April 20, 2022

ETIM North America announced that OmniCable has joined the product classification standards organization.

Headquartered in West Chester, PA, OmniCable has 24 locations throughout North America, and also owns Houston Wire & Cable (HWC). The company partners with many electrical manufacturers and only sells to distributors.

According to John Dean, Director of Marketing & E-Commerce, OmniCable/HWC, “The wire and cable industry is often called commodities, but there are very distinct features and attributes for the different products our manufacturers produce. Utilizing the ETIM model will enable our manufacturers to further define these values and enable us, as a redistributor, to better reflect this information on our website, provide better information to our distributor clients, and improve our product category analytics. While manufacturers are responsible for defining these products, redistributors like ourselves are important to the process because we are the voice of the electrical distributors and can provide them with a greater understanding of how their products are requested by their customers.”

And as a direct member, OmniCable will have access to the ETIM developed tools and participate in many ETIM NA Product Expert (PE) Groups. Currently, OmniCable plans on being involved in the wire/cable product expert group in conjunction with other companies such as Prysmian, Southwire, Service Wire, Priority Wire, and others alongside distributors including Sonepar, Rexel Canada, Graybar, WESCO, Youngstown Electric Supply, and others. The company may participate in the Power Distribution Product Expert Group as it also distributes circuit breakers to distributors.

Mary Shaw, Executive Director of ETIM North America, shared that involving more distributors is important to developing collaborative, comprehensive industry standards. Shaw said, “Distributors understand how their customers request products and the importance of various features. Their input is critical in helping manufacturers define their products, making them more searchable in various systems and the search process more efficient.”

Shaw further commented that it is important that manufacturers and distributors of all sizes and product types that recognize that the electrical ecosystem is undergoing a digital transformation be part of the process. ETIM North America is designed to be open, collaborative, and to embrace all manufacturers and distributors. ETIM North America builds upon standards that are embraced in 25 countries and are being refined and enhanced to support North America.

To learn more about ETIM North America, its Product Expert Groups, and how manufacturers, distributors, and service companies can participate, visit www.etim-na.org or contact Mary Shaw at mary@etim-na.org.

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