ASI’s New Product Data Platform Transforming Promo Products Industry

The Advertising Specialty Institute® (ASI) announced the successful migration of 3,200 suppliers’ data into its newly enhanced product database, ESP Updates, which hosts over 950,000 products and feeds directly into ESP® – the industry’s No. 1 product sourcing tool.

Further, ASI announced the direct connection between ESP and top suppliers, The Magnet Group (asi/68507), Color FX Inc. (asi/55520) and Power Sales & Advertising (asi/79083) – the first of many suppliers connecting to the ESP database. With direct connect, updates that once took up to 24 hours now occur in under five minutes. And, suppliers with databases directly linked to ESP Updates no longer have to log in to ASI – as soon product updates are made in their system, they are automatically updated in ESP.

Thanks to APIs, or application programming interfaces, suppliers can now be directly linked to ASI’s ESP, allowing suppliers to update time-sensitive product information like SKU level pricing and inventory in real time. By not requiring developers to share all of their software’s code, and by being able to sign into many apps and websites using one ID, users save time and resources.

“Direct connect is the single most dramatic advancement the promotional products industry has seen in decades,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. “Our product data platform is moving this industry forward and transforming the way distributors search, find and quote products to their customers. As more and more top suppliers come on board, linking their databases directly to ASI’s ESP, distributors will have latest product info and maximum product detail on tens of thousands of products in minutes.”

By making quick, vital data sharing and communication available across the entire industry, the end-to-end workflow – from product inputting to price quoting and inventory to order processing – becomes straightforward and uncomplicated. ASI now offers users the most flexible, complete, modern database in the history of the advertising specialty industry.

“ASI’s new API allows us to bring new products to market and update pricing electronically and instantaneously – as compared to weeks of manual entry and review,” said Magnet’s Chief Technology Officer Rene Whitcraft. “In addition, the API is comprehensive and robust, which will allow us to take the next integration step – electronically receiving and processing orders received through ESP. By improving the accuracy of the product data found on ESP and shortening the order-to-delivery time through automated order processing, ASI’s API will make buying from The Magnet Group a painless and satisfying experience for our customers.”

For distributors, direct connect means more product, shipping and pricing information, when and how they want it, with faster, easier order management, making businesses more efficient and orders placed with more confidence and fewer questions.

For suppliers, it means a seamless, time-saving system that allows for updating the latest product info and pricing in minutes, and in bulk. Just by choosing the type of product they’re entering, ESP automatically defaults to values for easy inputting. Plus, suppliers can work from templates instead of manually entering every detail themselves.

Soon, distributors will enjoy direct access to one terabyte of continuously updated product data, with over 12 million price points, 2.5 million product images, 450,000 virtual sample-ready images and 29 million product attributes from 3,200 suppliers.

For questions, please contact Sharon Pullins, ASI’s manager of API and import development, ESP information, at spullins@asicentral.com.

About ASI
The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) is the largest media, marketing and education organization serving the promotional products industry, with a network of over 25,000 distributors and suppliers throughout North America. ASI leads the industry in technology solutions, providing cloud-based e-commerce, enterprise resource planning software (ERP) and customer relationship management software (CRM). ESP Web® is the industry’s leading tool for sourcing hundreds of thousands of products. A family-owned business since 1962, ASI also provides online research, marketing, advertising opportunities, trade shows, education, award-winning magazines, newsletters, custom websites and catalogs to help members sell, market and promote their brands. Learn more at www.asicentral.com and on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and the CEO’s blog.