Trimble, Westminster, CO, and DDS (Distributor Data Solutions), Salt Lake City, UT, a provider of product content syndication services, are expanding the delivery of product data solutions to contractors, distributors, and manufacturers for the construction industry. DDS and Trimble manage and syndicate manufacturer-specific product content for one of the largest global ecosystems of contractor and distributor software users in construction. According to the press release, they together currently serve over 60% of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and HVAC commercial distributor market in the US.
Lawrence Smith, VP, Trimble Construction Management Solutions, said in the press release, “The demand for accurate, enriched, and standardized product content is only increasing as the industry digitizes its workflows. Trimble believes that connected, unified data is the future of construction because it enables the industry to build more efficiently and sustainably. Working with DDS will expedite our delivery of an expanded breadth of rich and accurate product data from our common data environment that is portable across Trimble and non-Trimble systems.”
Founded in 2014 to ease the exchange of product information, DDS currently works with more than 300 distributors and 600 manufacturers (representing 1,600-plus brands) to syndicate product data to their distribution channel across seven primary industries: electrical, plumbing, HVACR, industrial supply, industrial automation, industrial gas and welding, and construction.
As one of the largest providers of construction technology and data solutions, Trimble says it serves 60% of Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 50 contractors and the majority of ENR 400 with $400-plus billion of construction project value being managed using Trimble systems. Over a million active users, including electrical, plumbing and mechanical contractors and distributors, connect to Trimble’s digital data network worldwide.
In 2013, Trimble acquired Trade Service Corp., a well-known provider of electrical product data. It has integrated this data into its construction management solutions. Trade Service provided its data to both electrical distributors for inventory management, pricing and sales functions, and to electrical contractors, for their estimating systems and eventually online procurement.
James Reis, general manager of Trimble’s Content and Supply Chain group, said in the press release, “Trimble has a strong foundation of managing product content for its customers. Combining this history with DDS’ unique capabilities and industry expertise in product data syndication will help forge a new industry solution focused on streamlining a growing volume of requests for connected manufacturer product data, including from Trimble.”
“Working with Trimble is an ideal fit for us” said Matt Christensen, president of DDS, in the release. “We are excited that our own solutions can work alongside theirs to help simplify and improve how all this data gets communicated and managed for everyone involved.”
Trimble and DDS will be launching an initial set of combined data service offerings to the market beginning early Q2 2023. To learn more about Trimble's Connected Construction offering click here.