WHITE PAPER

JANUARY 2021

By: Richard Appleton, General Manager, EDA Data Services

Starting Your ETIM Journey:

A Guide for Manufacturers
Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

This is the third in our series of White Papers aimed at CONTENTS

EDA members and affiliates embarking on the path of
digital transformation. The series is designed to explain Introduction 3
topics related to digitalisation in a way that is easy to
digest and relevant to the electrotechnical sector.
Why ETIM? 4
In this guide Richard Appleton, who has over 25
years’ experience in the world of digital product data,
provides an overview of the ETIM data standard for
Who Manages ETIM? 5
manufacturers encountering or working with the
standard for the first time. The EDA and ETIM 5

How ETIM is Structured 6

Where Do I Find Details About

ETIM Classes, Features and Values? 9

How to Create and Store

Your ETIM Data 10

Sending ETIM Data

to Your Customers 11

Distributing ETIM Data

via Industry Data Pools 12

What Next? 13
Conclusion
Key Take-Aways

Appendix:
Useful Links and References 14

© Electrical Distributors’ Association (EDA) 2021

Author:
Richard Appleton, General Manager, EDA Data Services
E: richard.appleton@eda.org.uk

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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

Introduction Manufacturer
Master
Data
As a manufacturer, you may have been asked
Technical
to provide ETIM data by a wholesaler, Digital Attributes
either in UK or overseas or perhaps you Assets (ETIM)
are planning to join EDATA, the electrical
Links to
industry data pool managed by EDA Data Logistics
Spares & Dimensions
Data
Services Ltd. Accessories

In this paper we take a more detailed look Taxonomies Standards &

at the ETIM standard for technical product Conformance
data, covering similar ground to our recent
successful “Starting your ETIM Journey” Price Sustainability 3D BIM
Data Data Objects
webinar which can still be downloaded (see
Appendix for link). We explain what ETIM is
Labour Maintenance
(and what it isn’t) and how it is structured, and Norms Schedules
we provide some guidance for manufacturers
starting on the path of creating ETIM formatted data.
Specification
Text
While primarily aimed at EDA affiliates and other
electrical manufacturers, this paper is equally relevant
to manufacturers of HVAC, plumbing and building
products and will also be of interest to wholesalers,
contractors, software solution providers – indeed
anyone interested in implementing ETIM within their
digital business systems.

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 Manufacturer
Master
Data

Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

Digital
Assets

Why ETIM?
As a manufacturer you rely on wholesalers and Technical
merchants to market your products to customers, Attributes
whether they are trade contractors or end users. (ETIM)
Increasingly wholesalers are adopting digital or multi-
channel sales strategies and introducing business-to-
business ecommerce web sites which require complex
searching and filtering capabilities to enable buyers to
find the right product.
This in turn relies on the availability of rich structured
product data which should ideally be supplied by,
and traceable back to, the product manufacturers.
Furthermore, data relating to each product’s technical
and performance attributes must be supplied in a
consistent structure or format from all manufacturers.
This structure is ETIM.

Three Key Facts About ETIM

• ETIM is an international data model. It provides a
classification and structure for product data, but it
is not a database itself.
• ETIM applies only to the technical and
performance attributes of any product. The model
does not include, for example, manufacturers’ part
numbers, prices or illustrations.
• It exists to help B2B customers find and select
your products.

ETIM is a structure for data covering the technical and

performance attributes of a product. As such it is just
one aspect of the product data you will need to create.
For advice about the broader aspects of creating a
product data strategy see our previous white paper
“Creating a Product Data Strategy: A Seven Point Plan
for Manufacturers”. See Appendix for a link to this white
paper.

The Benefits of ETIM to Manufacturers

• You retain control over your product data and thus,
how your products are represented to the market.
• You can provide a single format to many
wholesalers.
• Increased chance of your products being found
and selected.
• Fewer returns and enhanced customer experience.

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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

Who Manages ETIM?

ETIM is an international standard now used all over Within this framework ETIM is continually being updated
the globe and with representative organisations in over to reflect technology changes and user feedback. A new
20 countries. Each participating country organisation full release of the standard incorporated all recently
is responsible for promotion and management of the approved changes is released approximately every
standard and supporting the users. In the UK, the two years. The most recent, ETIM 8.0, was released
country organisation is ETIM UK Limited, a not-for-profit in November 2020 and for the first time contained a
company jointly managed by the Electrical Distributors’ number of new classes specifically required by the UK
Association (EDA) and the Builders Merchants market.
Federation (BMF).
Overall management is the responsibility of ETIM
International, aided by a General Assembly and a
Standardisation Committee of representatives from
each country and responsible, respectively, for strategic
and technical matters. This level of governance is
necessary to ensure the integrity of the standard while,
at the same time, allowing all members of the country
organisations (including EDA members and affiliates)
the opportunity to influence development.

The EDA and ETIM

The EDA introduced ETIM into the UK in 2017 prompted The work continues with, this year, the formation of
by research which indicated that digitalisation was one new working groups or expert groups who will deep
of its members’ most pressing concerns. Product data dive into the standard as it relates to specific types
is at the heart of digitalisation and, like the introduction of electrotechnical product. The result of this activity
of any standard, is best tackled as an industry-wide will be overall enhancement of the standard (working
initiative. closely with our colleagues in other ETIM countries),
making use of the new local standards facility and
At first, the focus was on awareness building with
a series of guidance notes to help manufacturers
over 50 company specific visits and ETIM-ready data
consistently apply the ETIM standard to their products.
audits carried out. This was followed by the first pass
at anglicising the standard, turning generic “system
English” class and feature names into UK terminology
and, more recently, adding provision for products
specific to the UK market.

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 Manufacturer
Master
Data

Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

Digital
Assets

How ETIM is Structured

The key element of ETIM is the ETIM Product Class. Technical
As a manufacturer, your first job will be to identify Attributes
and apply the correct product class to each of your (ETIM)
products. You will see in the diagram below that a
class is identified by an eight-character code beginning
with EC (ETIM Class) which is linked in the model to
the class name, not only in English, but in the native
language(s) of all the other participating countries. It
is also linked to a number of synonyms which may be
used as search keywords.

Product Group Lamps

(EG) EG000028

Compact Synonyms:
Product Class Flourescent Lamp Energy-saving lamp ;
(EC) (Ballast) Flourescent lamp ; Lamp ;
EC000819 Low energy lamp

Alphanumeric Numeric Range Logic

Feature Cap Lamp Power Frequency Dimmable

(EF) EF000042 EF000035 EF000416 EF000137

Value B15d
15 50 - 60 Yes
(EV) EV000076

Unit Watt (W) Hertz (Hz)

(EU) EU570054 EU570028

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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

By virtue of being linked to a Product Class, each

product will automatically be linked to a group of
Features which define that product. So your next job
will be to populate those Features with the values
appropriate to each product. There is no free text in
ETIM, so you will choose the values held within the
ETIM structure. There are four types of ETIM Feature,
each requiring a different type of value as shown in the
diagram on page 6 and explained below:

Feature Type Value Required

Alphanumeric Alphanumeric value selected

from associated list of allowable
ETIM Values.

Numeric Value will be a number.

Some Numeric Features have

an associated Unit; the value
assigned must relate to this
Unit

Range Value will be two numbers,

an upper and a lower value to
define the range.

Some Range Features have

an associated Unit; the values
assigned must relate to this
Unit

Logic Value can only be True or False

(represented on most systems
as Yes or No)

If this is hard to follow, another way to visualise the

ETIM structure would be in the form of a spreadsheet
listing a group of your products, one per row, all linked
to the same ETIM Class. The ETIM Features would
form the column headings, perhaps associated with a
picklist of allowable values for Alphanumeric Features
(remember, there is no free text in ETIM).

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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

The empty spreadsheet would look something like this:

Proprietary Data ETIM Classification

Part Number Description EF005127 EF009345 EF011586 EF000187 EF001357 EF001360 EF012199 EF006266 EF000042 EF000007

Nominal Nominal Lamp Voltage Luminous Filament Type of glass/

Lamp shape Cap Colour
voltage current power type intensity lamp cover

v mA W cd

Flat round

Candle

Round globe

Linear

Mushroom

Reflector

Tube, single-ended

Tube, double-ended

Capsule

Other

And when filled it would look like this:

Part Number Description EF005127 EF009345 EF011586 EF000187 EF001357 EF001360 EF012199 EF006266 EF000042 EF000007

Nominal Nominal Lamp Voltage Luminous Filament Type of glass/

Lamp shape Cap Colour
voltage current power type intensity lamp cover

v mA W cd

LED Lamp GU10

L100131 230 35 4 AC 600 Reflector No Opal GU10 White
4W 2700k WW
LED Lamp GU10
L100132 230 35 4 AC 600 Reflector No Opal GU11 White
5.5W 4000k CW
LED Lamp GU10
L100133 230 40 5.5 AC 900 Reflector No Opal GU12 White
4W 2700k WW
LED Lamp GU10
L100134 230 40 5.5 AC 900 Reflector No Opal GU13 White
5.5W 4000k CW
LED Lamp GX53
L100135 230 30 3.3 AC - Flat round No Opal GX53 White
3.3W 4000k CW
LED Lamp GX53
L100135A 230 30 3.3 AC - Flat round No Opal GX53 White
3.3W 4000k CW

Manufacturer has entered product content in accordance with ETIM

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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

Where Do I Find Details About ETIM Classes, Features and Values?

There is much useful information on both the ETIM
International and ETIM UK web sites (see appendix for
links) but the “go to” source of information is the ETIM
Classification Management Tool (CMT) which can be
found here: https://prod.etim-international.com
Here you will find all the details you need about the
ETIM model as well as being able to access, tools such
as the ETIM Viewer, BMEcat® certification tool and
ETIM API. Access to some of these is restricted to ETIM
members. ETIM UK members can request a user log in
for the CMT by contacting info@etim-uk.co.uk

Use filters to find classes Select language

Select Class to see relevant Features and Values

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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

How to Create and Store Your ETIM Data

While you can create and manage your ETIM data using
a spreadsheet, we would advise manufacturers to equip
themselves with a Product Information Management
(PIM) system. As we have stressed previously, ETIM will
be just one part of your product data strategy and a
PIM system will act as one “central source of truth” for
all your product data.

SPREADSHEET
PIM SPREADSHEET
Low costSYSTEM
Useful for populating ETIM classes
Challenging to manage
Features and Values
Limited choice of export options

V
PIM SYSTEM PIM SPREADSHEET
Pre-populated with ETIM data model SYSTEM

Automatically updated
with new ETIM releases
Can manage all types of product data
(master data, asset links, BIM etc.)
Flexible data export options

Thus, in simple terms, the steps to creating

your ETIM data are as shown below:

1 Install a PIM system

with ETIM capability

2 Import your
basic product data

3 Assign an ETIM Class

to each of your products

4 Enter or select the correct

ETIM Feature values for each product

5 Export and distribute your ETIM data

in required format

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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

Sending ETIM Data to Your Customers

Having created your ETIM data you need to distribute it In this case, supplying the data in a spreadsheet is less
to customers. There are a number of ways to approach satisfactory and you may need to export the data using
this, depending on how you created the data and the a file format called BMEcat®. This is an international
needs of each customer. standard XML format, specifically designed for supplying
product catalogue data and contains provision not just
You can supply ETIM data as a spreadsheet similar to
for ETIM data but also for master data, links to images
those shown earlier. This can work if you are dealing
etc. pricing, packaging data and more besides. If you
with a relatively small product range or if your customer
install a PIM system configured for ETIM then it is likely
wants to receive just the text rather than the underlying
to be able to export data in BMEcat® format.
ETIM codes. Some customers, however, will need you
to supply the ETIM codes, particularly if they plan to
load the data into their own ETIM-enabled PIM system.

BM
Eca
t

Spreadsheet CUSTOMER’S
PIM
SYSTEM

SUPPLIER’S BMEcat® file CUSTOMER’S

PIM BME
cat
PIM
SYSTEM SYSTEM

CUSTOMER’S
PIM
SYSTEM

Industry-owned CUSTOMER’S
Data Pool BME PIM
cat
SYSTEM
CUSTOMER’S
PIM
SYSTEM

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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

Distributing ETIM Data Via an Industry Data Pool

You can supply data on a peer to peer basis using one
of the options explained on the previous page. However,
with the growth of ecommerce, and hence customers
requiring ETIM data, it will be far easier upload your
data into an industry-owned data pool from which
customers can download it in their chosen format.
If you operate in several countries, or export, you may
need to provide your data to more than one.
In the UK, the EDA have developed EDATA, a data pool
for the electrotechnical sector. Similar industry-owned
data pools covering electrical, HVAC, plumbing and
building products exist in many other countries.

In Europe there
are a growing
number of industry-
owned and managed
data pools serving the
electrotechnical, HVAC
and plumbing sectors.
Similar data pools
exist in North America.

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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers
What Next?
So now you’ve created and shared your ETIM data,
your distributors will be in a good position to promote
your products via their web sites and customers will be
able to find and select the products they need. But that
isn’t the end of the story.
You will need to put in place processes to add ETIM
data for new products as they are released. As stated
above, ETIM should form part of a wider product data
strategy where creating data to support new product
releases should be a part of your standard data
management and governance procedures.
ETIM continues to develop and ETIM UK members
(including all EDA manufacturer affiliates) may want
the opportunity to influence the standard. The EDA
is running a number of working groups to look at the
standard for different types of product with a view to
adding UK-specific standards, reviewing terminology
and identifying possible enhancements.
The best people to get involved in these groups are
those with practical experience of using ETIM so please
contact the EDA or ETIM UK and get involved. The
standard is only as good as you, the users, make it.
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Conclusion
The ability to supply structured, machine-readable,
product data is a key requirement for digitalising the
supply chain. ETIM provides a standard for this but
can seem daunting at first and we appreciate that the
additional workload is significant in the short-term. In
the long-term the benefits will greatly outweigh the
initial investment
We are happy to offer help and advice if required –
please contact us at info@etim-uk.co.uk.
Key Take-Aways
• ETIM is a standard for manufacturers’ product data,
specifically the technical and performance attributes.
• You will need to assign each of your products to an
ETIM Class and then populate the relevant Features.
• This can be done using a spreadsheet, but it is better
to install a PIM system with ETIM capability.
• ETIM data can be distributed to customers using a
spreadsheet or BMEcat® file or by loading the data
into a central, industry-owned data pool.
• Manufacturer members of ETIM UK are invited to
take part in working groups to contribute to further
development of the standard.
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Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers

If you would like further information, or to discuss

how to integrate EDATA into your ecommerce web site
please contact the EDA on 020 3141 7350.

Appendix: Useful Links and References

Electrical Distributors’ Association

www.eda.org.uk

ETIM UK Ltd
www.etim-uk.co.uk

ETIM International
www.etim-international.com

ETIM Classification Management Tool (CMT)

https://prod.etim-international.com/

Webinar: Starting Your ETIM journey

https://www.etim-uk.co.uk/events/etim-webinar-8-july-2020-2/

White paper: Creating a Product Data Strategy:

A Seven Point Plan for Manufacturers
https://www.eda.org.uk/support-and-resources/white-papers/

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 WHITE PAPER

Manufacturer
Master
Data
Technical
Digital Attributes
Assets (ETIM)

s Links to
Spares & Dim
Accessories

Taxonomies Standards &

Starting Your ETIM Journey: A Guide for Manufacturers
Conformance

Electrical Distributors’ Association

Sustainability Rotherwick House

3 Thomas More Street

Data St Katharine’s and Wapping

London E1W 1YZ

T: 020 3141 7350

F: 020 7602 0613

Labour Maintenance E: info@eda.org.uk

W: www.eda.org.uk
Norms Schedules
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