Oakbrook Terrace, IL -- UPP Business Systems was one of just sixteen firms, large and small, chosen from around the world to be profiled in a video case study for a new marketing textbook and instructional video cassette series for college students.

MARKETING: Relationships, Quality, Value (Worth Publishing) by Dr. William Nickels of the University of Maryland, and Marian Burk Wood, President of the Strategic Marketing Group, is the first marketing text to use the "customer-focus" as the focal point. According to Meg Turner, co-owner of Burrston House, the Chicago-area publishing firm that spear-headed the project, the book focuses on "companies that build long-term mutually beneficial relationships" with their customers.

Sound like UPP? Dr. Nickels, who is also the author of the best selling introduction to business text Understanding Business, and the publishers thought so too. As a company "whose management, employees, products and policies exemplify [the] customer-first orientation," UPP was asked to participate in the project along with the likes of Ford Motor Company, Levi's Strauss, Blockbuster Entertainment, Nestlé, Saturn ( a division of General Motors), Southwest Airlines, Kodak, Wal-Mart, 3M, Home Depot, Mobil Oil and many more.

Being a small, woman-owned business dedicated to providing the best customer service in a high tech arena also made UPP Business Systems a top candidate. As most of today's business students are expected to find employment with small businesses, demanding diversity in the workplace and interested in the latest technological advances, the proponents thought UPP was a firm with which students could really relate.

A twenty chapter book, each with a different focus, MARKETING uses video case studies to drive home each point. UPP is the subject of Chapter 7, "Organizational Buying Behavior: Developing Relationships in the Organizational Market," and the case study was written by our very own Scott Lewis. An UPP Account Manager for over two years, and now Director of Business Development, Scott had fun writing the study, "knowing it was going to appear in a textbook" that millions of students will read.

The book is just part of an educational package. A videocassette series, featuring UPP in a 10 to 15 minute vignette, will also be offered to educators. It seems that most everyone from the UPP home office and from Integrated Warehousing Solutions, our software development division, had a part in the video, which essentially depicts "A Day in the Life of UPP." Though filming called for scripted scenes, there was also a fair amount of ad-libbing. In fact, thanks to UPP workhorse and Executive Vice President of Business Development Mark Harrison, a "pretend" meeting evolved into a real one!

All in all, UPP Business Systems is proud to have been included in this project. And UPP and Integrated Warehousing Solutions employees happy to finally get their fifteen minutes of fame.

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