MicroD Launches "FAST-FIDX"

Furniture World Magazine

MicroD software and services now fully support the furniture industry standards for electronic commerce developed by the Furniture Industry Data Exchange (FIDX) Committee. The standards developed by FIDX, which is jointly sponsored by AHFA, NHFA and HFIA, use XML technology to define product catalogs, purchase orders, order acknowledgements, invoices, advance ship notices, bills of lading, etc. Steve DeHann of NHFA currently serves as Chairman of FIDX and Ron Martell, MicroD Chairman, is Chairman of the FIDX working group. Formal FIDX meetings are held semi-annually in Charlotte or Greensboro and Internet based meeting are held on an as needed basis. The standards are posted on the FIDX web site at www.fidx.org and all industry participants are invited and encouraged to participate in FIDX. To promote fast and easy adoption of the new standards, MicroD launched the “Fast-FIDX” standards adoption program under which MicroD is offering to publish an initial FIDX compatible product catalog at no charge for up to ten casegoods and accessory manufacturers. This offer does not include custom products or catalogs that are subsequently updated. Ken Curtis, MicroD’s VP of Sales and Marketing states “We have been publishing electronic product catalogs since 1988 and are very pleased that an industry standard is finally available. This will eliminate the Beta/VHF format incompatibility problems once and for all. Since the standard uses XML (Extensible Markup Language) technology that many companies are not currently familiar with, we are offering to publish initial catalogs at no cost for companies who provide text and graphical product data which we will translate and format to conform to the FIDX standard. Instructions for preparing the required text and graphical data are available on our web site at www.microdinc.com”. MicroD, Inc. develops and provides integrated Internet and desktop-based software products and service solutions known as Full Circle™. These solutions range from electronic catalogs and room-planning software to Internet-based business-to-business (B2B) communications software and services for a wide range of companies in the furniture, trucking and other industries. Copyrighted under the brand names of PreVue and Exim Commerce, MicroD’s products are the preferred choice of major companies such as Ethan Allen, Thomasville, Bassett, Broyhill, La-Z-Boy, Kittles Furniture, Boyles Furniture, etc. To learn more about MicroD’s products and services, visit their web site at www.microdinc.com