In an age of overabundant high-speed Internet communications, one company provides solutions for connecting

Is there such a thing as too much information? Today most communications between manufacturers and distributor sales and marketing departments are handled via company-specific Web sites or by e-mail. The result? Sales and marketing professionals are inundated with communications about new products, new promotions, price updates, etc. “It can be mind-boggling,” according to Jimmy Haverstick, president, Focus Technology Group (Nashville, Tenn.). “What if there was one place on the Web where distributors and manufacturers could securely connect without roadblocks – such as multiple logins?” FTG’s ChannelLink provides such a place, he says.

ChannelLink
Haverstick, together with partner Chris Glaser, teamed up 10 years ago to found Focus Technology Group. Haverstick’s background in animal healthcare distribution, combined with Glaser’s healthcare supply chain technology experience, proved a solid foundation for creating accessible information tools for manufacturers to gauge where their products were being sold. “Our mission was to remove costs from the supply chain, while serving animal health distributors and manufacturers,” says Glaser.

Originally, FTG’s goal was to provide sales information to manufacturers to facilitate SPIFF programs to distributor reps and provide ‘move out’ sales data for internal compensation. In the company’s early days, it provided such tools as Focus Analytics, a Web-based business intelligence platform which permits manufacturers access to their sales information through distribution.

Recently, Haverstick and his colleagues at FTG created ChannelLink, designed to help manufacturers and distributors more efficiently manage sales and marketing communications between their organizations. ChannelLink offers a number of support services for manufacturers, distributors and sales personnel, including tools for incentive and rebate management, analysis and reporting, marketing communications, product literature library, price file management, and training and surveys, says Haverstick.

“It’s all about providing access to data and facilitating communication,” he continues. “We ensure that manufacturers have access to sales data that helps them grow their business with distributor partners, and now with ChannelLink we can provide a system to efficiently manage sales and marketing communications.” FTG has been endorsed by the American Veterinary Distributors Association (AVDA), according to Haverstick. “This has been a very important stamp of approval for FTG given the sensitivity of the information,” Haverstick says.

Many distributors have their own intranet to provide information to their sales teams. ChannelLink is not a replacement of these efforts, but a better way to manage the manufacturer communications and post to their systems, Glaser says. “At the end of the day, everything FTG does is about helping manufacturers sell more through distribution through access to information combined with the tools to act on the information.”

For more information on ChannelLink and other products offered by FTG, visit www.focustg.com or www.mychannellink.com