Scolmore Group is one of fifteen manufacturers and ten wholesalers who have signed up as Founder Members of EDATA, a new ‘by the industry for the industry’ product data pool. EDATA is the latest strategic initiative from the Electrical Distributors’ Association (EDA) under their EDA Data Services banner. E-commerce and digital transformation are inextricably linked to the availability of the highest quality product data, and EDATA offers manufacturers a central ‘single source of truth’ resource for uploading product information, technical data and images which wholesalers can download and serve up on their customer-facing e-commerce channels.

Martyn Walley (pictured), group technical director with Scolmore Group said: “We are delighted to have been invited to be a founding member and get involved in this latest initiative from the EDA. We welcome any opportunity to help provide a valuable resource to the wholesaler.”

Margaret Fitzsimons, CEO at the EDA, added “The EDA is delighted to have Scolmore Group as a Founder of this new initiative. EDATA gives the UK’s electro-technical supply chain the opportunity to say goodbye to the heavy workloads created by processing data through multiple channels and hello to enhanced ecommerce infrastructure.”

EDATA currently holds information in three categories: Manufacturer Master Data, the core data needed to identify a product; Digital Assets such as images and data sheets; and Technical Attributes including dimensions, suitability and performance characteristics. The Technical Attributes held in EDATA will be structured in accordance with ETIM, the international data model for the standardisation and classification of technical product data enabling wholesalers to enhance their web sites with powerful product searches and filters. The EDA has led the ETIM initiative for the UK’s electro-technical sector since 2017.