EUROPEAN Data Pool strategy BY Magnus Siren & MARtin kreijenbroek JUNE 29th 2017 ZAVENTEM / BELGIUM

background The FEST Presidency (Caroline van Marcke (President), Benedict Mahr (former President) and Beatrix Pollack (Vice President)) presented an idea to establish a common European Data Pool, containing common product data for European HVAC wholesalers at the FEST GA in Frankfurt on March 16th 2017 The feasibility of this idea of a common Data Pool was to be investigated further Please note, that this idea has not been approved to be the official stand of the FEST Association

Scope (”the revolutionary model”)

Basic facts The situation in Europe today could be described so, that product data transfer works well in Nordic countries and the Netherlands (= in general countries with well organized branch owned databases) and to some extent also in Germany and Italy CNEBOD (Cooperating National ETIM-based Branch Owned Datapools) discussed the topic in a meeting on April 5th in Amsterdam ETIM International only maintains the ETIM-model structure and language masters in their database – No intentions whatsoever to store product related information

FEST Ambitions How can this be achieved?

What is CNeBOD = Cooperating National ETIM-based Branch Owned Datapools Group initiated by 2ba - Active since January 2017 Group represents 11 databases: Electrical: CH, FI, IT, NL, NO, SE HVAC: DE, DK, FI, (IT), NL, NO, SE No product database: BE, PL, UK and ETIM International Mission: to find evolutionary cooperation between the European databases Next meeting in autumn 2017

CNEBOD FINDINGS Revolutionary model – FEST Presidency idea Portfolio problem – 90% or suppliers have 40-96% country-overlap Language problems – Especially “long descriptions” and other country specific aspects etc., excluding ETIM Not suitable for local national manufacturers Good for attachments as DoPs, Images, BIM-elements User rights policy differs in many countries – Connections to national wholesalers / installers / manufacturers etc. Funding (investment + administration + maintenance) Needs acceptance in all European countries – Both FEST and EUEW members Evolutionary model – CNEBOD Infrastructure partially existing - Based on cooperation between existing databases in Europe (= quick start) Not all countries / branches have their own databases New local databases can be hosted or “copied” by existing organizations (in other countries or branches) – Cost effective and quicker start Language issues and country specific aspects handled locally User rights policy easier to handle locally No general acceptance needed – Network can be expanded gradually based on needs CNEBOD members’ expertise available (= best knowledge in Europe of technical product data)

case – big electrical manufacturer Wholesaler 1 Headquarters PIM Local Sales organization National Database Wholesaler 2 Wholesaler 3 Local national sales organisations: Have mandate to decide product portfolio, pricing, language, local approvals etc. No mandate to decide other country’s affairs Get basic data from HQ PIM Produces local material on site

cNEBOD case experience NL (2ba) – BE database (HVAC/ELECTRIC)cooperation (investigated by MK/2ba) Product overlap on markets surprisingly low Product information 40-90 % Trade information 10-20 % Cooperation possible by running a parallel database for BE market FI (LVI-INFO) – SE (RSK) database (HVAC) cooperation (investigated by MS/LVI-INFO, HK/RSK) Product overlap estimated to be very high Product data format and country specific aspects not very easy to solve Cooperation possible by selected data transfer but by running two separate databases SE (RSK) – SE (SEG) database (HVAC/ELECTRIC) cooperation (in operation) Parallel databases are run and developed by common service provider NO (NRF) – NO (EFO) database (HVAC/ELECTRIC) cooperation (in operation) Parallel databases are developed by common service provider

case – example of parallel databases Manufacturer 2 Manufacturer 3 Manufacturer 1 Manufacturer 4 Manufacturer 5 Wholesaler 4 Wholesaler 1 Interface 1 Interface 2 Wholesaler 5 Wholesaler 2 Wholesaler 6 Wholesaler 3 Database 1 Database 2 (Copy of DB1) Database Hosting model: Database core and interface copied from original provider (shared investment) Database technical maintenance common (shared maintenance) Data content of Database 2 managed either jointly or separate Installer 1 Local data exchange ? Installer 2 Installer 3

cNEBOD Conclusions One common European Data Pool can not very easily be realized, but might be possible in the future The same benefits can be achieved with the CNEBOD Database Network Model Primary work is to standardize data transfer (and product data content) Common product identification is essential Cooperation between databases is already established – Roadmap to be made

CNEBOd database network model = VIRTUAL COMMON EUROPEAN DATABASE Manufacturer 1 PIM Wholesaler 1 DB 1 Country A Wholesaler 2 DB 2 Manufacturer 2 PIM Wholesaler 3 DB 5 Manufacturer 3 PIM DB 3 Wholesaler 1 DB 4 Wholesaler 2 Manufacturer n PIM Country B Wholesaler 4 Wholesaler 5

Discussion FEST EUEW National aspects Local aspects Lingual aspects Technical Arguments Legal aspects Standards Classifications Certifications Political aspects