13 February 2014

The BOSS Product Specific Attributes Standard

The BOSS Standards & Technical Committee exists to improve sales revenue and reduce business costs for all BOSS members by creating effective and common product data, technology standards and reducing the proliferation of alternative formats.

Members of the Committee are drawn from manufacturers, wholesalers, contract stationers, dealer groups, independent dealers and service providers. The work they do makes the information supplied to you, the production of catalogues, the indexing of products, the ease of access to find products, as well as the classification of new products, as simple and as straightforward as possible for everyone involved in the industry.

In recent months the Committee has been working on product specific attributes and e-commerce data requirement. A good example of attributes to describe a shredder are as follows:

Most office products dealers now have an internet site and for many this is now the single most important sales tool. The BOSS Standards and Technical Committee have been working to define product data formats and standards that take full account of the requirements of the internet. This will enable data providers and software houses to produce, load and display data in a common format and will make it much easier for smaller e-commerce solution providers to offer an excellent end user experience.

The BOSS Product Type Standard Attribute File has been developed for this reason by Evolution Software under the direction of the BOSS Standards and Technical Committee. We appreciate the input from David Brown and the Committee and would like your feedback on these attributes.

Michael Gardner
Chief Executive - BOSS Federation

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE PART IN OUR UK SUPPLIER EVENT SURVEY!

This is your chance to shape the future of the OP industry... We want your opinions and recommendations on whether the industry should hold a single UK supplier event, managed by BOSS.

Manufacturers - access your survey HERE

Resellers - access your survey HERE

Important dates for your diary:

Top industry leaders, including Jules Quinn, 26 year old Managing Director of The TeaShed - a design-led tea company taking the FM market by storm, will be sharing their success stories and offering advice to aspiring young leaders.

We'll be looking to the Millennials to forecast the future of the OP industry to get their opinion on what lies ahead. Make sure you register your young managers to reserve their places at this fantastic event.

For more information and to download a registration form click here

The BOSS Members' Day will return to Stationers' Hall, London on Wednesday 4th June.

Invitations to the CEO's Conference and Chairman's Lunch will be sent out shortly. 

The CEO's Conference will take place in the morning with guest speaker Steve Turner, ex Olympic rower who now runs 'Bramley Lakes' - a learning and development company who run team building workshops based on Patrick Lencioni's 'Five Dysfunctions of a Team'.

The Annual General Meeting will take place in the afternoon, followed by refreshments and networking.

Booking for the event is now available here

This year the prestigious BOSS Industry Awards will return to the ICC in Birmingham for another evening of celebration and entertainment. Put the date in your diary to ensure you don't miss out on this amazing event!

Further details will be released soon.