Are you getting the most out of our new e-newsletter? Here are three handy ways to find out.
Since June, we’ve been sending out a monthly newsletter directly to the email inboxes of our customers and pals, and so far the response has been terrific. It’s been a great way for us to connect with both our site visitors as well as our manufacturer-partners, and to share news and product information on a regular basis.
All the same, we wanted to make sure you’re getting the most out of the newsletter, so we’d encourage you to ask yourself these three questions:
- Wait, what? I’ve been getting an e-newsletter?
You sure have! If you’ve ever bought anything from alpscontrols.com or if we’ve met you, called you, sent you quotes, visited with you at a tradeshow – whatever – we’ve most likely included you on our distribution list. If you haven’t seen it, however, it’s possible that our newsletter is stuck somewhere in your email program’s spam filter. Double-check there if you haven’t been getting it. If it’s in your spam or bulk mail folder, you can “clear” emails sent from us in the future, which will ensure that you get the next edition of our newsletter in September. (and by the way, if you have missed them and they aren’t in your spam filter and you WANT to see them, just email Alan Lopuszynski right here and we’ll send you out any back issues of the newsletter) - Boy, would I LOVE to share the newsletter’s videos and product news with my friends and coworkers. How the heck do I do that?
A fine question indeed. If you’ve enjoyed or found valuable information in the content of our newsletters, why not pass it along to your industry pals? You can forward our newsletter directly to others, share it via our pages on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, or encourage people you know to visit the alpscontrols.com homepage and look for the dazzlingly orange Get Our e-Newsletter button near the bottom of the page. - Why hasn’t alpscontrols.com sent me some goodies yet?
Ah, the best question of all. Here’s the deal: if you share a video you saw in our newsletter* with your staff – perhaps at a weekly meeting – and then let us know about it, we’ll send you some goodies to enjoy at your next meeting. Just send your contact information and which video(s) you shared to buymesomegoodies@alpscontrols.com and we’ll do the rest!
If you answered all three of those questions, congrats. You’re officially enjoying our e-newsletter. Any other thoughts or suggestions? Just give us a shout in the comment section below.
*or, truth be told, anywhere on our site.
Let me start out by saying that at alpscontrols.com, we LOVE the internet. We’re huge fans. Each day it’s a thrill for us to engage in this cross-generational, multi-cultural communication space in which opinions and art and entertainment and philosophy and government all come together for the purposes of information exchange and commerce!
We were particularly tickled recently to discover this blog post, in which internet-only building control distributors are called out for a number of perceived shortcomings, and in which alpscontrols.com is specifically — in super-duper secret coded fashion! — mentioned:
…Stocking no inventory, having manufacturers ship direct to customers, providing no technical support, and bragging about it. Really? Give us a break, even Clint knows there is no free lunch. One way or another you get what you pay for. Not to name names, but if you are using these guys you have A lready L ost P erspective and S ensibility.
To use a phrase popularized by the kids on the internet: we see what you did there!
But the fact of the matter is that the statement above gets at least one item glaringly, stupendously wrong: at alpscontrols.com, we do provide technical support. In fact, a good 35% of our staff is dedicated to delivering experienced, immediate, efficient and product-based customer support that also includes specifying and quoting. There’s really no way that our innovative business model could be successful without it, and a large percentage of our customers, when asked about the strengths of our company, tell us that our support personnel are what bring them back to alpscontrols.com day after day.
Why is that? Setting aside for a moment that our people are quick, friendly, and know their stuff, it comes down to three main reasons:
- Our use of advanced communication technology, in which we leverage Skype, in-house training, webinars, online video, live support and even email and telephone calls to quickly serve our customers’ support needs;
- Our ability to deliver more customer support than traditional wholesalers. We’re able to do this because we take all the time that we’re not stocking shelves, performing inventory and driving trucks and we spend it working with our customers; and finally,
- The fact that, in those instances where more comprehensive product answers are needed, we immediately bring our customers together with our manufacturers to find the information they need. There’s complete transparency on alpscontrols.com between suppliers and contractors, primarily because we actually want our manufacturer-partners to know who their customers on our site are.
We’re just funny and generous like that.
Here’s the thing: there is still a need in the marketplace for local brick-and-mortar distributors to provide the immediate gratification of inventory-based product sales. Heck, sometimes we even purchase products from local distributors, and they buy from us as well. But our business model is designed for — and successfully fulfills — a much broader, global need. In a single online space, we’re able to offer over 8 million products that couldn’t possibly be warehoused efficiently; we handle hundreds of transactions every day for control contractors who seek a cost-effective way to order an entire project’s specification list on a single purchase order. And sure, we do it without stocking an inventory, and by having our suppliers ship directly to our customers — but we do it because it provides value and efficiency not only to our customers who appreciate it, but also to our manufacturers who, freed from the time and personnel it takes to support product transactions, are enabled to spend their time doing what they do best: design and create new and better products.
If you have any questions about our ability to provide technical, specification, product, or sales support, we’ll tell you what: why don’t you simply contact our non-existent support folks and find out for yourself?
- Visit our site’s Contact Us page (it features actual people you can contact) and contact someone specific to your needs via email or Skype
- Visit our homepage and click the round orange Live Chat button in the bottom right corner
- Take a look at our YouTube page, which is full of videos where you’ll get product support, insight into our business, quick tips on using our site, and a laugh or three.
- Comment on this post below
- Or shucks: just give us a good, old-fashioned, phone-type call to 412.464.1730
Thanks for reading.
With an ever-growing list of more than 150 supplier-manufacturers that represent the best and brightest in our industry, it should be a shock to exactly no one that we found a guy to create, maintain and strengthen those relationships who is himself among the best and brightest in our industry.
Enter Eddie Johnson, our new VP Vendor Development at alpscontrols.com.
Eddie brings with him a wealth of experience in OEM relationships, building automation controls, wireless technology and in working directly with control integrators and the particular challenges they face in leveraging high-end technology in the creation of modern, energy-smart buildings. Most recently, Eddie was Director of OEM Sales at EnOcean, where he worked to get manufacturers to embed EnOcean wireless- and batteryless-enabled technology into their products. He also helped get our sister site enoceanparts.com up and running; it’s the first and only site online where EnOcean-enabled parts can be purchased from multiple manufacturers.
As a self-professed, long-time fan of alpscontrols.com, Eddie’s looking forward to working with our current and future suppliers by leveraging what he calls our site’s “enabling technology”:
I am a passionate believer that what we have is the best way to buy stuff! What I want to do is to build on the phenomenal success that we’ve created — not only in exposing new suppliers to our existing customer base, but also in expanding how our current manufacturers interact with those who use our site. It’s a two-way street: we help buyers and sellers find each other, then we make it possible for them to easily transact business together, to their mutual benefit.
Originally from England and having lived in Europe, the Far East and the Middle East, Eddie currently resides in Louisville, KY, where he has a 13-year-old daughter, a 10-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son. He’ll be traveling extensively for his new position, and will be based both out of our Pittsburgh, PA, offices as well as his home office in Louisville.
- Find out more about Eddie Johnson here.
- Should your company be selling its products on alpscontrols.com? Let us know right here and Eddie will get the ball rolling.
Would you like free shipping on all Setra Systems SRH orders for the whole summer? Yes. Yes, you would.
“Accurate,” “durable,” “dependable” and “reasonably priced” are just a few of the words you could use to describe Setra Systems’ spectacular line of SRH humidity sensors.
Well, go ahead and add “shipped for free” to that list, starting right now.
Because if you visit alpscontrols.com from now through August 31, 2012, and purchase a Setra Systems SRH wall mount, duct unit or outdoor mount humidity transmitter, your entire Setra Systems order will ship for free.
Soak that in for just a moment. You won’t hear a better summer offer unless Duran Duran reunites and plays a half-dozen shows at your local Ribs ‘n’ Wings Festival.
Setra Systems’ SRH humidity transmitters feature:
- Field replaceable sensor tips
- Choice of 2%, 3% or 5% RH accuracy
- Active or passive temperature
- 4-20mA or field-selectable 0-5 and 0-10 VDC
- NIST traceability (optional calibration certificate)
- Recovery from repeated saturation
Tell you what: we’ll stop bending your ear about it. Go take a look at Setra Systems SRH humidity sensors on alpscontrols.com right here and see what you think.
Offer good from 6.1.12 through 8.31.12. Customer must order at least one SRH transmitter and ground shipping charges are free for that Setra order. Continental United States only.
We’ll be giving you a few peeks this week at the exclusive CAN2GO product training we’re hosting here in our offices, so if you weren’t able to attend, check back here to see what’s new.
And naturally, we’ll be having more of these in the future, so stay tuned.
ACT NOW! Get exclusive CAN2GO product and programming training, May 7 – 8, at the Pittsburgh office of alpscontrols.com.
Here’s a softball question to start your week out right: If you’re a controls contractor or system integrator, should you know more about CAN2GO products?
Answer: What are you, kidding? OF COURSE you should know more about CAN2GO.
Here’s why: CAN2GO offers wired and wireless solutions for HVAC, lighting and metering building automation applications. With their products, you can save time on the job and money on electrical costs by:
- Controlling lighting and HVAC in one controller
- Controlling EnOcean and ZigBee end-devices
- Controlling wired end-devices
- Supporting metering applications
- Creating gateways from EnOcean to BACnet, ZigBee to BACnet and more
- Deploying wired and wireless solutions
- Managing your BAS using a web BEMS
And now we’ve got your chance to learn much more about CAN2GO when we host an exclusive training session on May 7th and 8th.
In this jam-packed two-day session, you’ll get an overview of network design and CAN2GO wireless technology planning; an overview of CAN2GO product capabilities and Lua scripting – including how to program HVAC and lighting applications; and you’ll receive hands-on exercises in configuration, wireless planning and Lua scripting.
This is a must-attend training event because alpscontrols.com is the only U.S.-based resource for purchasing CAN2GO products and we have limited availability that’s getting scooped up fast.
Here are some incredibly important links for you to click:
- Download the registration form and follow the instructions for submission. Register before 4.10.12 and you’ll save some serious money.
- Plan to bring your laptop with Firefox installed – and here’s where you get Firefox if you don’t already have it.
- Find a hotel in Pittsburgh near our offices to stay in:
And we really can’t stress this enough: register NOW to ensure you get a seat and to save money.
We look forward to seeing you in May!
Ordering Vaisala Products on alpscontrols.com? Read this if you live in one of these 34 United States.
As a matter of fact, we at alpscontrols.com DO consider ourselves innovators and cutting-edgesters when it comes to the ever-changing best practices of online commerce – so it’s important for us to let you know when something’s come up that could impact how you purchase parts on our site.
Starting today, if you purchase gas transmitter, humidity or condensation products from Vaisala and you live in any of the U.S. States listed below, alpscontrols.com will assess sales tax to your online order.
Here’s the list of States:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Florida
- Georgia
- Iowa
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- New York
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wyoming
The good news? If your organization is tax-exempt, it’s quick and easy for you to upload your exemption certificate via your My Account dashboard:
- Once you’re logged in, click MY ACCOUNT at the top of the page
- Under the My Information heading, click the link for Tax Exemption Certs.
- On the new window that opens, find the Click here to register a Certificate link
- Then follow the directions on the next page.
Questions? Please feel free to contact our customer support or give us a call at 412.464.1730.
Thanks for reading.
It’s entirely possible that you’re already familiar with this smiling gent, because as Travis himself humbly puts it, “I do know quite a few people in our industry.”
He’s being modest – which is just one of his qualities that makes it so exciting for us to give you the news that Travis Haas has joined our sales team at alpscontrols.com.
You probably met Travis during the nine years he spent in marketing and sales at ACI, where he learned to enjoy the fast-moving technological advances so common in the HVAC world. He says,
“I’m really a gadget guy, so I think that being able to find new advances in our industry is what has helped me connect with people over the years. I just enjoy getting out there, meeting everybody I can, and sharing with them the newest, best devices I can find.”
Travis looks forward to reaching out to new and potential alpscontrols.com customers, helping them find the right products for their applications and getting them up and running on our site. He’s long been a fan of our online business model, and is excited by the challenges of exploring new markets that could benefit from our different and better way to buy building automation products online.
Travis was born and raised in Wisconsin, and currently resides there with his wife, three daughters and one son.
In which we invite you to unwrap these delightful closure alerts from our product manufacturers.
Yes, it’s true: we here at alpscontrols.com are watching you. We see you when you’re sleeping and we know when you’re awake. So that’s why we thought you’d like to know more about the holiday closure calendars of our manufacturer-partners so that you can adjust any of your product-ordering accordingly.
We’ll be updating this list as the season continues, so check back here from time to time to ensure that you avoid any delays to your projects.
- alpscontrols.com will be closed on Friday 12.23, Monday 12.26 and then Monday, 1.2.12.
- BAPI will be closed on December 23rd, December 26th and January 2nd.
- Belimo will be closed Friday 12.23 and Monday 12.26.
- Connect-Air is closed on December 26th and Monday, January 2nd.
- Electro Industries plans to close on Friday 12.23, Monday 12.26 and Monday 1.2.12.
- Functional Devices will be closed on Monday through Wednesday, December 26th through 28th and also on Friday, December 30th. Functional’s production facilities will also be closed from Monday through Friday, December 26th – 30th. They’ll resume normal operations on Monday, 1.2.12.
- Hoffman will be closed on Friday 12.23 and Monday 12.26.
- Innovative Solutions will be closed from Friday 12.23 through Monday 1.2.12 inclusively.
- KMC Controls will be shutting down their shipping capabilities while they do a physical inventory from the 19th through the 23rd. Then the plant will be closed from 12.26 through 12.30. They’ll accept orders through December 23rd, but your best bet in receiving orders by the end of the year would be to place them by November 28th. Normal shipping will resume on 1.2.12.
- Metropac will be closed on Thursday, 11.24 and Friday, 11.25.11.
- PECO will be closed from December 23 through January 1, 2012.
- Saginaw is closing for the holidays on December 23rd, 26th and 30th.
- Setra is closed Friday, December 23rd; Monday, December 26th; and Monday, January 2nd.
- Siemens will be closed on Friday, 12.23; Monday, 12.26; Friday, 12.30 and Monday, 1.2.12.
- Spartan Peripheral Devices will close at 12:00 PM on Friday, December 23rd and will reopen on Monday, 1.2.12.
- Vaisala will cease shipping products at the end of the day on Monday, 12.19, and will begin again after the first of the year.
- Viconics will close down from Monday, 12.26.11 through Monday, 1.2.12, inclusively. Orders placed on or before 12.2 will ship before December 22nd, if units are in stock.
On behalf of everyone at alpscontrols.com, we wish you and yours a merry and peaceful Christmas!
No, seriously: we’re watching you. Right now. So you’d better be good, for goodness sake.
(photo credit: pagedooley on Flickr)
If you’ve been paying attention, you probably know by now that we’ve relaunched alpscontrols.com with a new look, layout, and some nifty new project and search tools – but one of the big changes that we’re very excited about is the one in which we’ve officially changed our company’s name to alpscontrols.com.
Now you might suggest that it’s not a huge change from the name “Alps Controls”, and of course you’d be right. But we’ve long felt that our innovative business model as an online-only source for HVAC, building automation and lighting control products made us unique in an industry in which all the other wholesalers were still using paper catalogs and oversized warehouses.
And we figured it was time for our name to drive the message home that we are first, foremost – and only – a dot com business.
So we hope you’ll join with us in welcoming this change as we blaze ahead to the future and seek out new, different and better ways to help you manage your HVAC and building automation controls projects. Keep an eye on the new alpscontrols.com for more content, more new products and manufacturers, and infinitely better tools to get your job done.
