy, what you can select

+ from external database(s)

Buy, what exists

Computer - to - computer

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- Relevant for all companies in the supply chain

Manufacturer Wholesaler Installer / contractor

- Relevant for all kind of processes

Classification of products

12Sheet :

ETIM Classification• What is it?

- Fixed model for classifying electrotechnical articles- without hierarchy - with features / parametric

- Listing of the most important technical characteristics of each article class to describe and find the articles.- multi – lingual- media neutral- supplier neutral

13Sheet :

ETIM Classification

• How?– By using product classes, features and values, that are

descibed in a standardized way. Synomyms are used to easily find the right products!

• Why?– No double work, minimal failure costs, high data quality,

optimal data applications, efficient product data management. Cost savings, surplus value and … your customers ask for it!

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ETIM Classification - Is NOT

- A software application

- An article data base

- A catalogue production tool

- A search engine

These are applications which use ETIM as the basis !!!

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- Manufacturers: total control of the information flow

- Wholesalers: maximum information to customers

- Installers: high-quality product information with very fast access

ETIM Classification – General advantages

16Sheet :

Product classes (an example)

17Sheet :

18Sheet :

ETIMTU1996

ETIMUNETO

1993

1999ETIM

Sonepar

ETIM1.1/2.0

From national and company standards

ETIMInternational 2008

To an international European standard

ETIMGermany

ETIMNL

2002 eCl@ss

ETIM – model evolution

MECIMNL

19Sheet :

Current status ETIM – model

• ETIM 4.0 published january 2008

• ETIM 4.0 facts

– Classes 2159

– Features 6980

– Class-features 22486

– Values 7070

– Class-feature-values 54467

– Synonyms 46665 (EN, DE, NL)

– In German, Dutch, English and Swedish (Spanish and French later this year)

- BMEcat as standard interface (DE, SE; NL GS1)

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20Sheet :

Sector

Macro family

Family

Product

Features

ModelShapeMaterialColorEtc..

Hierarchic approach

Parametric approachETIM 4.0

ETIM – implementation in classification systems

UNSPSC

(company-)specific classifications

21Sheet :

ETIM International – full member organisations

• ADIME Spain

• ELDAS Switzerland

• ETIM Germany

• ETIM Netherlands

• ICGME Belgium

• SEG Sweden

• ETIM Austria (expected)

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SHE Poland supporting member !

22Sheet :

ETIM International

• Non-profit organization, founded in 2008, seat in Brussels

• Administration of all languages / classes from one administration group

• One model for Europe, one interface for suppliers, sharing of costs

• The use of ETIM offers advantages for all partners in the supply chain

• ETIM is operational in more than one language and available for the use in

different countries

• Cooperations with other standardization organizations (like eCl@ss)

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23Sheet :

ETIM International

- Ever more international wholesalers adopt ETIM as standard for their

(global) product data management

- Solar

- Rexel

- Sonepar

- …..

- The number of international suppliers that join and provide ETIM data

increases rapidly

- Just some of the most important ones on the next slide

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19 April 2023

25Sheet :

ETIM International • No barriers for new member countries!

– No charges for the development done in the last 15 years!• Just join ETIM International

–Translate ETIM in your own language• Implement and start experiencing the benefits !!

• ETIM classified data from important international manufacturers are available and ready to use!

19 April 2023

26Sheet :

e-Business = ETIM-Business !!

Thank you for your attention

Any questions? I will be here all day!

19 April 2023