ETIM is a unified classification of technical products, designed to help all parties (producers, wholesalers, and installers) a clear and effective communication on products. This classification includes a class of products and features (parameters), which are described in a standardized manner. Also, each class has alternative names: synonyms. It makes searching the right product much easier for everyone. Classification of products and their unambiguous descriptions prevent errors and linguistic confusion. They allow to identify the product and exchange the commercial data electronically between different business partners.
For more information, please visit the website of the ETIM International organization etim-international.com.
There are many reasons for the introduction of product classification. Most of them involve a high degree of inefficiency in the current ways of exchanging product data. Much of the work is duplicated, searching for a specific product in the supplier’s files takes a long time, and any change in the structure because of the constant need to re-enter information that is already available in electronic form, but in a different format – the development and implementation of various interfaces is the source many mistakes and misunderstandings.
Benefits of the classification ETIM are the following:
ETIM is an international classification standard of the technical product description. It consists of structures composed of groups, classes, properties, values, and keywords.
Classes of products and their features (parameters) are organized in a standardized manner. Each class has alternative names: synonyms. This makes finding the right product much easier for everyone. The features and values defined for each product type make the management of product data uniform for all suppliers.