FIDX Working Group Meeting Minutes

October 11, 2005

On October 11, 2005, 15 furniture retailers, manufacturers and suppliers attended a formal (face to face) FIDX working group meeting in Charlotte, NC. The meeting was also simultaneously conducted via the Internet with about 5 remote participants. The meeting agenda is shown below.

No attendees reported participation in the Uniform Code Council's Global Standards Management Process since the last formal meeting in March 2005.
Mike Overholt reviewed the Product Availability/Vendor Managed Inventory (852) schema that was approved via an on-line meeting following the last formal meeting.

Ashish Gandhi and Ben Keller reviewed the Freight Invoice schema (210) that was approved via an on-line meeting following the last formal meeting.

Ashish Gandhi and Ben Keller reviewed the Bill of Lading schema (204) that was approved via an on-line meeting following the last formal meeting.

Ben Keller reported that a Load Tender Acceptance schema (990) is needed and Ashish Gandhi agreed to develop that schema for review at the next formal meeting. If necessary, Ashish will also modify the Bill of Lading schema to assure it is consistent with the Load Tender Acceptance schema.

Unfortunately, Jeff Baker was unable to attend the formal meeting to review the proposed schemas for registering product warranties and filing warranty claims. It was agreed that he will review the schemas at the next on-line meeting.

David Purvis reviewed the FIDX schemas that have been approved, the schemas that are currently being developed and future schemas that may be needed. See the complete list. He noted that the version numbers for schemas in development are less than 1.0 and the version numbers for schemas that have been approved and/or subsequently modified are 1.0 or greater.

David also reviewed the results of a survey that AHFA recently conducted to determine which schemas are being supported by furniture industry business system vendors.

Only four retail management system (RMS) vendors responded to the survey prior to the meeting and their support for the schemas is mixed. When completed, the survey results will be distributed to FIDX email recipients, posted on www.FIDX.org and provided to industry publications such as Furniture Today.

Mike Overholt discussed the need for a “simple” Catalog schema (832) for non-configured (standard) products. It was agreed that the current Catalog schema can handle non-configured products provided a list of standard attributes is defined. Ron Martell agreed to work with Mark McCuistion to define the attributes and post a sample catalog for non-configured products on www.FIDX.org.

Mike Overholt also discussed the potential need for schemas to handle web services in the future. Mike and Manoj Nigam will discuss this subject for review at the next formal meeting. Also, it was agreed that the schema implementation process will be discussed at the next formal meeting.

Jerry Alderman, Dave Purvis and Ron Martell discussed a NHFA organized October 10 retailer meeting regarding the promotion of FIDX standards support in the furniture industry. The meeting attendees agreed that industry adoption is dependent on retailers requiring their suppliers and technology vendors to support the standards. It was also agreed that manufacturers’ support of the Catalog schema (832) is a critical first step. Steve DeHaan will coordinate with the NHFA IT Committee to develop a benefits oriented marketing program to increase retailer participation. The primary benefits identified include the ability to display products on retailers’ web sites, better inventory management, improved customer service and the elimination of errors associated with custom orders.

The meeting attendees agreed that the concurrent formal and on-line meeting format worked quite well – the only problem was the speaker telephone needs to be augmented with a microphone.

The next formal meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 7, 2006 in Greensboro, NC. In the interim, it is expected that an on-line meeting will be held in the next 4 to 6 weeks to review the warranty schemas.

Submitted by Ron Martell, FIDX Steering Committee Chairman.

Attendees: