Change Happens. We’re Here to Help. – Letter From the Chair
The certainty of change is an immutable truth. PromoStandards Chair Eric Alessi is well acquainted with change and the digital landscape’s struggle to keep pace. Today’s efficiency is tomorrow’s inefficiency. But we cannot place the blame on change. Inefficiency’s root cause lies in unadaptable infrastructure, limiting functionality and our potential growth. Consistent efficiency requires a fundamentally adaptable foundation to endure continuous change. Finding Opportunity in the Chaos As business leaders and consumers, our primary goal is success. For the custom products industry, success withers due to industry-legacy and proprietary management systems spurring the inefficiency responsible for disruptions. To maximize success, we must implement adjustable infrastructures complementing an evolving industry and individual business needs. Resilient digital business protocol and technology adoption spawns opportunity from the chaos of disruption, the opportunity for unbroken transformation preserving business efficiency. Never let an opportunity pass you by! At PromoStandards, we exploit disruption to develop communication protocols for reliably efficient digital integration and interoperability. The COVID Wake-up Call In 2020, the world experienced the rapid spread of COVID and the violent halt of daily life and operations. With alarming swiftness, the virus’s devastating impact exposed severe supply chain inefficiencies. The world suffered the consequences of substandard communication protocols ingrained in each phase of the supply chain process: The unpredictability of COVID and compromised business supply chain management unleashed a cascade of punishing blows across industries within each economic sector. PromoStandards During COVID & Beyond As businesses struggled with disjointed buyer-seller communication and an unreliable supply chain throughout the pandemic, PromoStandards helped trading partners with its Inventory Availability standard, providing a way to instantly communicate inventory levels in real-time. Since our inception in 2015, PromoStandards has been developing and delivering open standards, setting the foundation for process automation. Our protocols for the procure-to-pay lifecycle start with Inventory Availability before you ever place an order, conclude with Invoicing, and include standards for each step in between. But progress never sleeps! We continuously refine existing standards and develop new ones, combating the effects of change with proactive digital transformation. Let’s Face Change Together PromoStandards is leading the industry’s digital transformation. Confronting a challenge is considerably more approachable when you don’t have to do it alone. By adopting our standards, businesses learn to speak the same language, forming a harmonious industry network of adaptable infrastructures. Change happens. It’s impossible to dodge its demanding influence. To stand the test of time, we must accept change entirely and embrace the opportunity for progress with absolute certainty. Join the PromoStandards community to utilize our members-only resources that optimize the benefits of our open standards. Together, sustainable success is possible!
An Exciting Ride – Letter From the Chair
The inaugural Tech Summit was epic! It was casual yet professional, with a fantastic party-like feeling. You know the kind of party you look forward to months in advance and get excited just at the thought of it? That was the reality for many in attendance. For years, PromoStandards Chair Eric Alessi envisioned a time when industry visionaries and practitioners would talk shop, plan, and commit to getting things done. The Tech Summit had this in spades. A Note From Jon Norris Jon Norris, the PromoStandards Immediate Past Chair, said it best. “What happens when you assemble a cross-section of industry leaders, tech leaders, and pure technologists in the same room for three days? An incredible passion for collaboration to solve the industry’s pain points.” We Get a Lot Done Getting things done is the whole vibe of PromoStandards. If we had a motto, “Get ‘er done!” would probably be it. We were at the Tech Summit to discuss issues, solve problems, and talk about the future, all for the mutual benefit of the entire industry. During the event, Alessi recapped 2022 and presented the 2023 roadmap built on the vision and hard work of PromoStandard volunteers. Not only did we get a lot done, but we also have a lot more in store. It’s continuing to be an exciting ride. Join the PromoStandards Community Another Tech Summit is planned for February 2024. If you’re passionate about this industry and recognize the power of digital transformation, this trip is for you. Come along for the ride! To become a member and join the PromoStandards community, sign up today!
PromoStandards Is the Place – Letter From the Chair
At the end of February, PromoStandards held its inaugural Tech Summit in Tampa, FL. The event was designed from the ground up to be laser-focused on the integration needs of the industry. Not surprisingly, it was truly incredible. PromoStandards Chair Eric Alessi was honored to open the event and share his thoughts. Digital Transformation There was a time well after the automobile, electricity, and the telephone were invented when people were still driving a horse-and-buggy to their candle-lit homes. Now we see electric cars that can drive themselves. From integration to AI and data privacy to cybersecurity, the entire landscape is eroding and evolving; by extension, so do our businesses. We’re seeing how technology can transform an industry, marketplace, business, and even users. Digital transformation goes by many names: business process automation, electronic data interchange, systems integration, digital integration, and digital enablement. Technology is transforming everything. Today, people walk around with a mobile computer in their pocket, connected to the Internet through high-speed, wireless, and digital communication, the core concept of which was invented in 1876. Data is at the heart of everything we do, and it’s growing for businesses and individuals alike. This digital matter builds industries, societies, and the world. Businesses are waking up to the inadequacies of the old ways of doing business and looking to transform to meet the digital realities of today. There are inefficiencies in the supply chain, and individuals have the capability to make their personal supply chain efficient. Automated data processing is the number one goal. Untouched by humans, it’s managed and leveraged, providing amazing results. Our Solution The promotional products industry is unique in many ways, and mainstream solutions didn’t quite fit. The standards for the retail supply chain don’t work for us, and for a long time, many in the industry couldn’t see how we could get there. The industry wasn’t ready, even just 10 years ago. That all started to change with the founding of PromoStandards. We openly shared a vision of optimizing our supply chain and transforming it through open standards and digital integration. It takes us coming together as a community to develop and adopt open standards. Every member of PromoStandards and every adopter proves what’s possible for our industry. We see the potential in integrating and automating the process, eliminating the labor, errors, and time required to complete the order lifecycle. The PromoStandards Community Technologists and business leaders have a place to come together as a community to learn, discuss, and build the future. In this place, they develop state-of-the-art standards and work to understand the technological needs of the industry in an open and organized manner. This place is PromoStandards. Every member of PromoStandards strives to make their businesses more efficient and their internal and external customers happier by leveraging technology. PromoStandards knows what they’re doing is right. Join PromoStandards Today! Know what is going on with your supply chain by attending our educational events and renewing or becoming a member today! You can also stay up-to-date with the latest news from PromoStandards by following us on social media on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Promo Technology Month – Letter From the Chair
Did you know that February is technology month; who knew? The month contains many days dedicated to technology, including: February is also nationally observed as Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) Month! As we make our way into February, PromoStandards Chair Eric Alessi felt it was only appropriate to recognize the significance FOSS Month holds for PromoStandards and our technology-driven world. February & Open-Source Software Starting in 2017, the National Day Calendar has recognized February as FOSS Month to recognize the cooperative approach to computer programming, open licensing, and free distribution of software. Now, that’s something to get excited about! Free and Open-Source Software provides publicly available code for users and contributors, allowing users to alter the code, such as: The collaborative development of varying independent sources has proven to be much more effective than any single company in creating and sustaining a diverse range of design perspectives. Open-Source Software is more important than many people realize. Open-Software Solutions do not have borders. They significantly improve the world as they are significant resources for global institutions like: FOSS & Promo Technology The FOSS benefits are undeniable for many and highly relevant to the PromoStandards mission: “To leverage the Open-Source Initiative so we can provide the fundamental processes, protocols, and education necessary to make custom product industries more efficient.” For information on the Open-Source Initiative, please visit https://opensource.org/. Continuing A Tradition February has always been a special month for PromoStandards. In our early days, our founders met every February in Tampa. The purpose of this annual trip was to collaborate in person to develop the standards—the respite from the frigid February winter up North was also enjoyable. This year, we are continuing that tradition. We are genuinely excited to have the time to reconnect as experts in custom products industries and passionate providers of accessible computer programming standards. The PromoStandards Tech Summit PromoStandards has been busy innovating, and we have a lot to announce as we embrace February as our very own Promo Technology Month. As we continue to empower the industry through Open-Source Software, we are also hosting our PromoStandards Tech Summit from February 19 to February 21 in Tampa! It may be wintertime and cold for most of North America, but as far as promo technology goes, it’s hot. Here’s to the PromoStandards Tech Summit and Promo Technology Month!
