More than 830 people attended the PTDA 2005 Industry Summit Oct. 18 to 20 at Bally's Las Vegas. Attendance was the highest since 2000, with a 20% increase from 2004. Attendees included 247 distributors representing 138 firms, up 25% from 2004. Manufacturer attendance was also up, with 372 delegates representing 154 firms, a 15% increase from last year. A large number of international delegates also attended. The 2006 Industry Summit will be held Oct. 18 to 20 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston.
Updated standard released
The PTDA and Bearing Specialists Association (BSA) unveiled the new version of the Product and Price Information Format (PPIF) at the PTDA 2005 Industry Summit.
The standardized, ASCII format for electronic transmission of manufacturer price and product updates is a single-program system that may be transmitted by mail, e-mail, or the Internet. PPIF lets manufacturers supply and distributors receive price updates in a standardized format; improves operating efficiencies and accuracy by eliminating manual re-keying; and reduces transaction costs, administrative costs, and time needed to transmit and upload updates.
The newly released PPIF version 2.0 includes:
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Revised field names to better match common industry terminology
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Expanded field definitions and comments to address confusion over correct use and/or interpretation
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Improved nomenclature to flag new, obsolete, and price-on-request products
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New fields for minimum order quantity, conditional price multiplier, conditional invoice price, and user-defined use
More information on PPIF v. 2.0 is available at www.ptda.org/PPIF. The format and supplemental documents are available for free download at www.ptda.org/PPIFdownloads.