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Allied Business Network discounts help businesses make the most of IT budgets

MONROEVILLE, Pennsylvania (April 20, 2008)

 

A business's information technology budget can be a major part of its monthly expenditures. Large businesses want to save money so they can invest more resources in increasing revenues. Small businesses, meanwhile, often lack major budgets to begin with; their business managers must track every penny spent.

 

It is not surprising that more and more businesses are turning to specialty discount programs to stretch their IT budgets further. Many of these discount programs include savings opportunities for IT services and solutions, computers, software, hardware, and other electronic accessories. Often, business owners can save significant amounts of money by applying discounts or coupon codes towards technology items or services.

 

Allied Business Network has paired with CDW to offer promotional coupons and discount codes for business owners and partners. CDW offers a variety of IT products and services, from hard drives and laptops to data backup and technical support services to printers, flash drives, and software. The company was ranked as #1 Most Admired Company - Electronics Wholesalers by Fortune Magazine for 2008.

 

By taking advantage of Allied Business Network's CDW discount codes and promotional coupons, James Rocco Loosbrock, CEO of Costal Vineyards, Inc., saved several thousand dollars on IT supplies for his California food and wine club.

 

“It’s not everyday that a phone call saves you $3,500,” says Loosbrock.

 

ABN members are able to take advantage of CDW promotional coupons and codes to save up to 10 percent on IT equipment, supplies, and services. CDW has provided technology equipment and IT support for large and small businesses, schools, and government entities.

 

Allied Business Network provides discount memberships to over 13,000 businesses and entrepreneurs. Business and individual memberships are free; ABN negotiates with its partners to get deals on office supplies; technology and electronics equipment; flowers, and gifts. The company is headquartered in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pa.

 

For more information, contact Allied Business Network vice president Jami Broom at jami@abnsave.com, or call (412) 373-3450. ABN is located at 2321 Saunders Station Rd., Monroeville, Pa., 15146, and online at www.abnsave.com.

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Partnership Gets Small Business Owner $3,000+ in Discounts

 

MONROEVILLE, Pennsylvania (March 24, 2008) – Allied Business Network, (ABN) through a partnership with Computer Discount Warehouse, (CDW) saved Coastal Vineyards, Inc. CEO James Rocco Loosbrock over $3,000 on business technology products.

 

“It’s not everyday that a phone call saves you $3,500,” Loosbrock said. Loosbrock, a member of ABN since December 2007, took advantage of the computer supply savings through ABN’s partnership with CDW, a national technology supplier. “The rep I had been working with told me ‘there is no way I can match that,’” Loosbrock said.

 

CDW has been an ABN vendor since July 2007. The relationship allows ABN members to save up to 10% off technology supplies. CDW’s contract with ABN provides customers with discount pricing in 19 categories, including printers, desktop computers, servers, office equipment and software.

 

CDW is a leading provider of technology products and services for business, government and education. CDW is also a principal source of technology from top name brands. To find out more, please visit www.cdw.com.

 

ABN provides free membership to a compilation of small businesses and entrepreneurs. ABN members are connected to take advantage of pre-negotiated discounts from national business service providers and vendors. To find out more, please visit www.abnsave.com.

 

Contact:
Diana K. Geleskie, Director of Marketing
Diana@abnsave.com
(412) 373-3450 ext. 201

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After You Get Customers, Keep Marketing to Them
Pittsburgh Business Times, April 30, 2007
By Jennifer Curry

 

The good news for Allied Business Network was it took less than a year after it started its online procurement Web site to attract 10,000 new members.

 

The bad news was almost all of these new members weren't purchasing goods through the site, which is designed to link businesses with vendors who are selling discounted supplies such as chairs and paper.

 

That quickly became a huge problem for Allied, since its revenue comes from a percentage of sales the vendors make.

 

On top of that, not only was the company not making money, but it was spending between $20 and $25 to attract each new member by hiring outbound call centers to reach out to companies.

 

With costs exceeding sales, Jack Bergman, president of Monroeville-based Allied, decided to switch gears and begin focusing on the site's current members rather than attracting new ones.

 

Allied President Jack Bergman realized he needed to increase marketing to his existing clients to remind them to use his product.

 

"We raised all this money and got all these members, but that doesn't mean you are going to create volume," he said. "The challenge for us was to get our business members who join to actually use and save."

 

Bergman first stopped using the call centers and began instead to target his marketing almost exclusively to the members he already had.

 

He began sending out monthly faxes and direct mailings to his members. Then, he started sending twice monthly e-mails with information about discounts and sales that the vendors were offering. Of the three methods, Bergman said the e-mails, where members can click directly on the links and make a purchase within minutes, are the most effective.

 

"It's a direct link to the person making the decision," he said.

 

Samuel Kramer, owner of Kramer Fiduciary Services, uses Allied for items such as office supplies and furniture. Kramer has been using the site for about 10 years and said the e-mails do, at times, encourage him to purchase.

"We use mostly the vendors that we use, but occasionally I'll look at it and see if they have any specials or deals," he said. "The deal may encourage us to look into it."

 

In addition, the company now calls existing -- rather than potential -- customers at least once a year. The caller has information about the company in a database, including what vendors it is using and the number of purchases it has made.

 

By sticking to this strategy, the percentage of members who make purchases on the site has grown from 8 percent to 48 percent. The company has become profitable and seen its annual revenue grow to $6 million.

 

The change has had a ripple effect as well. With more members purchasing goods, the Web site's overall purchase volume has gone up, which in turn has attracted more vendors. With more vendors and an upgraded Web site, potential members are now finding out about the site through online search engines and signing up without Allied needing to do extensive marketing to future members. The company now has 12,000 members and hopes to add 2,000 this year.

 

"We have to have tremendous volume to impact our bottom line," Bergman said. "Once you have a good system for your members, it really is all about your marketing."

 

jcurry@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3820

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Pooling for Dollars
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 17, 2002
By Frank Reeves, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

 

Bulk purchasing isn't a new idea. Trade associations as well as the state's school districts have been doing it for years.

 

But Bergman, 37, has put his own twist on the old idea. By joining Allied Business Network, small and medium-sized firms can pool their resources and buy office supplies, computer equipment, even electricity and telephone service at deep discounts from national vendors.

 

What makes the network attractive is that there are no sign-up fees, Bergman said. Allied is compensated by the vendors. The discounts, which Allied negotiates on behalf of its members, are better than what an individual firm could negotiate if it were dealing directly with national vendors, Bergman said.

 

Indeed, the vendors themselves are a draw, since they are some of the country's best-known brands: office supplies and furniture from Office Depot; car rentals from Hertz; computer hardware from Gateway; communications from WorldCom.

 

Bergman said his original goal was to sign up 100 Pittsburgh-based firms. Many of these "charter members," as he calls them, were accounting and law firms. Some were family-owned businesses, not unlike a discount linen outlet his own father owned for many years. Often these companies didn't have purchasing agents to negotiate deals with vendors.

 

Indeed, it was watching his own father, Richard L. Bergman, that impressed upon Bergman the importance of keeping track of the smallest costs. Bergman recalled his father saying many times that it was easier to save $100 in expenses than make $100 profit in sales.

 

Even before founding Allied, Bergman had seen the value of bulk purchasing. He was formerly the vice president of a Washington, D.C.-area buying group for electrical supply distributors. But Bergman wanted to return to Pittsburgh, where he'd grown up in Squirrel Hill. He was convinced that a buying group could be successful if tailored to the needs of smaller firms.

 

From its original 100 charter members, Allied Business Network has nearly 11,000 company members, Bergman said. In 2000, he said, the company secured $1 million in venture capital from an "angel investor" who does not want to have his name disclosed. Bergman used the money to expand his staff to 13.

 

The core of the operation, on Ardmore Boulevard in Forest Hills, is its marketers, who on a recent visit were on the phone trying to solicit companies to join the network. Bergman said the company recently has been adding a lot more members.

 

By pooling their resources, the companies represented by the network equal the purchasing power of some of the region's biggest firms, Bergman said, though he declined to offer specific figures. Members of the network on average receive 20 percent discounts off the list price for products and services they order. In the case of office supplies, the discounts range from 30 percent to 40 percent.

 

Allied recently announced an alliance with Wattage Monitor, a Reno, Nev.-based company that maintains a Web site where individuals and businesses can shop for the cheapest electricity suppliers.

 

Bergman said his business was growing even before the recession, but that it has taken off in these bad times. With profit margins tight, firms are looking for ways to cut costs, and many see a buying group as a way to do it.

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Comparison Shopping for Electricity
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Thursday, January 10, 2002

Allied Business Network based in Forest Hills, said it had signed an agreement with Wattage Monitor of Reno, Nev., that will enable the 10,000 businesses ABN represents to save on their electricity bills. ABN links the purchasing power of its member businesses to obtain discounts on office supplies, computer hardware, business forms and printing. Wattage Monitor provides its customers with information so they can compare prices for electricity online or via the company's toll-free hot line.

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Allied Business Network, Pittsburgh, secured $1 million in venture capital from an undisclosed Pittsburgh firm.

The venture capital supplier did not want to have its name disclosed, said to Jack Bergman, Allied's chief principal.

 

Founded in 1997, Allied, online at www.abnsave.com, provides a forum for member companies to pool their resources to buy products at volume discounts. Computer supplies, payroll services and freight carrier service, among others, are available through a network of national vendors.

 

Mr. Bergman said Allied will use the money to finance a marketing plan to increase its membership and to add new vendors to the network. The company will also hire more staff.

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Downturn means good business for organizations and companies promising to deliver better deals
Pittsburgh Business Times, Maria Guzzo - March 8th, 2002

 

In a three-day period last week, OnlineChoice.com Inc. CEO Rajiv Enand juggled numerous meetings with potential clients. Being so busy is quite a feat in this economic downturn, especially for a dot-com. But the economic downturn is the reason behind the client interest.

 

The Wexford-based company tries to produce savings on long distance calling, natural gas, electricity and other services by pooling business and residential customers.
"I've never seen them so interested in saving money. We've had no cancellations and the CEOs sat in on the meetings," Mr. Enand said.

 

Other companies that offer ways for businesses to save money are seeing customer interest increase. Local trade associations say members are taking advantage of benefit programs more these days.

 

Founded in 1997, Allied Business Network Inc. provides a forum for members to pool resources to buy at volume discounts. Computer supplies, payroll services and freight carrier service, among others, are available through a network of national vendors including Office Depot, Gateway and Hertz.

 

It employs 15 at its Forest Hills headquarters and has more than 11,000 businesses as members locally and nationwide. In the past month, more than 30 new customers have signed up and current members' activity has increased, said company president Jack Bergman.
"In the past they'd be saving with one or two vendors, but now they're starting to use four or five," Mr. Bergman said.

 

Landing customers in this economy also has not been hard for Oakland-based CombineNet Inc., which signed up its first 10 customers in the past 90 days.
CombineNet's software allows businesses to bid on combinations, or bundles, of items, allowing them to buy specific things without getting stuck with items they don't want.

 

"Companies are becoming more selective in what they purchase, spending more time buying the right thing," said vice president of business development Brian Jacobsen. "That's benefited us."

 

Both Hazelwood-based Pittsburgh Technology Council and Churchill-based SMC Business Councils also said they've seen an increase in membership since January. But that's coming after a reduction in members over the past year.

 

"It seems there had been a freeze on spending for things like association dues," said SMC president Cliff Shannon.
"But the members are using our services, particularly the ones that translate into savings for the bottom line. And I've never seen as many small employers shopping their business for health insurance."

 

Health insurance costs over the past year have risen at a double-digit pace for Western Pennsylvania small businesses.

 

Both groups offer member-to-member discounts and reduced prices on things from health insurance to office supplies.

 

Mr. Shannon said he's seen interest increase in people management services and secondary benefits like credit union membership and vacation and local entertainment discounts.

 

He believes businesses are offering the secondary benefits to employees as perks.

 

"Employers want to keep looking for ways to keep (employees) around," he said.

 

The people management services help members going through layoffs inoculate themselves against fallout from disgruntled workers and ensure they are complying with government rules.

 

The tech council has been meeting with members over the past several weeks after embarking on a major outreach campaign to make sure they are taking advantage of benefits.

 

Downtown-based Freemarkets Inc. director of investor relations Gary Doyle said it's not having trouble getting customers to do more business.

 

Freemarkets conducts online auctions for goods and services.

 

"This is the right time for companies to create a competitive advantage for themselves," Mr. Doyle said.

 

"Companies that have the flexibility to go after and invest in realigning their cost structures are going to be big winners when things turnaround."

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Pittsburgh Business Times
Contracts

 

Allied Business Network Inc., Forest Hills, has contracted with BP and Hertz to offer its members money-saving opportunities on gasoline and rental cars. ABN offers small to midsized businesses membership in its program, which offers discounts on products and services from national vendors.

Copyright 2002 American City Business Journals Inc.

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