Whether you are a manufacturer or a distributor, you should review your authorizations from time to time! IDEA suggests at least once a quarter. (Reminder: Only manufacturers with a Premium or Limited subscription level can control their IDEA Connector authorizations.)
Why is this necessary? Because authorizations change often for several reasons. Some due to new manufacturer or distributor customers being added to IDEA Connector. Others due to manufacturers adding new class codes or price sheets. It’s important to both sides of the partner relationship that the correct authorizations are in place and that the product data is being exchanged as intended. Just follow the instructions in the next paragraph to determine the current status of your authorizations.
Proceed to Advanced, then Authorizations, then Company Authorizations. From this screen, you can review the authorizations based on your partners. Their company names will be in the first column. At a high level and first pass, review the column titled ‘Mfr’. Any partner in this column with a ‘No’ means that there is no company level authorization by the manufacturer. You can easily sort the ‘No’ together by clicking on the ‘Mfr’ title in the orange header. Also, this grid can be exported into an excel spreadsheet, so you can sort and filter as needed. Just click on the orange ‘Export’ button.
Distributors, you can request authorization from the manufacturers with a ‘No’ right from this screen, just click on the mfrs name and then click the ‘End User Request for Auth’ checkbox on the next screen. There is also a great document in the “IDW Documents” section that can help you troubleshoot how authorizations may be affecting your ability to get data out of the IDW. Its titled “Are you getting all the data you can from the IDW”.
Manufacturers, you can follow the “Authorization Management in the IDW” quick reference guide and training video found in the ‘IDW Documents’ section on the “Manufacturer IDW Training Resources” document.