Glossary
IDS interface (IDS Connect)
The IDS interface, also called IDS Connect, links a wholesaler's web shop with installer software in the German plumbing and heating (SHK) trade. The installer fills a shopping cart in the shop and sends it back into their software.
In short
The IDS interface, also called IDS Connect, links a wholesaler's web shop with installer software. It is used in the German plumbing and heating (SHK) trade and in related trades. Software vendors expand IDS as „Integrierte Datenschnittstelle“.
The installer opens the wholesaler's shop from their software, fills a shopping cart and sends it back into their software. The cart can also go the other way, from their software into the shop.
Data that move between the two include product information, carts, prices and stock levels. Order data are then transferred back to the installer's system.
Example
An installer prepares an offer in their software. They open their wholesaler's shop for the radiators, check price and stock, and put six radiators into the cart. They transfer the cart back, and the articles with their prices land as positions in their offer.
The vendor documentation names further functions, among them automatic login to the shop and a deep link from the software to an article in the shop.
According to software vendor documentation, IDS Connect was defined by ITEK GmbH, in a joint project of the BVBS (Bundesverband Bausoftware) and the DG-Haustechnik (Deutscher Großhandelsverband Haustechnik). ITEK lists IDS Connect among the trade standards it works with.
What to watch for
Not every wholesaler shop and not every software supports IDS. Check both sides before you plan around it.
The wholesaler has to offer IDS in its shop, and the installer's software has to support it. If one side does not support it, the cart cannot be transferred.
Check which version both sides support.
The prices in the cart are the installer's net prices from the shop at that moment.
Not to be confused with
UGL: a file-based exchange of requests, offers, orders and invoices between installer software and wholesaler. It works independently of the web shop.
Punchout catalog: the same idea for the procurement systems of larger buyers, known as OCI punchout.
Datanorm: an article master data file, not a shopping cart.
Related terms
UGL (German trade data exchange)
UGL (Übergabeschnittstelle lang) is a data exchange format between installer software and wholesalers in the German SHK and electrical trades. It carries the documents of a job, from the price request and offer to the order and the invoice.
Punchout catalog
A punchout catalog lets a buyer’s procurement system use a supplier’s online shop. The buyer jumps into the shop, fills a cart, and the cart returns to the buyer’s system, where the order is placed.
Request for quotation (RFQ)
A request for quotation (RFQ) is a buyer’s request asking suppliers to make an offer for defined goods or services, with quantities and dates. The request itself does not bind. The offer does.