PromoStandards facilitates the development and adoption of technology standards and oversees these standards for businesses and nonprofit organizations worldwide. When in place, these standards allow suppliers, distributors, and decorators to automatically send and receive information in real time, effectively scaling business transactions. This month, we’re highlighting PromoStandards member alphabroder, a leading supplier of imprintable apparel and accessories. Here, you’ll learn about alphabroder and how adopting PromoStandards integration helped move their transactions forward. alphabroder Founded in 1919 and headquartered in Trevose, Pennsylvania, alphabroder carries over 6,500 styles from 60+ brands of classic and trending products. The company, formally known as Broder Bros., Co., offers a wide range of items, including t-shirts, drinkware, bags, journals, and more. Their customer base consists of promotional product distributors, athletic team dealers, screen printers, embroiderers, online retailers, and thousands of other businesses. PromoStandards’ Impact Prior to integrating PromoStandards, alphabroder had a suite of custom APIs and feeds that customers would integrate. While this generally worked well, educating customers on how to use these mechanisms was a persistent challenge. Additionally, there was no standard language for discussing decoration orders, decoration setup parameters, and available decoration options. PromoStandards has proven helpful for alphabroder. Customers already have a good idea of what’s involved regarding PromoStandards integrations, which means fewer back-and-forth conversations about what APIs mean and where to obtain certain data. As a result, integrations are completed much faster. In some cases, customers already have their PromoStandards integration set up! “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. 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!

PromoStandards is a community, and those who become members have access to important information and proven service providers. In this member spotlight, we’ll cover Geiger, the world’s largest privately held and family-owned promotional products distributor. Here’s an in-depth look into who Geiger is and how adopting PromoStandards integration helped move their transactions forward. Geiger Geiger is a fifth-generation business founded in 1878 when brothers Andrew and Jacob took over their father’s print shop in Newark, New Jersey. Over 140 years later, the family still serves on the Board of Directors, while Jo-an Lantz became the first non-family President and CEO in 2019. Geiger has been headquartered in Lewiston, Maine since 1955. In 2018, the company acquired BTC Group in London. As GeigerBTC Group, the two firms strengthened their global reach by reducing shipping time and costs for their customers in North America and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Today, Geiger has offices throughout the US and Europe and is affiliated with more than 450 independent sales representatives. PromoStandards’ Impact Before integrating PromoStandards, Geiger faced industry-specific challenges, primarily the cumbersome process of obtaining order updates and product data from suppliers. This involved manual efforts, which led to individual phone calls, extended response times, and error-prone interactions. There had to be a better way, and as such, Geiger became one of the founders of PromoStandards. PromoStandards has significantly transformed Geiger, enabling them to deliver more value quickly and focus more on enhancing customer service and providing brand inspiration. Geiger is in the process of modernizing its tech stack and is well into its digital transformation journey. Automation plays a huge part in this, and PromoStandards will have a big role in the company’s future state. “The concept of PromoStandards is truly outstanding!” said Becci Cayer, Corporate e-Commerce Manager at Geiger. “It offers tremendous benefits to both suppliers and distributors through seamless electronic data exchange. The remarkable progress that PromoStandards has already made is a testament to these advantages.” Cayer continued, “While there is still much ground to cover in terms of data standardization, PromoStandards is at the forefront, diligently pioneering efforts to enhance and simplify the promotional products industry.” Become a PromoStandards Member! At PromoStandards, we make it easy to communicate with others in your industry. Find suppliers, distributors, and decorators and send and receive information to them in real time. With four membership levels, you can choose the one that works best for you. Join PromoStandards and start your journey!

PromoStandards is a community, and those who become members have access to important information and proven service providers. In this member spotlight, we’ll cover Antera Software USA, Inc., a service provider that runs promotional product software for distributors, suppliers, and printers. Here’s an in-depth look into who Antera Software is and how adopting PromoStandards integration helped move their transactions forward. Antera Software Antera Software, founded in 2010 and headquartered in Plano, Texas, specializes in creating and implementing custom software solutions that target challenges faced by promotional products and print industries. Its flagship cloud-based software, Advance, is used by industry professionals worldwide to automate their workflows and manage businesses effectively. Advance offers a comprehensive suite of operational and financial management capabilities, incorporating cutting-edge CRM technology and integrated modules. One of its key features is its Open API technology, which allows for seamless integration with third-party products and common accounting systems, such as QuickBooks. PromoStandards’ Impact Before integrating PromoStandards, Antera Software faced the industry-specific challenge of inconsistent information. Many of their customers were unhappy with the out-of-date data. To come up with a common way to integrate, employees of Antera Software talked with promotional product suppliers and distributors to come up with a common way to integrate. It was these people who mentioned PromoStandards. Antera Software utilizes all PromoStandards endpoints in Advance. This allows customers to collaborate effectively on orders and exchange data, documents, and information in real-time, resulting in tremendous time savings. What’s more, distributors have the ability to see live inventory levels and place orders electronically. Changes made automatically update on the platform. “PromoStandards has allowed our customers to grow exponentially. The accuracy and speed of information from PromoStandards have allowed them to increase their volume of business with fewer employees,” said Rick Peters, CEO of Antera Software USA, Inc. Become a PromoStandards Member! At PromoStandards, we make it easy to communicate with others in your industry. Find suppliers, distributors, and decorators and send and receive information to them in real-time. With four membership levels, you can choose the one that works best for you. Join PromoStandards and start your journey!

We are excited to dedicate our member spotlight to the designer and distributor Kotis Design, a promotional products company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Kotis Design CEO and Founder Jeff Becker launched the company in 2003 after he graduated from the University of Washington. However, Kotis Design’s origins date back to 2001 when Becker started a student-run, custom-design T-shirt business. Today, the company’s operations have grown larger than life. About Kotis Design Kotis Design is a full-spectrum, custom swag-management platform. Much like PromoStandards, Kotis Design aims to advance the industry’s traditional practices by owning the end-to-end workflow of product and design ideation and implementing services, including (but not limited to): The Swag Platform & Portals The swag platform and portals allow consumers to manage and ship their swag quickly and offer various solutions to enable organizations to distribute their swag. Providing Premier Swag Organizations will find that there are many ways they can create their swag. Kotis Design offers phenomenal options for fully-custom designs to swag guides for specific products or kits you’d like to curate. The design and fulfillment-management platform utilizes a creative agency approach and its in-house workshop to control its clients’ branded swag from start to finish. The platform is committed to elevating an organization’s brand through merch and swag. That includes partnering with trusted retail brands for anything an organization may need, such as: Brands that help run and scale Kotis Design’s swag programs include the following: PromoStandards’ Impact “Innovation is a key part of our company, thinking outside the box and anticipating how tomorrow’s needs will differ from today,” says Kotis Design CTO Daniel Becker. “People these days expect everyone’s systems to work seamlessly with each other, and PromoStandards makes that possible. It allows our employees to spend less time on data management and more time working on creative ideas for clients, providing better and faster services.” How Did Kotis Design Discover PromoStandards? We started using PromoStandards in 2016 after hearing about it from supplier partners and industry newsletters. We were immediately eager to jump at the chance to streamline our operations. At that time, we already had custom integrations with multiple apparel suppliers and wanted to add more. But integrating separately with each of the many suppliers was impractical on a large scale. Universal integration for suppliers was a game changer for us. How Has PromoStandards Helped Kotis Design? Tedious data entry tasks are such a problem. No one likes doing them. They’re too slow and susceptible to human error. Yet, computers love these tasks and work 24/7 – a match made in heaven! Getting order status, tracking, and invoice data back from suppliers automatically saves us a ton of data entry. The info gets into our system faster, and we have more data points. For example, the invoices via PromoStandards include line-item details that we don’t even bother entering for non-PromoStandards invoices. That lack of data has cascading impacts down the line. What Improvements Have You Seen in the Company’s Workflow? While we still have (a lot) more to do to take advantage of PomoStandards’ resources, the non-profit has already helped us, providing a viable path to improving our workflow. Even when we haven’t implemented specific standards, we’ve inevitably altered how our teams work to anticipate the coming changes. It’s like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Become A PromoStandards Member! We simplify communication between suppliers, decorators, distributors, and service providers. Streamlining product development and management in the custom products industries 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. However, we also offer extra resources that can create even more positive change for your business. View our Membership Application today to learn more about our three membership levels.If you have questions about PromoStandards or want to get involved with our organization, please contact us at https://promostandards.org/membership-application.