List firms test computer ordering system

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May 1, 1992 by Karen Burka

Electronic link could end duplication by brokers, managers.

The list industry is taking another step into the electronic age with a test of a list-ordering system that could reduce redundant data-entry time for brokers and managers.

The system, being tested by Greenwich, Connecticut-based Direct Media Inc. and New York City-based The SpeciaLISTS, involves sending list-rental orders between companies via a computerized program. It was developed by Tony Capato, vice president of operations at The SpeciaLISTS. "Ninety percent of order information is keyed into the broker's computer system and then rekeyed by the list manager to record usage, owner approval and service-bureau instructions," he says. "The objective of this program is to eliminate duplication of effort and free managers to spend time promoting their lists."

Creating an electronic standard

The test is an attempt to create an industry-wide electronic list-order standard, proposed by Capato and the Direct Marketing Association List Leaders, that would enable all brokers to send list-rental orders, via computer and modem, to a central electronic mailbox. The orders would then be downloaded overnight to a list manager's electronic mailbox.

List companies with both management and brokerage divisions could send and retrieve list orders during the same telephone call. Users would pay telephone line charges for the time they are connected.

What may be difficult, however, is getting list companies to alter their current computer systems to conform to the standard-order format developed for the central network. Says Howard Kupfer, senior vice president at Mokrynski & Associates, "People are uncomfortable about sending critical list-order information to a central network because they lose control over the process."

Still, several companies, including DJ Associates, AZ Marketing Services, 21st Century Marketing and Mokrynski & Associates, have already altered their written list-rental order forms to conform to the industry-approved standard that Capato has computerized.