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ION currently has 7 offices located in Austin, Houston, Arlington (Dallas), New Orleans, El Paso, Mexico City, Guadalajara and a satellite office in Tulsa. We are positioned in the center of major design and manufacturing activity in the PC, Peripherals, Communications, and Industrial market segments. Our Mexican locations further add value in that they enable a seamless transition of customer programs designed in Texas and manufactured in Mexico. |
ION Associates, Inc. is organized into 4 market segments: Computing, Communications, Industrial and Contract Manufacturing. By specializing in these segments, our salespeople are better versed in product applications, in customer expectations, and in the manner the customers conduct their business. Of additional importance is the fact that we work in teams of inside and outside sales people. This structure provides our customers with a readily available, knowledgeable point of contact for quick information, responses, and results to their rapidly changing needs. As we continue to grow, we are selectively hiring strongly technical salespeople with specific vertical market segment expertise.
The one to one ratio of inside to outside sales people at ION provides our customers with a readily available, knowledgeable point of contact for quick information, responses, and results to their rapidly changing needs. |
We provide technical solutions to our customers' design needs. Since the majority of our outside sales people's time is spent with our customers' engineering departments, it is logical that our outside sales people possess the technical skills necessary to understand and accurately communicate the benefits of our products. Over 70% of our sales people have an engineering or technical degree. Additionally, our outside salespeople collectively average 10 years experience in the Electronics Industry in positions such as engineering, engineering management, marketing, sales, and sales management. |
Each of our locations include a highly skilled and experienced engineer we call a Technical Specialist who is available to assist our customers' understanding and implementation of our products by providing local, technical expertise. This augmentation of our manufacturers' Technical Support Teams provides immediate answers and quick resolutions to technical issues that often arise in our customers' engineering community. By shortening the technical communication link and by providing hands-on solutions, customers find increased value in working with ION. |
Distribution has become a major and often critical link in servicing our customers' supply chain. As the front line managers of our manufacturers' business, we recognize the multiple benefits our distributors provide. In order to support, train, manage, and augment their efforts, we have created the positions of Distributor Specialists. These people are exclusively dedicated to assisting our distribution partners in becoming a true asset to our customers and manufacturers. |
Our Marketing Team is an organization established to increase the visibility and productivity of our sales people, increase our customers' awareness of our product offering, provide our manufacturers with valuable market information, and function as a local point of expertise on markets, competition, and opportunities for our distributors. They are active in various trade associations, have vertical market expertise, and provide focus to our business plan. |
Our business has largely become centered around gathering, sorting, interpreting, and disseminating information. We have built a contemporary system consisting of networks, servers, ISDN lines, desktop and portable PCs, and numerous software tools that enable us to electronically communicate with customers, distributors, and manufacturers on a global basis. Additionally, our cellular phones, pagers, and voice mail systems put us only minutes away from responding to the needs of our industry. |
We believe our future is determined by our ability to develop the most valuable asset of ION Associates: our human resources. Every employee has a set of quarterly goals focused on the further development and improvement of their communication, technical, product, and business skills. In particular, our outside sales people receive a minimum of 120 hours of training and personal improvement each year. Our goal is to provide our customers and manufacturers with the most knowledgeable and capable sales organization in the Industry. |
Winning and keeping business are two different functions. Our customers' and distributors' business issues are efficiently and professionally serviced by the inside members of our sales teams. These highly experienced and capable people are readily available and are in constant communication with our manufacturers, enabling them to get the latest information on logistics, schedules, availability, changes, new product releases, pricing, etc. Much of the routine information is resident in our information systems. That information which is not resident is available in only minutes. ION's long tenure with our suppliers and the resulting familiarity with their systems as well as the relationships we have developed enables us to accomplish even the most difficult tasks. |
