NEMRA and IDEA ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT TO BENEFIT MANUFACTURER REPS


NEMRA manufacturer representatives enabled to use IDX2

Rosslyn, VA- June 24, 2005 - The National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association (NEMRA), a North American trade association dedicated to promoting the use of independent manufacturers representatives, and the Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA), an industry owned e-commerce service provider, announced today that it completed an agreement that will enable manufacturer representative agencies to become IDEA customers with the intention to use the Industry Data Exchange 2 (IDX2) service.

IDX2 is an Internet based data exchange that will allow manufacturer representative agencies to send and receive documents between manufacturers and distributors using a secure and error free system. Additionally, the agreement resulted in a new Manufacturer Representative IDEA customer category program for the IDX2. According to NEMRA's Director of Information Technologies, Jim Bannon, NEMRA currently attracts members with an array of technical services including its IRIS order, inventory and sales management program, and views IDX2 as "another valuable tool to add to the reps sales kit."

Discussions transitioned into an agreement during recent NEMRA Board of Directors meetings. All involved felt that it was a valuable time for execution. Bannon credits the combination of the many manufacturers who worked behind the scenes to make this a possibility and the recommendations of the Board. "We were always willing to make this an option [for members] and have long recognized the benefits of IDX2," said Bannon.

"80% of the manufacturers who provide products in the electrical industry do so by using independent manufacturer representatives. This is a tremendous opportunity to drive up efficiency and reduce order management costs by eliminating reliance on paper-based orders and communications, which enables representatives who use other higher cost EDI systems to adopt IDX2," said IDEA President, Mike Rioux.

A recent study conducted for IDEA by Channel Marketing Group clearly shows the large amount of productivity gains to be realized. "We are very excited about the new agreement with NEMRA that will enable this service for their members," said Rioux.

NEMRA's IRIS software program supports a full array of e-commerce EDI and proprietary format transactions that will be mapped to provide a comprehensive business-to-business (B2B) solution.

About IDEA
IDEA is an e-commerce service provider jointly owned by NEMA and NAED. Developed to drive down supply chain costs, IDEA (www.idea-inc.org), provides the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW), a central repository of manufacturer product, pricing, and attributed data; the Industry Data Exchange (IDX2) is an Internet-based communications hub that enables business trading partners to exchange business documents using EDI, XML, flat file, or Web form transactions sets; the Industry Retail Database (IRD) a central repository of manufacturer retail product data to meet retail hardware, CPG and EAN UCC requirements and the Data audit and Certifications (DAC) Program to verify manufacturer data meets specification criteria to ensure data synchronization between business partners.

About NEMRA
NEMRA, with its affiliate, the NEMRA Manufacturers Group, is a North American trade association dedicated to promoting continuing education, professionalism, and the use of independent manufacturers representatives in the electrical industry. The association has a combined membership of 1,000 in the United States and Canada.

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Contacts:

IDEA NEMRA
Rita Hagopian, (703) 841-5910 Jim Bannon, (914) 524-8650
rit_hagopian@nema.org jim@nemra.org

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