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Monday
April 22, 2013 Experience the New ESP WebFiled under: Member Benefits, News About ASI, Using Ad Specialties To triumph in today’s supersonic business world, technology must pass a pretty stiff litmus test for speed, ease and intelligence. With that, I say welcome to the new ESP Web® experience. ASI’s world-class technology is taking a big step forward with a major upgrade that will help distributors increase sales and power up productivity. The best part? It’s already live for all users of ESP. And there’s no fee for the upgrade. Current ESP Web subscribers are automatically upgraded. Check it out, and if you have any questions, click here for tutorials and more. From the start, our goal with this upgrade was to make ESP® even more of an online business partner – a partner that intuitively knows what you want and helps you get it, as quickly and easily as possible. So we made it as close to a real-world Google experience as possible – with performance speeds on numerous features increasing a whopping 60%. Put these simple, intuitive tools to work for you to search and source products faster than ever before. ASI’s technology and user experience teams worked for over a year on design and implementation of the new ESP Web, incorporating critical feedback from numerous industry focus groups in order to transform the ESP experience. The hottest new ESP Web features include:
If you’re not already a believer, please demo the new ESP Web at our upcoming ASI Shows® in New York City (Wednesday, May 8 and Thursday, May 9) and Chicago (Tuesday, July 16 through Thursday, July 18). And if ESP has made a difference in the way you do business, I want to know. Please post a comment or e-mail me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Friday
February 17, 2012 ASI Leads The WayFiled under: Member Benefits, News About ASI As the New York Giants can surely attest to, it’s great to be No. 1. So it gives me great pleasure to announce that ASI now leads the industry in the critical areas most important to its 27,000 clients, including No. 1 rankings in ESP users, show attendance and magazine circulation. ESP now has a record 46,000 users, up 12% from the last year. In addition, ESP – the most powerful software in the industry – generated an unprecedented number of product and supplier searches (29 million), end-buyer presentations created (1.35 million) and supplier ratings (36,000) in 2011. At the same time, the economy is turning the corner – the government announced this week that U.S. jobless claims are the lowest since 2008 – and our industry has reported growth in the last eight quarters. It seems fitting that ASI, the largest full-service organization serving suppliers and distributors in the business, is helping lead the way for our industry, scoring record results while providing the most technologically advanced tools available, year after year. In addition to record-breaking numbers for ESP, ASI leads the industry in eight key areas:
At the end of the day, it all comes down to this: Providing you with the critical products and services needed to succeed in what’s now an $18.5 billion industry. Our mission is to make you more successful. When that happens, the whole industry succeeds. And that’s the best game-winning touchdown I can imagine.
Friday
February 3, 2012 Super Bowl Means Super SalesFiled under: ASI Shows, Member Benefits, Using Ad Specialties No matter which team scores the Super Bowl trophy, ASI member companies printing T-shirts, jackets and other sports-related memorabilia will be big winners this weekend. Hundreds of ad specialty companies are sure to work into the wee hours Sunday into Monday to get Super Bowl items to eager sports fans. We spoke to Jay Meyer, president of Blue Dolphin Screen Print & Embroidery (asi/141732) of New Hampshire, which is one of the companies working tons of OT this weekend to keep sports fans happy. If the New England Patriots win in the big game against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, Blue Dolphin expects to print at least 25,000 shirts overnight in the initial order. “The big sports stores start showing up around 3 a.m. because they want to have the apparel ready in the morning when they open,” Meyer told us. “If it’s really doing well, they’ll reorder, probably another 5,000. Last week after the AFC championship, we printed 7,000 shirts.” Over 40 employees will work on the initial order, starting by the game’s third quarter. Printing starts as soon as the game finishes. And even if the hometown team fails to take home the title, Meyer said Blue Dolphin still expects to print at least 9,000 Giants shirts. We’ll be back from the ASI Show in Dallas – where Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wowed the crowd this morning with business and social media tips – and I can’t wait to see the newest commercials along with Madonna’s half-time performance. And the game of course! Who’s your Super Bowl pick? Let me know by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedInand YouTube.
Tuesday
January 17, 2012 ESP Mobile Is HereFiled under: ASI Shows, Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, News About ASI, Using Ad Specialties Drumroll, please. You can now download the free iPhone app from the Apple App store, free with your ESP subscription. For a video with all the reasons why this should be your No. 1 app, click here. Any iPhone user can download the app today directly from iTunes here. ASI’s development team has automatically applied an ESP Mobile license to all members with a current license to ESP Web. These members simply download the app from the Apple App Store and enter the same log-in credentials as ESP Web. That’s all it takes. Users who only have a license to ESP Online will need to get set up through Product Support – in a process that takes about the same time it takes to fix yourself a cup of coffee. If you have any questions, please contact ASI Product Support at 800-546-1350 (press option #2). If you’re on site with us in Orlando and have any questions about ESP Mobile, come speak to our Product Support team at the ASI Booth. To download ESP Mobile from the App Store, follow these few simple steps: 1. Visit the Apple App Store on your mobile device. 2. Search for “ESP Mobile.” 3. Download the free app. 4. Once the download is complete, tap the app icon to start up the app. 5. Enter your credentials. 6. Kick back and enjoy everything this new app has to offer. Why get ESP Mobile? Check it out:
Suppliers interested in advertising in ESP Mobile should contact their ASI rep or contact Gene Rahill at grahill@asicentral.com and Suzanne Izzo at sizzo@asicentral.com. Try it and let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Monday
December 12, 2011 Marching Toward Success with ASIFiled under: Community, Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, Members, News About ASI ASI’s ongoing commitment to advanced technology is moving two giant steps forward with the launch of two new initiatives: ASI SmartSales for distributors and ASI SalesPro for suppliers. Designed specifically for this industry – in cooperation with tech giant Oracle – ASI SmartSales and ASI SalesPro represent the next generation of sales tools for industry professionals. We spent a year on R&D, and millions of dollars, to ensure our members possess the most technologically advanced sales arsenal available. Now, it’s your time. Using ASI SmartSales, distributors will have a complete contact and lead management system to help them close more business and provide accurate forecasting. Every individual salesperson in an organization will be able to easily send out personalized e-mail campaigns with tracking and analytics. Managers will be able to track the sales pipeline and forecasts. But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what user Lisa Marks, president of On Your Marks, had to say: “Organizing customer contact information is key to a profitable distributorship. SmartSales is helping me organize my marketing and my time for the first time in many years. The fact that it’s cloud-based means our entire team has access day or night. I’ve looked for a perfect solution to help me manage all our communication for a long time, and this is the best. I’m so grateful to ASI for teaming up with Oracle to provide this very powerful, cost-effective tool.” ASI SalesPro offers suppliers a sophisticated sales tool dedicated to sales management, marketing campaigns and revenue-generating capabilities. With SalesPro, every single salesperson becomes a marketing machine, with the added bonus of superior tracking and analytics. The plug-and-play business platforms integrate Oracle’s cloud-based technologies with the appropriate ASI products to create a unique, highly secure platform consisting of a hybrid implementation of cloud and locally hosted software and databases. Distributors with ESP who are interested in ASI SmartSales should e-mail asismartsales@asicentral.com or click here (Password: Own The Customer). Members who want to sign up for ESP and ASI SmartSales should call their ASI account executive at 800-546-1350. Suppliers interested in subscribing to ASI SalesPro should e-mail salespro@asicentral.com or call 800-546-1226. For a video demo, click here. These new tools are intelligent, powerful, efficient – and easy to use, since we build everything at ASI with one person in mind: you. If you have any questions, please call your sales rep today. And let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here.
Thursday
August 11, 2011 Brave New World for Sales ProsFiled under: Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, News About ASI, Research ASI took another giant step forward this week with an announcement about our upcoming launch of ASI SalesPro for suppliers. Powered by Oracle exclusively for the ad specialty industry, our latest sales and marketing tool will help suppliers close more sales and increase profits. We’ve spent a year developing ASI SalesPro and committed millions. It’s money well spent. The plug-and-play business platform will integrate Oracle’s cloud-based technologies with all of ASI’s products to create a unique, highly secure platform. ASI SalesPro will feature:
To be the first to receive ASI SalesPro when it becomes available sometime in the fourth quarter, e-mail salespro@asicentral.com or call 800-546-1226. For a video demo, click here. Receive ASI’s new CRM complimentary as part of your CreditConnect Prospect Hunter subscription, or as a stand-alone product. If you want more information, click here to read our press release. And stay tuned for launch details on SalesPro and the upcoming launch of ASI SmartSales – a customized Oracle-powered technology platform designed exclusively for distributors and decorators. If you’ve seen the demo of either SalesPro or SmartSales, let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Wednesday
July 20, 2011 Windy City Kickoff for ASI SmartSalesFiled under: ASI Shows, Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, News About ASI, Research, Using Ad Specialties ASI chose its Chicago show – the biggest industry event of summer – to offer a sneak peek of its biggest technology investment in years: ASI SmartSales™ . The Oracle-powered tech platform is a customized solution for maximizing sales and revenue opportunities. Click here to watch the SmartSales video for yourself. Read the press release we dropped to the industry here. ASI spent millions researching and developing SmartSales, a high-tech sales and marketing tool to help distributors and decorators close more sales and increase profits with modules dedicated to sales management, marketing campaigns and revenue-generating capabilities. ASI expects the rollout of the new service to begin in the fourth quarter. Expect an announcement shortly about an upcoming customized Oracle-powered technology platform designed exclusively for suppliers. We paid a lot of attention to the security aspect of this new business platform, leveraging Oracle’s cloud-based technologies with all of ASI’s products to create a unique, highly secure platform consisting of a hybrid implementation of cloud and locally hosted software and databases. The new technology will include the core ASI services vital to members’ success, allowing them to access ESP for comprehensive product sourcing from 3,400 suppliers; ASI ProfitMaker, which provides ERP and financial management capabilities; ASI LogoMall; their own company websites; exclusive ASI research; and the latest professional development resources available for BASI/MASI certification. ASI distributors with ESP who are interested in being the first to receive ASI SmartSales when it becomes available should e-mail smartsales@asicentral.com or visit www.asicentral.com/smartsales. Members who want to sign up for ESP and ASI SmartSales should call their ASI account executive at 800-546-1350. The video demos were just one of the many highlights at ASI Chicago, which takes place through Thursday at McCormick Place convention complex. If you’re at the show, I hope you’re enjoying yourself. If you had a chance to see the video, let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. |
