ETIM and BMEcat

ETIM is an open, free classification standard for technical products — a common model of classes and features, currently at ETIM 10.0 — and BMEcat is the exchange format long used to move catalog data between suppliers and buyers in technical trade. Together they are the standards answer to heterogeneous product data.

Why it matters

Where a manufacturer applies them, imports get dramatically simpler. The operational reality for machinery dealers is that price books still arrive in whatever shape each factory uses — sometimes a different format per product series — so an update path has to be built for the files that actually come, with the standards as a bonus rather than an assumption.

Common confusion

A standard existing is not the same as a supplier using it. Asking a manufacturer to standardize costs one conversation and is worth trying; planning a system around the assumption that they will is how imports fail in month three.

Where we use it

The intake reality is Who updates the price list?; the one-trusted-record problem is PIM.