Member Spotlight – facilisgroup
History of Facilisgroup Founded in 2006, Facilisgroup was created to address a common challenge faced by promotional product distributors: growth was often limited by disconnected systems, manual workflows, and tools not built for the complexity of the promo industry. Early on, the company focused on developing Syncore, a software platform designed specifically around promotional product order processing workflows. Over time, Facilisgroup evolved beyond software alone, building a framework to combine technology with process standardization to help distributors scale with greater consistency and profitability. In addition to technology, Facilisgroup provides distributors with repeatable operational playbooks and standardized processes designed to simplify onboarding, improve workflow consistency, and support long-term growth. Through its distributor network and community-driven approach, the company also encourages collaboration and shared learning across the industry. PromoStandards’ Impact Before integrating with PromoStandards, distributors using Syncore lacked real-time visibility of supplier inventory and order status updates. Teams relied heavily on manual data entry, supplier follow-ups, and repetitive communication loops to manage purchase orders and track fulfillment progress. As the volume of distributors using Syncore increased, those manual workflows were no longer feasible for most users. Because of this, Facilisgroup saw the much-needed vision of data connectivity for the industry and became one of PromoStandard’s founding members in 2018. Their goal, along with ours, was to help drive greater supplier standardization and improve data connectivity across distributor and supplier systems. With PromoStandards integrated into Syncore, distributors can now access live inventory and real-time order status updates directly within their workflow. Orders are automatically synchronized into supplier processing queues, reducing manual touchpoints and improving speed and accuracy for both distributors and suppliers. For distributors, this visibility can make a significant difference during the sales process. Teams can quickly review available inventory by size, color, or style during the product sourcing phase of an order, helping them make faster decisions and avoid potential fulfillment issues before the order is placed. “As a PromoStandards advisory member, we believe industry collaboration and shared standards are essential to creating a more connected and efficient future for the promotional products industry,” said Facilisgroup. “Standardized data exchange helps improve turnaround times, streamline communication, and create a better experience for distributors, suppliers, and end clients alike.” Become a PromoStandards Member PromoStandards makes it easier for businesses across the promotional products industry to connect, communicate, and exchange information in real time. By reducing reliance on manual processes, companies can save time, improve accuracy, and scale more effectively. With multiple membership levels available, organizations can choose the option that best fits their needs. Join PromoStandards and start building a more connected future for your business.
May – Monthly Newsletter
Connecting the Industry: Inside PromoStandards PromoStandards committees work together to improve how technology, data, and integrations operate across the promotional products industry. Here’s a quick look at what each committee has been working on and what it means for your business. Best Practices Committee: Best Practices focuses on reducing friction in standards adoption so development teams can work faster and more efficiently. Improving Data Consistency: In May, the Best Practices Committee continued to build momentum across supplier adoption, documentation, and member engagement initiatives. The Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) remained a major focus, with updates to the template based on feedback and responses. Read more about the SAQ here! What this means for you: As adoption of the SAQ grows, members will have better visibility into supplier data quality and implementation readiness. More Efforts to Further Validation: The committee also advanced efforts around data validation and compliance, exploring next steps for a validation framework and potential cross‑committee collaboration to support a proof of concept. The committee also continued improving documentation around updates to rate limiting and credential security guidance, as well as ongoing enhancement updates across OSN 2.1 scenarios, XML examples, and core specifications such as Inventory and Invoice best practices. A Better Jumping-Off Point: Looking ahead, the committee made progress on longer‑term initiatives focused on improving the overall member experience. Early work has begun on a centralized FAQ/knowledge base and onboarding materials, to make best practices more accessible and easier to implement. Want to get involved? New workgroups are being discussed, such as early planning for an AI/Automation initiative for Best Practice resources! Please keep an eye out for future updates. Standards Committee: The Standards Committee works diligently to develop, maintain, and continuously improve PromoStandards technical integration specifications that enable accurate, consistent, and efficient data exchange across the promotional products industry. The Standards Committee is preparing for an in-person meeting in June, which will be hosted by HALO. This upcoming session will provide an opportunity for the team to work together in a focused environment and we intend to wrap up several work items during this time. Event Subscription Services: Testing remains in progress for the Event Subscription service. As additional company endpoints and services are tested, the team is working through changes and expanding documentation to address issues and questions as they arise. Once finalized, this will be published to Advisory level members for review and feedback. JSON Web Token Authentication: The committee has finalized its approach for JWT authentication. Supporting documentation and sample source projects have also been created and are planned for inclusion in the release. The change to authorization procedures will be included in the Event Subscription release as well as the new Product Data service. RESTful Standards and Product Data 3.0: Work continues on standard enumerations and how they can be incorporated into an OpenAPI specification while still preserving extensibility. The goal is to create a specification that can be updated easily without disrupting current implementations. Final reviews are underway and the team expects to begin the testing phase soon. What this means for you: Advisory members will soon be able to participate in beta-testing for new Standards. We’re one step closer to 3.0! Membership & Marketing Committee: The Membership & Marketing Committee’s goal is to grow the PromoStandards network and ensuring our members get the latest tech industry updates. Continued Collaboration with PPAI: PromoStandards continues to collaborate with PPAI’s ecosystem. We will appear as an advertiser in the June edition of PPAI’s magazine. This edition will feature the 2026 PPAI 100 list, where many PromoStandards members are likely to be mentioned. While our goals are not identical, we believe PPAI and PromoStandards are on aligned trajectories, driving technology and connection to support the promotional products industry. Check out our ad in the June edition and spread the news on how PromoStandards is driving operational efficiency for promotional product companies. Our members are the driving force of what we do. ASI Chicago Interest form: Still Open! If you missed it last month, please take 30 seconds to Fill Out Our Attendance Form so we can coordinate networking opportunities. Member Spotlights: We are expanding our blog content, starting with a member spotlight of commonsku! We hope to add additional value to PromoStandards membership and foster a stronger community within the industry by increasing the visibility of our members. We will spotlight more members in the future, so if you’re an advisory or adopting member, please keep an eye on your inbox. Ready to Have a Seat at the Table? Help us shape the future of the industry! View the Full List of Committees & Workgroups Here Get Involved: Email admin@promostandards.org to let us know which committee best suits your skills. We would love to have you on board!
Member Spotlight – commonsku
History of commonsku Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Toronto, commonsku is a connected workflow platform designed specifically for branded merchandise distributors. The platform brings together sales, production, supplier collaboration, and financial management into one system with a goal of helping teams work more efficiently. Founders Mark and Catherine Graham previously owned RIGHTSLEEVE (now a division of Genumark,) where they experienced the daily operational challenges of running and scaling a business. To address these challenges, they built their own internal software to manage sales, orders, and workflows. As others in the industry saw the impact of this software, it became clear that the platform had potential far beyond internal use. Mark and Catherine believed it was something the broader distributor community needed, leading them to launch commonsku, with the goal of being a shared platform built on community, collaboration, and commerce. Because commonsku was developed from within an active distributorship, its foundation is closely aligned with how distributors actually work. That perspective guides product development to this day, with the commonsku team collaborating directly with customers through idea submissions, beta programs, and focus groups to ensure every feature solves real-world challenges. PromoStandards’ Impact commonsku has been involved with PromoStandards since its earliest days, participating in the first industry Tech Summit in 2014. From the beginning, the team recognized that solving the industry’s data challenges required a unified, standardized approach. Before PromoStandards integration, distributors using commonsku often relied on phone calls and emails to: Check Pricing Confirm inventory Track orders That friction added up to thousands of unnecessary touchpoints every year — time that could have been spent selling. With PromoStandards, that process has been streamlined. Critical supplier data now flows directly into the commonsku platform in real time. Distributors can access live pricing, current inventory, and up-to-date order status without leaving their workflow. PromoStandards serves as a key foundation for commonsku’s Connected Workflow approach—where seamless, standardized data exchange enables distributors to operate more efficiently and make better decisions, faster. Become a PromoStandards Member PromoStandards makes it easier for businesses across the promotional products industry to connect, communicate, and exchange information in real time. By reducing reliance on manual processes, companies can save time, improve accuracy, and scale more effectively. With multiple membership levels available, organizations can choose the option that best fits their needs. Join PromoStandards and start building a more connected future for your business.
April – Monthly Newsletter
Accelerating Innovation: Inside PromoStandards PromoStandards committees meet with one goal: to standardize the flow of crucial information that makes your business run. Want to have a say in the future of promotional products technology? We encourage all members to participate in the committees or workgroups that align with their expertise. It is the best way to collaborate with industry leaders, gain early access to new tech, and elevate your company’s profile. Read on to discover how this month’s committee updates translate into direct benefits for your team! Best Practices Committee: The goal of Best Practices is simple: reduce the friction of adopting standards so your development team can work faster and smarter. Better Data, Less Troubleshooting: The committee is doubling down on the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) and reviewing a new proof-of-concept for automated data validation. Read more about the SAQ here! What this means for you: Higher compliance and better data quality across the network, saving your team from manual data cleanup and order errors. Clearer Roadmaps for Your Dev Team: We are advancing critical documentation across Order Shipment Notification 2.1.0 scenario best practices, enhanced XML examples, and guidance for Inventory 1.2.1, and Invoice 1.0.0. What this means for you: Clearer, scenario-based guidance that eliminates the guesswork for your developers during implementation. A Smoother Onboarding Experience: The committee’s updated charter and goals were finalized by the Board. They will move forward with developing revamped implementation guidance to complement PromoStandards specifications for improved onboarding and ongoing use. Stay Tuned: With growing interest in this committee, we are exploring new workgroups to give even more members a chance to contribute! Standards Committee: The goal of Standards is simple: Develop, maintain, and continuously improve PromoStandards technical integration specifications that enable accurate, consistent, and efficient data exchange across the promotional products industry. Coming off the excitement of Tech Summit, the Standards Committee is excited to welcome new perspectives. Sheldon Humber (FDM4), Hector Rivas (SanMar), and Ana Hanna (Cimpress) have been added to the Standards team! REST Services Are Coming: Our new credentialing process is fully defined. We’ll be hosting a live demo at our next meeting to show exactly how it works. What this means for you: We are one step closer to our first REST service release, paving the way for lighter, faster, and more modern API integrations. Real-Time Updates via Webhooks: We are nearing the finish line on beta testing for our Event Subscriptions service (Webhooks) with six member companies. This means there will be no more constant server polling. Soon, your systems will be able to receive automatic, real-time updates when an event occurs, dramatically reducing server load and costs. Future-Proofing Product Data: Work on Product Data 3.0 continues. By defining soft enumerations and restructuring the data model now, we are laying vital groundwork. What this means for you: Future enhancements and custom data requirements will be infinitely easier to support without breaking your existing setups. Membership & Marketing Committee: The Membership & Marketing Committee is focused on growing the PromoStandards network and ensuring our members get the latest tech industry updates. The Industry & PPAI: After seeing incredible networking and visibility success at The PPAI EXPO, we are planning an even larger presence next year. What this means for you: More opportunities to network with potential partners and associate with industry innovation. Are You Heading to ASI Chicago? We want to connect with you! Please take 30 seconds to Fill Out Our Attendance Form so we can coordinate networking opportunities. Community in Tech: We are revamping our Member Spotlights series! If you are an Advisory or Adopting member, keep a close eye on your inbox—you may be selected for a dedicated feature in our community communications. Video Content: Have you seen our short-form video content yet? Be sure to follow the official PromoStandards social media channels to catch our latest interviews and highlights, and engage with the content to boost your own social visibility! Ready to Have a Seat at the Table? Help us shape the future of the industry! View the Full List of Committees & Workgroups Here Get Involved: Email admin@promostandards.org to let us know which committee best suits your skills. We would love to have you on board!
Committee Updates – February 2026
PromoStandards committees meet each month to advance initiatives that support the continued improvement and adoption of our standards. Members are encouraged to participate in committees or workgroups that align with their interests and expertise, providing valuable opportunities for collaboration and leadership within the community. Read the updates from February 2026 below. Best Practices Committee February marked an important milestone for the PromoStandards Best Practices Committee. At the 2026 PromoStandards Tech Summit, the committee shared updates on ongoing Best Practices efforts and formally introduced the PromoStandards Supplier Self‑Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ)—a new initiative designed to strengthen integration quality and transparency across the PromoStandards ecosystem. The SAQ provides Suppliers with a structured way to evaluate and clearly communicate the quality, consistency, and maturity of their PromoStandards implementations. By aligning against published specifications and best practices, Suppliers can identify gaps, track incremental improvements over time, and give integration partners greater confidence when working together. Broad participation in the SAQ is a key step toward improving overall data quality and strengthening integrations industry‑wide.The SAQ is now live and available to all Suppliers. We strongly encourage Suppliers to complete the questionnaire thoughtfully and to the best of their ability. To support adoption, the following resources are available: The SAQ template for download and completion Instructions and guidance for uploading completed SAQs to the PromoStandards website Sample completed SAQs from Koozie Group, SanMar, and SnugZ USA, available on the PromoStandards site for reference Members can learn more about the SAQ, its purpose, and how to get started by reading the official blog post: Introducing the Supplier Self‑Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) As always, members with questions are encouraged to reach out via Slack or the #best‑practices channel, where committee members are happy to help. Thank you for your continued engagement and support as we work together to raise the bar for PromoStandards adoption and integration quality across the community.
PPAI Expo Vegas 2026
PromoStandards attended PPAI Expo as an exhibitor for the first time in January 2026. In addition to having a prize wheel with awards such as gift cards and free drink passes, we had many conversations with both current prospective members of the organization. Lots of attendees stopped to tell us that they had heard of PromoStandards, but wanted to know more. We believe the community engagement was beneficial for all parties involved, and look forward to attending more events in the future. We were also proud to sponsor the Tech Meetup happy hour at Promo & Pints on Wednseday, which brought a wide variety of new and familiar faces together. We would like to thank PPAI for the opportunity to be sponsors and engage further with the Promotional Products Industry! Watch our interview with Marco from Essent! More interviews and videos coming soon. https://youtu.be/73OIraP3kewhttps://youtu.be/ZIPx1SfLXgY
Tech Summit 2026 People of The Year
As part of PromoStandards annual tradition at Tech Summit, we were proud to announce those selected by our members as standouts in the industry throughout 2025. Each winner is nominated based on the type of company they work for, being a Supplier, Distributor, or, Service Provider. Our Supplier of the Year winner was Ajay Kaul, IT Operations Leader at SanMar. Ajay is a long standing member of PromoStandards, and head of the Best Practices Committee. The Distributor of the Year was Allen Casey, Senior Manager of Integrations and Automation at HALO. Allen is a member of our Standards Committee. Last, but certainly not least, was our Service Provider of the Year, David Shultz, CPO at commonsku. David has been an outspoken advocate of PromoStandards for many years and has become known for creating engaging music and video content for the PromoStandards community. We would like to once again thank each of them for being outstanding members of the organization, and congratulate them as our People of The Year!
Introducing the Supplier Self Assessment Questionnaire
At Tech Summit 2026, the Best Practices Committee introduced the Supplier Self‑Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ). The SAQ helps Suppliers evaluate and communicate the strength of their PromoStandards implementations. It provides integration partners with greater transparency while helping suppliers identify areas for improvement over time.We encourage all Suppliers to complete the SAQ. Strong participation improves data quality and strengthens integrations across the ecosystem. Below you will find:The SAQ template for download and completionAn instructional video for uploading your completed SAQ to the PromoStandards website We recommend using Adobe Acrobat Reader to fill out your SAQ using the “Fill & Sign” option. If you have any questions while completing the SAQ, please feel free to reach out to Ajay Kaul via slack or email marketing@promostandards.org, and we will be happy to put you in contact with one of our best practices committee members for assistance. Download the Template
Website Update – Member Exclusive Tools & Upcoming Demonstration
Hello PromoStandards Community, We are excited to share that we have updated our website! 🔹 Member Exclusive Benefits: Tools such as documentation, best practices, and the validator have always been member exclusive benefits. With our old site we were not able to fully implement this benefit, but with our new site it is now in place. 🔹 For Non-Members: Access remains limited to the Service Provider Directory and Endpoints. Please make sure you are advising your customers accordingly when it comes to available resources. There will be a a Website Demonstration during the September PromoStandards Office Hours Session. 📅 Date: September 16, 2025⏰ Time: 2 PM EST📍 Where: Zoom (link will be sent upon registration) 👉 Click here to register This session is open to both members and non-members, so please feel free to share with your teams. If you missed the session, please keep an eye out for resources to be posted or linked here.
S&S Activewear Completes Acquisition of alphabroder
S&S Activewear, a tech-enabled specialtydistributor of apparel and accessories, today announced that it has completed itsacquisition of alphabroder, a leading distributor of trade, retail, apparel brands andbranded products. Completion of the transaction enables S&S and alphabroder tocommence a thoughtful, multi-year integration process designed to ensure thecombined company continues to deliver exceptional customer service, whileleveraging the strengths of both brand offerings. S&S Activewear CEO Frank Myers will continue to lead the combined company, withsupport from alphabroder CEO Dan Pantano through the integration process. Fornow, S&S and alphabroder continue to go to market under their respective brandofferings backed by their existing distribution channels. “Today marks the start of an exciting new chapter for our company, as we build onthe unique strengths of S&S and alphabroder to enhance the customer experience,strengthen our relationships with our industry partners and continue to invest ingrowing our sales force and technology capabilities,” said Frank Myers, CEO of S&SActivewear. “Over the past few months, we have had valuable discussions with ourcustomers and vendors that will inform the strategic direction of our company andensure S&S is best positioned to deliver for our partners into the future. As we workto bring this combination to life, our top priority is ensuring our employees,customers and vendors continue to succeed alongside S&S.”“We are pleased to officially join with S&S and kick off the integration process,” saidDan Pantano, alphabroder CEO. “Together, we are focused on building on ourbusiness momentum while continuing to exceed the expectations of our customersand our partners as we begin our next phase of growth as a combined company.” S&S Activewear Remains a Member of PromoStandards About S&S ActivewearFounded in 1988 and headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois, S&S Activewear is aleading technology-enabled distributor of apparel and accessories in the UnitedStates and Canada. S&S offers more than 80 brands, including basic garments tofashion-forward styles, with over 4 million square feet of warehouse space acrossNorth America. S&S services a broad range of customers through its nationwidenetwork, including retail brands, e-commerce companies, garment decorators,promotional products distributors, entertainment merchandisers, lifestyle brandsand web-based platforms for apparel customization PromoStandards’ Impact “PromoStandards has contributed greatly to standardizing integration conversations with our customers. It’s removed much of the discovery phase and allowed us to get straight into implementation,” said Aaron Anderson, Sr. Director of Software Engineering at alphabroder/S&S. Become a PromoStandards Member! At PromoStandards, we understand streamlining product development and management is necessary to keep up with growing demands and a complicated supply chain. That’s why our standards are free for anyone who needs to use them. We also offer resources for our members, helping them to create even more positive change for their businesses. Members can join events, chat with the entire PromoStandards community through our Slack channel, have full access to our directory of service providers, and more. To get started, join one of our membership levels today! Read More
