Software leverages business-side data

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1992 by Liz Horton

Two of the hottest publishing sectors for the nineties - database marketing and ancillary products - call for managers to integrate their computer systems more closely today than at any time previously. And as computer technology advances and costs come down, publishers today have everincreasing options for effectively managing and leveraging their business-side information, ranging from fulfillment to ad sales to reader service and finances.

This revolution began in 1973, where Darien, Connecticut-based Jim Kobak and David Webber were quietly building the first computer circulation model, a hefty lump of software that required a mainframe computer to operate it.

The Media Services Group, which grew out of that company, has refined its programs so that they now run on a desktop PC, but the company still offers time-share service to publishers who don't want to invest in the hardware themselves.

In the 20 years since, computer systems have expanded far beyond their initial use in magazine publishing - editorial and production operations.

"The cost of buying higher-performance computers has come down," says Media Services Group president Terry Nathan. "On top of that, both Unix and DOS have become very enduser oriented. The flexibility of PC packages and the power and connectivity of Unix made it possible for people not only to afford these sophisticated software packages, but to run them without the level of in-house expertise that used to be required."

The business management software available to publishers today comes in several categories, with multiple options in each to account for size and complexity of publication or company. It includes: * Ad software covering contact management and sales prospecting; production trafficking; and billing, receivables, credit and collections. * Circulation software to handle circulation modeling, fulfillment and customer-service systems. * Specialized financial packages that can handle all the typical financial products, from job costing to project management.

But why bring, say, fulfillment inhouse? Why put your ad salespeople at a terminal on the phone, when they've been doing just fine on the street? The answers that come up again and again are control, flexibility, and sharing knowledge.

Ad packages, for instance, can record ad placements, provide management reports, generate insertion orders, do competitive tracking. And with many networked database systems, information can be accessed by anyone who needs it.

That's a plus in today's increasingly integrated atmosphere. Traditionally, subscription management has been done by circ people or a service bureau, ad sales has been handled by the ad department, and so on. But those two hot new publishing areas - database marketing and ancillaryproducts - call for publishers to integrate their information. "Ad sales and reader service are more tightly tied in," explains Paul Levin, president of WPL Associates. "Reader service is tied in to the subscriber database. What used to be a separate subscription system and a separate reader-service system and a separate order-entry inventory system is now one customer-service system."

Another advantage to having all that different data is instant feedback, says Gay Manning, president of Datasystem Solutions. "Publishers can determine on a daily basis whether or not a particular list or marketing method is effective."

There's a range of solutions for every size, and some magazines may find they could benefit from some pieces and not others. Larger publishers, for example, might benefit from the what-if games they can play with a sophisticated finance and circulation model, while smaller publishers with simpler operations would find it overkill. "Some operations could be modeled on the back of a cocktail napkin," says Kathy Billings, director of circulation consulting with the big fulfillment firm Communications Data Services, which has a circulation modeling system. "For them, it's really a waste of time. It's when you get into a more complicated mix of sources that analysis becomes more pressing."

A sampling in of business-side software sources

CIRCULATION

GS-2000, Acxiom Corporation, 800-922-9466. SFS-3000, Automated Resources Group, 201-391-1500. MasSUB, Brauch Software, 416-470-8550. Communications Data Services, 515-247-7500. Quicksub, Custom Computer Systems, 206-246-1396. CSSC, lnc., 908-225-5555. Quickfill, CWC Software, 800-762-7702. Datasystem Solutions, 913-362-6969. Datatrax Publishing Systems, 203-926-1333. First Edition, Lynx Software, 818-761-5859. MicroScribe Systems, 508-369-7515. Interactive Fulfillment System, NexTech Systems Corp, 914-962-6000. Omni Industry Corp., 303-293-2666. PER Software, 414-537-4131. Publishers Software Software Systems 617-357-7301. Satisfaction Software, 908-828-5755. T&B Computing, 313-973-1900. Worlco Data Systems, 215-630-9500 Publiphile, WPL Associates, 301-986-4584.

AD SYSTEMS

SpaceMaster, SpaceMaster Inc., 212-496-8660. SM3 (Contact Management), PCAS (publisher's Contract and Accounting System), AdTrack 6 (competitive ad tracking system), Abelson Communications, 516-546-2286. Datatrax, Versyss Inc., 203-926-1333. AdSystem, Datafest Technologies, 801-975-0409. Advertising Information System, Masterplanner Production System. Media Services Group, 203-329-1170. Admate, 800-742-4040. ZPro, ZCo Corp., 603-888-7200. Ad/Bill, WPL Associates, 301-986-4584.