How poor data can cost Electrical Wholesalers dearly

As demand for more detailed product information grows, wholesalers are faced with the challenge of managing this additional information. Richard Appleton, Product Manager of AMTECH Group’s LUCKINSlive.com online information centre, suggests that a central data source serving the entire industry is the way forward.

This article was first published in the February 2011 issue of Electrical Wholesaler magazine.

In the current challenging and highly competitive economic conditions, electrical wholesalers are potentially faced with a double challenge. On the one hand you need to ensure you deliver value for money to your contractor customers, possibly at reduced margins. On the other hand, you need to maintain your own profitability and ensure you are in a strong position to take advantage of economic recovery.

In this scenario, every activity within the business needs to be fine-tuned to maximum efficiency – from the ways that orders are processed through to stock management. Yet there is currently considerable waste in some areas of many wholesaling businesses – not least in the waste that arises from dealing with poor data throughout the supply chain.

This isn’t a new problem, of course. And it’s true to say that the core data of product descriptions and trade prices is now more extensive and easier to share efficiently between contractors and wholesalers than ever before. However, there is increasing demand for additional product data – over and above prices and descriptions – that can be difficult and time-consuming to access. So, as an industry, we now need to look at ways of managing this additional data and making it easily accessible.