23 March 2005 – High Wycombe (UK): As many as 83 manufacturers are now listed on the Office Products Data Exchange (OPDEX), which is expected to take off globally in 2005, according to the BOSS Federation, which is leading the project.
OPDEX, the industry’s first initiative world-wide to share standardised product data and information between supply chain trading partners, aims to address the needs of both suppliers and distributors by sharing benefits and costs equitably across the supply chain.
Vice chairman of the BOSS Federation, Ron Wotherpsoon, told opi.net: "OPDEX is the single most important thing the federation is doing for the industry. The only reason the food industry in the UK is so efficient is because they have UDEX, their own version of OPDEX.
"The project has started to take off in the last few months so we soon expect to have 100 manufacturers on board, which will officially make the database financially viable," he added. "Furthermore, we now have the support of Hewlett-Packard, the dealer groups and the big wholesalers, which will help get the project on board faster."
A yearly subscription to OPDEX costs £3,500 ($6,554).
