Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/540646
6 FEDA News & Views Industry Insights A New Solution to the Old Problem of Order Status Michael Greenwald, President AutoQuotes mgreenwald@aqnet.com W hen Brad Pierce first suggest- ed the idea for the FEDA Data Interchange (FDI), it was quite apparent that this was an opportunity to enhance communication and encourage collaboration among channel partners. The collaboration began with extensive discussions with the FEDA, MAFSI, and NAFEM leadership as well as with some of their key members. All agreed that the time was long overdue to create a mech- anism to facilitate the free exchange of data among industry players. Order status was the best starting point. Simplifying the dissemination of this data would reap immediate ben- efits…. a potential game changer. Here's how it works. Manufacturers send a nightly file containing order status data for all dealers. The FDI distributes that data to all dealers and reps on a new "Order Status" tab in AutoQuotes. Dealers see only their own orders. Reps see orders for their dealers, from their manufacturers, in their territories. Know, faster than ever before, if your order was received, if it shipped or will ship on time. Get a link to tracking/pro numbers! Prior to the FEDA conference in March, there were about 45 manufacturers com- mitted to participating and a handful of dealers beta testing the interface. The conference kicked the project into high gear, allowing a number of manufactur- ers and dealers to see the new FDI portal for the first time and realize its potential. Since then, the buzz has continued to build. Feedback during the spring buying group tour reinforced the notion that the FDI portal will become a significant industry standard. At The NRA Show, Danielle Mason from Meiko was thrilled to report that after only a short time sharing order status data through the FDI portal, their incoming call volume to customer service was reduced by approximately half! And that was with only 40 percent of the dealers partici- pating! Today, more than 100 manufacturers have committed to participating and more than 30 of them are actively pub- lishing order status data. Every week, the numbers are growing and additional manufacturers are publishing order sta- tus data. Now that the FDI portal is in place, it can be used to share and exchange all sorts of data. There really is no limit. At The NRA Show, a lot of manufactur- ers talked about providing stock status information for publication in the AQ catalog. It's simply another file to pro- vide, and dealers/reps can be equipped with better data to assist in their daily sales endeavors. The FDI portal will continue to flour- ish and give dealers, reps, and manufac- turers back some precious time. Now that the door has been cracked open, we truly look forward to providing and sup- porting this platform for more extensive data exchange and collaboration within the foodservice equipment distribution channel. Moving Forward Check the new "Order Status" tab in AutoQuotes regularly. Click the "Participating Manufacturers" button in the upper right-hand cor- ner to see the manufacturers that are on board. You can also track the progress of this initiative at www.myopenorders.com. The par- ticipating manufacturer link is avail- able here, too. Manufacturers, if you're not par- ticipating, email me directly and we'll reach out to you to get you started.