PromoStandards standardized the transfer of vital information to move transactions forward. This clearly works for the promotional products industry. The question is: does it also work for print?
In short, the answer is yes! This success story comes from Brand Chain (formerly the Print Services and Distribution Association, or PSDA), a network of professionals dedicated to providing print, marketing, and business communications solutions for distributors.
Continue reading to learn how Brand Chain discovered PromoStandards and how the print industry benefits from implementing these standards!
The Print Industry Before PromoStandards
Knowing how to communicate customer needs quickly and accurately for vendors to produce and deliver them on time is a challenge that’s existed since businesses started.
Poorly formed purchase orders cost money. In the promotional products industry, this adds up to millions of dollars annually. Plus, these waste time and create giant headaches for end users.
Orders could be:
- incomplete and missing information, such as the imprint location, imprint method, or the shipping or billing address.
- vague with typos, lack of specificity, or missing some of the correct info, like a digit in the SKU.
- missing the form entirely.
In these instances, someone needs to take the time to fill in these blanks.
Brand Chain Joined PromoStandards
Andrew Alford, the President of Brand Chain, realized the importance of integration. By engaging in trading partner integration, Brand Chain was able to become closer to its partners, give real-time access to where orders are in the fulfillment cycle, and make informed decisions that can encourage customers throughout the buying process.
Brand Chain joined PromoStandards as an Advisory Member and formed a Technology Committee. This committee, which includes several other PromoStandards members, maps out significant integration needs for print distributors and suppliers.
How PromoStandards Helps the Print Industry
The print and promotional products industries are very similar, with overlapping markets, suppliers, and distributors. Both industries customize products, and removing friction from the supply chain is a high priority.
“Print and promo are sister industries that share customers and have a very similar workflow,” said Eric Alessi, Chairman of PromoStandards. “Leaders in both industries are looking for the same thing, which is the ability to conduct custom product sales as efficiently as possible. Solving integration for print is a natural fit and extension of solving integration for the promotional products industry.”
As such, the open-source standards by PromoStandards provide benefits in trading partner integration for both industries.
- These streamline the buying process by displaying accurate pricing and availability information and allowing the buyer to choose how to customize the product.
- These save time and labor by reducing the number of phone calls and emails to ask about inventory, the status of an order, and more.
- These make customers happier by having a smooth line of communication between distributors, suppliers, and manufacturers.
Join PromoStandards Today!
You too can easily share information to move transactions forward! Endpoints for Inventory, Invoices, Media, Order Status, Product Compliance, Product Configuration, Product Data, Purchase Orders, and Ship Notices are available. To get started, simply join PromoStandards to access all the info you need!
