May 24, 2004, Trevose, PA – Advertising Specialty Institute, the largest member organization in the promotional products industry, today announced the launch of ASI CreditConnect, an online credit information service updated in real time with enhanced search functionality, expanded reports and data, and a new feature that enables suppliers to set their own standards of credit.
CreditConnect offers credit reports on nearly 17,000 ASI-qualified distributors based on data furnished by more than 1000 of the leading suppliers in the promotional products industry. CreditConnect is available in two tiers: Platinum and Plus.
CreditConnect Plus allows the user to search all ASI distributor credit reports, including detailed paying habits, past-due reports, current vs. prior credit comparisons and other important details.
CreditConnect Platinum includes all the features of Plus, and lets suppliers set custom criteria for ranking distributors based on their payment history and buying patterns. The Platinum service also provides a list monitoring feature for fingertip availability of the payment records of existing clients and allows a supplier to monitor ASI distributors before extending credit.
Bill Edgar, credit manager for Zippo Manufacturing, was one of the first to test CreditConnect Platinum. “CreditConnect provides great information and the new business tools are really helpful. Being able to search by paying habits, product lines and ZIP code radius makes prospecting easier and more effective for our salespeople. And having unlimited users allows our sales staff to find the credit information they need on their own, saving us time,” Edgar says.
“We listened to our customers and incorporated their comments into our new state-of-the-art credit products,” says Christian Brandt, director of ASI Market & Credit. “Both CreditConnect Platinum and CreditConnect Plus provide advanced search functionality and new business tools that will make the daily business of a supplier easier and faster. The industry feedback we’ve gotten has been incredibly positive.”
ASI members currently using CreditDirect will be upgraded to CreditConnect Platinum at no additional charge, while those with Credit Express and Dial-in services will be upgraded to CreditConnect Plus.
To learn more about CreditConnect, call 1-800-326-7378. The ASI Market & Credit Department will be offering a series of webinars to instruct users on the new technology. To register, contact [email protected].
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media organization serving the promotional products industry, with a membership of 20,000 distributors (sellers) and suppliers (manufacturers) of promotional products. Suppliers use ASI print and electronic resources to promote their products to more than 17,000 ASI distributors. Distributors use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain more than 650,000 promotional products, to locate supplier products and to promote their services to buyers of promotional products. ASI was founded in 1950 and employs a staff of 500. The company offers catalogs, informational directories, newsletters, magazines, Web sites and databases, and provides a variety of interactive business, marketing and selling tools.