WebbMason Marketing, SupplyLogic and Winbrook Name DemandBridge Exclusive Technology Partner of New Sourcing Exchange

DemandBridge, an integrated business platform delivering seamless marketing solutions in the cloud, has been selected as the exclusive technology/integration partner of a new sourcing exchange. WebbMason Marketing, SupplyLogic and Winbrook announced today they will be the initial founders and board members of this sourcing exchange that aggregates their collective spend and suppliers in one marketplace—one that they hope other distributors and suppliers will join as charter members/participants.

DemandBridge, who recently acquired e-Quantum and Kramer-Smilko, provides mission-critical ERP and e-commerce solutions to approximately 600 distributors. Its flagship sourcing platform (DB Alliance) will facilitate the virtual marketplace. In addition to DB Alliance, DemandBridge announced plans to continue investing in its next generation e-commerce, ERP and reporting/analytics platforms by integrating them with the e-Quantum and Kramer-Smilko product lines. Together, these Microsoft (Azure) cloud-hosted tools will cost effectively empower distributors and their supplier partners to improve efficiency, win business and increase their revenues/profits.

“We have seen dramatically improved results using the DemandBridge tools in our private marketplace, to the tune of several points of gross margin with room for more,” said Warner Mason, CEO of WebbMason Marketing, Hunt Valley, Md. “We are excited to have the other founders join us in the launch, along with the charter members soon to follow with their spends and preferred suppliers. This will only serve to improve the collective results while continuously improving our processes and tools.”

Kevin Sherlock, CEO of SupplyLogic, Garden City, N.Y., agreed. “As others join us, and this marketplace grows, this will give us the same collective purchasing power of our larger competitors along with improved customer experience,” he said. “This allows us to pursue (and win) much larger contracts.”

At its heart, DB Alliance is an industry-specific, fully integrated tool that puts sourcing and project management at the users’ fingertips, empowering them to organize, quote and manage jobs more effectively. As more distributors and suppliers have joined the DB Alliance network, it has evolved into a true sourcing exchange aimed at helping those companies in their journeys to become fully digital organizations, thus, improving speed to market and growing their bottom lines.

“The goal of our recent consolidation efforts is to better provide the industry with the technology platforms and services they need to successfully compete and to run their businesses,” David Rich, CEO of DemandBridge, and the one leading the technology consolidation in the industry, commented. “To the extent our 600 customers can standardize on the same tools, offering industry-shared services like sourcing, finance and accounting, back office IT/integration and end-client on-boarding services (e.g., e-commerce site/template building) becomes more achievable.

“Better to have their back office taken care of by someone solely focused on those activities,” he continued. “This sourcing exchange is a good example. Once created, it will be powerful value-add from DemandBridge and its alliance partners. By outsourcing these activities, distributors can focus on what they do best, which is selling and delivering high-quality print solutions and promotional goods, while exploring new types of marketing services they can provide to the loyal customers and brands they serve.”

Creating Symbiotic Relationships: We’re Strongest Together

Customers and brands count on distributors to help them achieve the best possible pricing for their print, promotional goods and marketing services needs.

Distributors rely on technology partners to provide robust solutions to help them enable these services so they can win and keep accounts. At the end of the chain, suppliers crave access and opportunity, and help the distributors meet end-customer needs.

• Distributors can leverage their combined spend, along with their peers, in the industry to lower costs and increase margins.
• Customers receive market-competitive pricing as jobs are sourced to industry-vetted suppliers.
• Suppliers receive quote requests and job specifications from their various distributor partners in a consistent format, through one common portal.
• Robust supplier profile features help differentiate manufacturers from their competitors, facilitate new distributor-supplier connections and strengthen existing relationships.
• Everyone benefits from increased efficiency in quoting and order entry processes, less offline communication and a consistent way of doing business.

“DB Alliance puts the data your users need to move projects forward front and center, and provides a single forum for job-related activities,” said Tony Abunasser, CSO of DemandBridge, who will be the general manager of the exchange. “It moves the process from days to hours, and from loose notes to one tool.”

Organized & Easy: Distributors Gain Control, Deliver Value

“Distributors who want to grow their businesses need more than they have received over the past few years. They crave technology that’s innovative and customizable,” said Scott Lattanzio, president and managing partner of Winbrook, Billerica, Mass. “That is where DemandBridge comes in.”

• Smart buying: With DB Alliance, business owners can create approval rules to gain more insight into their users’ buying processes. Rules—and exemptions—are easy to create and can include multiple parameters (number of suppliers solicited, item cost, product type, etc.) to ensure that employees follow smart buying practices.
• Clear reports and insights: Real-time job tracking and dashboard-style reports—ideal for companies that must comply with contract/guaranteed pricing—allow users to analyze cost savings and buying patterns, and track metrics their clients care about.
• A single platform: DB Alliance interfaces directly with our proprietary accounting and inventory management solution, DB Distributor, so key information regarding customers, items, suppliers, and orders syncs seamlessly between the two products—eliminating redundancies across systems, and negating the need for third party systems of record and costly integrations.

“DB Alliance arms distributors with much-needed insight into their supplier base, and arms suppliers with much-needed access into new opportunities,” Abunassar said. “The power of their alliance is that connection, and our technology makes this happen quickly and easily.”

For more information, visit www.demandbridge.com.

The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Print+Promo. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Print+Promo.