BETHESDA, MD - March 5, 2007 – For over 80 years, the Manual of Labor Units published by the National Electrical Contractors Assn. (NECA) has been the industry standard for electrical construction estimators and project managers. Beginning this summer, MLU data on the labor required to install thousands of different electrical material items will be available as a real-time database feed through Trade Service, the industry’s leading data provider on materials. This feed will make MLU data available electronically for use within various bidding and estimating systems and software.

One delivery method will allow users of Trade Service’s popular price and product updating software, TRA-SER® Premier, to automatically import the labor units directly from TRA-SER into their estimating or accounting database, along with pricing data. Trade Service will match the labor units to specific items within TRA-SER so this data can be easily imported to the contractor’s business system database. Trade Service is also working closely with the industry’s business system providers to enable this new export / import functionality by June 2007.

“This could revolutionize how bids and change orders are created,” said Dan Walter, NECA Vice President and COO. “It makes materials and labor information available from the same source at the same time – a first for our industry.”

“The new partnership represents a tremendous savings for business software providers, who, in the past, have had to enter the labor units manually as the MLU has been updated every two years,” said Stuart Binstock, Executive Director, NECA’s Management Education Institute.

Tod Moore, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Trade Service adds, “We see this as a great opportunity to support NECA and the electrical industry, while at the same time incorporate a significant new use model to one of our products.”

The MLU will continue to be available in print and CD, and soon, with its improved functionality through Trade Service. NECA has negotiated a $750 member discount on the TRA-SER Premier software to facilitate members’ access to this new technology.

About NECA
NECA is the voice of the $100 billion industry responsible for bringing lighting, power, and communications to buildings and communities across the United States. NECA’s national office and 119 local chapters advance the electrical contracting industry through advocacy, education, research, and standards development. NECA celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2001. For more information, visit www.necanet.org

About Trade Service
Trade Service is the leading provider of standardized product and price information to the electrical, plumbing/PVF, HVACR, industrial MRO and office products industries. Since 1931, the company has been the leader in content acquisition, aggregation, management, publishing, and distribution, offering a variety of products, services, and systems to meet the content needs of over 18,000 contractors, distributors, institutions, and government agencies. The range of solutions provided includes printed directories, electronic catalogs, pricing data for business system updating, and robust attributed content to fuel full-functioning Internet storefronts. For more information, visit www.tradeservice.com or call 800-854-1527.

Contact
Beth Margulies, Director, Public Relations
NECA
301-215-4526
beth.margulies@necanet.org