Europa, one of the UK\u2019s leading distributors of electrical components and smart solutions, has demonstrated its continued commitment to providing the highest-quality product information and images for its wholesaler customers by achieving the EDATA data pool\u2019s Gold Standard.<\/p>\n
The award-winning data pool was launched by the Electrical Distributors\u2019 Association (EDA) in 2020 to drive higher standards of product data across the UK\u2019s electrotechnical supply chain.<\/p>\n
Manufacturers subscribe to EDATA, sharing their product information with EDA wholesalers and distributors, all of whom benefit from free access to the data pool.<\/p>\n
Europa joined the EDA as an Affiliate Member in 2019, and in 2021 subscribed to the EDATA data pool.<\/p>\n
Reaching Gold Standard means that Europa\u2019s product information has passed rigorous quality checks, making it easier for wholesalers to list products online, and for contractors and electricians to filter, find and specify products quickly and accurately.<\/p>\n
The journey to gold began in earnest in January this year, led by Project Manager Brett Shepherd, who oversaw a dedicated team focused on refining and enhancing the quality, structure and completeness of Europa\u2019s product data.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the company, it was imperative we got Gold,\u201d Brett said. \u201cOur wholesalers and distributors will be told we are Gold, and it means we and our products are more visible.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor customers searching for our products, they will have everything they need to know about them, giving them more confidence that they are buying exactly what they are asking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, Europa has nearly 4,000 products in the EDATA pool, with 66 per cent of its products now recognised as Gold Standard. Brett said the company\u2019s aim is to get as close to 100 per cent gold as possible by the end of the calendar year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we began the process, we had to understand the requirements, what the data looks like, understand the product range, and then develop that into a plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EDA\u2019s EDATA team has been very supportive throughout the whole process, providing us with useful feedback and giving us a good steer on how we could improve what we were doing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Brett also attended one of the EDA\u2019s programme of data quality training workshops during the process, which provided additional guidance and practical support in reaching the Gold Standard.<\/p>\n
Sonia Freed, Managing Director at Europa, said: \u201cAchieving Gold Standard is a real milestone for Europa. It represents the hard work, collaboration and commitment of our team, and the incredible support we\u2019ve received from the EDA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis achievement strengthens our partnerships across the electrical sector and helps us deliver better service, transparency and innovation to our customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with a large product and SKU count, it illustrates reaching this level is achievable \u2013 and worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard Appleton, Head of Digitalisation at the EDA, said: \u201cCongratulations to Europa. It has been a pleasure to support Brett and his colleagues in their journey to Gold and beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Europa has recognised, there has never been a greater need for manufacturers to put in place a robust and integrated product data strategy because product information is your silent sales team, and is central to your own and wholesalers\u2019 sales and marketing activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a firm believer that this is best achieved through a combination of efficient project management, clearly assigned resources and with the full backing of senior management.<\/p>\n
\u201cEuropa is living proof that this approach really works. We look forward to supporting them in the next phase of their data journey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Europa, one of the UK\u2019s leading distributors of electrical components and smart solutions, has demonstrated its continued commitment to providing the highest-quality product information and images for its wholesaler customers by achieving the EDATA data pool\u2019s Gold Standard. The award-winning data pool was launched by the Electrical Distributors\u2019 Association (EDA) in 2020 to drive higher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/vcsPRAsset_4432579_335028_b8f1613c-18ad-4f8a-86be-46178d24de24_0.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23423,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23421\/revisions\/23423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}