What’s in a Name: Why Access Development is Called Access Development

Why are we called Access Development? It’s okay to ask. And no, we’re not a software creation firm, or a land management company.

We sat down with Larry Maxfield, Founder of Access Development, to discuss the origin of the Access name and its relevance to the company’s products and the discount/loyalty industry at the time it was created. We also got to talk with Access President Casey Kleinman, and Executive Vice President of Business and Product Development Kelly Passey. They were able to give us a heads up on what “access” and “development” mean to the company, and whether the concept is relevant today.

In the beginning, Access was basically nameless. Back then, the most important task was figuring out how best to combine three elements – organizations, their members, and merchants – into a beneficial mix. But a business can’t live very long without a name, so after thinking long and hard about the mission and goals of the young company, Larry realized that what we were trying to provide was access. Access to quality member benefits for the associations, access to consumers for the merchants, and access to savings for the members. We open doors – or provide access, if you will – to help groups of people get what they want.

That’s the general story of how Access Development got its name. We literally develop access for the three parties we serve - access to revenue, savings, loyalty, new members, and more.

But is the name still relevant nearly 30 years later?

Kleinman believes the name is as relevant as ever. “Access has continued to open doors as our merchant base grows and as technology has advanced,” Kleinman says. “In just the past few years, we’ve built the nation’s largest private mobile coupon network. Our instant savings network has topped 300,000 merchant locations, and we’ve built PowerDeals, a powerful deals-for-points micro-redemption engine. All of these services are provided for our clients under their label, so they access the benefits.”

“Every day we’re still working to connect with more merchants that consumers love, and we’re serving that content through our clients in new and innovative ways for the benefit of their brands,” Passey says. “We’re staying on top of trends to ensure we provide more relevant value than anyone else in the merchant funded rewards industry.”

In other words, we’ll continue developing access. It’s that simple.