"We collaborate best in person when we can lock this high-bandwidth group into a room for two days with clear objectives and deliverables.

PromoStandards believes it has a "game changer" on the horizon for Purchase Orders.

The PromoStandards Technology Committee met in early May 2022 at Hit Promotional Products in Tampa, Fla., to develop the first promotional product industry standard for order management and workflows.

The committee, which includes representation from Essent?, left confident it will create a standard to revolutionize how the industry clears and resolves purchase order issues and holds.

"This standard will be a game changer for the entire industry. Regardless of PO submission source, we now have the ability to modify orders, resolve issues and clear holds. With the most impactful hold resolution being digital proofs," PromoStandards Board Member and Starline COO, Jon Norris stated.

A statement from PromoStandards said that distributors and suppliers alike have become increasingly bogged down by order issues and holds. The standard that’s under development would simplify the data exchange to resolve holds while providing real-time feedback to distributors about resolution options for a given purchase order, no matter the source of the PO.

"We collaborate best in person when we can lock this high-bandwidth group into a room for two days with clear objectives and deliverables. We walked out with a great MVP and draft standard that we can take back to our respective teams and the PromoStandards community," PromoStandards Committee Chair and Hit Promotional Products President Eric Shonebarger said.

Incomplete and inaccurate Purchase Orders have long been a thorn in the side of promotional products companies, particularly suppliers. Some suppliers say the majority of Purchase Orders they receive have issues, which usually need to be fixed manually, baking additional time and labor costs into every order.

The new PromoStandards PO services would mitigate the issues by creating a standardized way to resolve some of the most common issues quickly.

PromoStandards plans to preview the PO services and more at its inaugural Hack-A-Thon and Technology Summit, which is Oct. 2-5, also in Tampa. Registration for the event recently opened.

PromoStandards is a group of distributors, suppliers, and service providers dedicated to improving supply chain efficiency in the promotional products industry. The group defines and writes integration standards that allow distributors and suppliers to integrate for more efficient transactions and a more efficient supply chain.

Essent is a Founding Member of PromoStandards. Essent President & CEO Eric Alessi is Chair of the PromoStandards Board of Directors. Essent Vice President of Research Steve Luisser serves on the PromoStandards Technology Committee and contributed at the Tampa gathering toward creation of the new PO standard.

Essent implements, hosts, and maintains PromoStandards endpoints for promotional products companies on the Essent OrderTrax? Network, the industry-standard integration network.