TREVOSE, PA – November 30, 2009 - Advertising Specialty Institute^® announced today it is launching two all-new ESP products:  ESP Web and ESP Orders. 

The revolutionary services are available using standard Internet browsers, including Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari, allowing for instant access anytime and anywhere to products, supplier data, orders and customer information.

In development for almost one year, demonstrations of the products will be available at all ASI Shows, including Orlando, Dallas and San Diego.  ASI expects to rollout the services in the first quarter of 2010.

ESP Web is a revolutionary update of ASI’s flagship sourcing and marketing tool ESP Online.  It includes features that will significantly increase sales and productivity for distributors:

• Highly intelligent search engine that helps distributors quickly identify the right product and price and makes suggestions for similar products.  Known as “guided navigation,” it is similar to searching on major retail sites, like Barnes & Noble and Home Depot. 

• New end-buyer presentation tool that allows for total customization – including innovative design elements. 

• Streamlined, easy-to-use modern interface, where information and functions are presented on a single screen and users can open up new tabs right in their browser.
  
  
• Completely integrated order management module, called ESP Orders.  

ESP Orders, being released with ESP Web, is a complete order management program based on the best practices of industry-leading distributors.  ESP Orders allows distributors to: 

• Create comprehensive sales orders and purchase orders.  Transmit product, supplier and end-buyer information directly from ESP Web to ESP Orders - gaining valuable selling time. 

• Send error-free supplier purchase orders, saving money on bad orders and re-dos.

• Invoice customers automatically to improve cash-flow and overall organization. 

• Export all ESP Orders information to QuickBooks and ASI ProfitMaker to help make bookkeeping easier and more accurate.

“These new programs will revolutionize how distributors do business,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of the Advertising Specialty Institute.  “ESP has received a total makeover that includes instant access from any browser.  Another new feature is our order management system, ESP Orders, which allows distributors to communicate electronically with suppliers by creating online sales orders, purchase orders and invoices.” 

“Suppliers will also love the new ESP Web, since distributors are able to find products and place orders faster no matter where they are,” said Andrews.  “Order errors are greatly reduced, as suppliers and distributors take advantage of the industry-standard screens found in ESP Orders.”
  
ESP is the industry's leading sourcing and marketing program with 2.5 million promotional product searches conducted in a typical month.  Over 32,000 distributors use ESP to access every product in the industry from 3,500 reputable ASI suppliers and to market their products to end-buyers.

There are no additional costs to current ESP Online users who switch to ESP Web, and special pricing is available for ESP Orders.  ESP Web will begin rolling out automatically to all ESP users during first quarter of 2010. 

To see an overview of ESP Web, visit espweb.asicentral.com.  Users of ESP for Macs (previously announced) can visit espmac.asicentral.com.  For more information, contact Dan O’Halloran, executive vice president, distributor services, at dohalloran@asicentral.com.

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of over 26,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of advertising specialties.  Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to over 22,000 ASI distributor firms.  Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain nearly every product in the industry from more than 3,500 reputable suppliers, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers.  ASI provides catalogs, information directories, newsletters, magazines, websites and databases, and offers e-commerce, marketing and selling tools.  Visit ASI online at asicentral.com and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, the CEO’s blog and the ASI Social Network.

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Contact

Dawn Marie,
Executive director of corporate communications

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