Meet the data expert: Q&A with Kevin Gutteridge

Q&A with Kevin Gutteridge, Director of Trimble Luckins

Can you tell us more about yourself and your role?

“In 1988, I joined Luckins as a developer in a newly formed department to look at these exciting things called ‘PCs’. Luckins was already a well-established data provider to the electrical industry and so I joined the business to develop a software offering around the data.

Today, I run Trimble Luckins in the UK.”

How has the industry changed since you started?

“The Luckins that I joined was predominantly a book publishing company that was in the early stages of producing data feeds. Today, we’re a data company that serves MEP wholesalers and contractors with feeds of product and pricing information and we offer manufacturers a valuable route-to-market.

The pace of change around data provision has massively changed over those 36 years; We’ve gone from a weekly printed publication delivered by post, to the Luckins of today which has direct connections plugged into wholesaler ERP systems and a much wider range of contractor software.

Price fluctuations have accelerated massively, and that keeps us very busy because we need to ensure they’re in the various systems before the price effective date, but also the size of the databases has gone up exponentially. What was 20,000 items in 1988 is now over 1.2 million items and it’s our job to ensure that it is accurate and up-to-date for our consumers.”

What’s the biggest challenge facing the electrical industry?

“Of course there is the rise of discount retailers which is posing more threat to traditional wholesalers - these outlets are now offering similar (albeit more basic) facilities combined with flexible opening hours, online ordering and various collection and delivery options – this is bringing big changes that we are now seeing our wholesalers responding to.

The other change alongside that (and this is related more to the data piece), is that products are a lot more complicated now and there’s a lot more choice. Our customers - wholesalers and contractors - are asking us for a deeper level of attributed data so that they or their customers can make more informed choices when specifying or buying. That detail also needs to be easily accessible throughout the product lifecycle, for transparency and safety compliance.”

What are your thoughts on the future of the industry?

“When we look at what trends are impacting the market, we talk about 3 main themes:

Connectivity. At Trimble Luckins, we believe there is still a massive place for traditional wholesalers and it’s not just us, our manufacturer customers are still very committed to the wholesaling chain, rather than selling direct, but we do see a much more connected future. So for us, that is orders coming to the wholesaler by the end-user software of choice such as directly from their estimating system, procurement platform or maintenance/operations software, rather than manually sending things over.

Renewables. We have seen an astronomical rise in the number of renewable energy products coming to the market - listings of these products will continue to grow and our consumers will continue to demand more visibility of sustainability data.

Multi-skilled contractors. The Luckins database has predominantly hosted electrical products but we’re seeing many more complex products that require more than one discipline to install. An example would be water heaters that have both electrical and mechanical elements. Larger contractors have for some years now been multi disciplined, but this trend seems to be reaching down to the mid and smaller size companies now. So will we adapt and ensure the information we provide can continue to be consumed and provide value to as wider audience as possible.”

What is one thing that should be celebrated at Luckins this year?

“At Trimble Luckins, doing the right thing for the electrical industry is paramount. We celebrate best practice and want to promote innovations that are going to move the industry forward. This year, we were the main sponsor of the Electrical Industry Awards. It seemed like a natural opportunity to collaborate with the Electrical Times and spend some time recognising those in the industry with a similar mission.

Sharing expertise and experience is so valuable for everyone in the electrical industry - these forums for recognising achievement help to raise the bar and keep the industry pushing boundaries.”

What’s next for Luckins?

“We are advancing towards a digitally connected future. To enable our customers to access the vast amounts of data we process, our cloud-based solutions now provide data on demand, streamlining the integration process and removing the necessity for local data storage. Simply put, the data remains centralised and can be accessed by connecting various applications. We continue to focus on the entire supply chain with our collaborative approach to ensure optimal information flow throughout the construction industry.”

To find out more about Trimble Luckins, visit LUCKINSlive.com.