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

2. 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

3. Scope (”the revolutionary model”)

4. 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

5. FEST Ambitions
How can this be achieved?

6. 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

7. 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)

8. 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

9. cNEBOD case experience
NL (2ba) – BE database (HVAC/ELECTRIC)cooperation (investigated by MK/2ba)
Product overlap on markets surprisingly low
Product information %
Trade information %
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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

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