Yesterday, while I was preparing fresh pasta for about 40 people, I got a call from Steve White of ITEX. I had left him a message sometime last week, and he was gracious enough to return it. Our candid conversation lasted fifteen or so minutes, but some nuggets of news came through. Since my hands were covered in flour at the time, what I am sharing with you are the highlights:
-On the partnership with Super Trade Exchange-
“Super Trade Exchange approached us about being their software provider. They had done a lot of research in to the problem, and chose us to work with. We have been putting the Software as a Service platform for a couple of years, and they are a great partner to have.”
-On the rebate to ITEX members for using STX members-
“We had three brokers from Washington state come to the corporate office for an advanced training, and I like to give incentives to people who work hard, so I gave those three brokers the rebate deal for a month. STX was just opening up in Washington at the time.”
-On the future of the STX relationship-
“There’s not much more I can tell you, except that it has been and continues to be our goal to take the power of barter to millions of businesses. Right now it is their job to sign up members. Our job is to do the billing, website, keep servers running, stuff like that.”
-On the critique received from Eric Wood of BarterIndependent.com and Merchants Barter Exchange-
“I don’t know how we could be doing a bad job in Hawaii. We don’t even have an office in Hawaii. If he said we were doing a bad job in Washington or something, that would pique our interest, but Hawaii? We don’t even have members there.”
-On the state of the barter industry-
“What we all need to understand is that the customer doesn’t care whose currency or exchange they are using. What they want to know is, can they get what they want? Once we understand this, maybe we can all work together a little more.”
A big thanks to Steve for returning my call. I’m sure we will watch more of the story between STX and ITEX unfold over the next year.
