Overview
The Timber and Hardware Exchange provides sophisticated product catalogue management capabilities, together with information retrieval and export facilities to support electronic trading and procurement activities. The provision of a centralised data management repository and toolset complements the other functions of the Timber and Hardware Exchange environment and facilitates electronic trading. The system also provides data plug-in and distribution services that allow for the use of Timber and Hardware Exchange data in company web sites and other marketplaces, further adding to the value proposition of the service.
Primarily, the Timber and Hardware Exchange data repository provides the mechanism for delivering supplier product data to key industry buyers and buying groups. This delivery can be via a range of media including web browser, spreadsheet files, PDF documents, individual suppliers' web sites or in fact by the Timber and Hardware Exchange document messaging service in the form of PRICAT documents. The data repository contains a wealth of detailed product information including product codes, prices, descriptions, associated files and images and technical and packaging specifications. This information will then be used several times over by:
Industry supply chain members and partners including major retail buyers and retailers throughout the industry to update and synchronise procurement systems.
Those in related industries via export of the product data to horizontal and vertical marketplaces, portals, trade CD-ROM packages, and trading exchange catalogues.
Suppliers' own staff who can use the system to manage vast amounts of product-related data, files, categories, and catalogue information.
The Exchange allows users to search for specific products via a range of search criteria, then provides the ability to drill down to specific products' detailed information or edit/export/print summary data via a number of different views.
Find out more... What do suppliers get?