In-house systems

Rewind ten years or so, and forgive the generalisations along the way. What was the typical experience of the team managing the in-house subscription system? Data inputters would have sat in front of dumb terminals with their mono (usually green), character based screens. Getting data onto the system was painful, getting it off more so. Concepts like ‘analysis package’, ‘report writer’, ‘quick count’ and ‘data cube’ were unheard of, and the only way to analyse the data was to rely on one of the system-supplied reports or to commission a new one. This would have involved specking it out, getting a quote, having it approved, scheduling it in, testing it and finally using it – by which time, in all likelihood, the moment would have passed. If you relied on an in-house IT department for such requests, then you would have had to get in the queue and wait. Requests for system enhancements were met with sharp intakes of breath and a shake of the head. "We can do it, if you really want it, but it will cost X and will take Y weeks / months / years. Are you really sure you want it?" Probably not. Because the systems could do little more than hold the database and run the main processes, not a lot was asked of them and, consequently, not a lot was asked of the circulation department. An extreme view? Probably, but many will recognise the picture.

And now? Whilst the above scenario still exists in isolated pockets, purchasers of new systems now face an altogether more exciting outlook. Access to the server is via PC, the screens are colour and graphical, with a look and feel users are familiar with. Managers have a wide choice of how they interrogate the database, make selections and report. As Publishing Software Company’s Laurence Cope notes, most systems output, as a matter of course, to the almost universally used Microsoft packages Word, Excel and Outlook. For more complex selections and reports, most systems interface easily with third party packages; alternatively publishers can use the inbuilt data analysis tools that come with SQL or Oracle. Data is instantly accessible. Any resistance that publishers might have faced from their suppliers in the past has been replaced by a can-do, anything-is-possible, let’s-sit-down-and-talk approach. A lot is now expected of the system and a lot, now, is being expected of the circulation department.

Drivers of change

Five factors have driven this dramatic change: increased computing power, the move from DOS to Windows operating systems, the adoption of industry wide standards, the move to open hardware architecture, and the web.

1. Increased computing power
Computers are quicker, more powerful, can store more (much more) and are cheaper. This puts powerful computing in the hands of even the smallest publishers.

2. From DOS to Windows
BPI Associate’s Iain Pulley describes the move from the ‘unfriendly’ environment of DOS to the "much easier programming environment of Windows," which is "faster, friendlier and more adaptable for everyone – programmer and user."

3. Adoption of industry wide standards
As a result of Microsoft’s hold on the PC world, de facto industry standards have emerged. The Windows operating system itself is, by some estimates, used in over 90% of the world’s PCs. Microsoft’s office tools (Word, Excel, Access, Outlook) have seen off, or trampled over, all comers (remember WordPerfect, WordStar, Lotus 1-2-3?) and Microsoft’s database management system SQL (along with Oracle) now forms the foundation of most new database applications.

4. Move to open hardware architecture
The move from closed proprietary hardware platforms to open industry standard ones freed both programmers and users. Users are now able to source software from far and wide, confident in the knowledge that it will work on their existing hardware, and programmers need spend less time obsessing over platforms and more time on focussing on publishing solutions.

5. The web
The advent of the web as an enabler of more efficient circulation processes (subscriber self service, email marketing, electronic file despatch etc) and as a marketing and delivery channel of almost infinite potential is currently the biggest driver of system development and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

System evolution

These five drivers did not follow sequentially and were intertwined, each affecting and moulding the other. But, taken as a whole, they underpin the evolution of circulation software over the last ten years and will continue to drive change moving forward. Back in the early to mid nineties, system suppliers had to be jacks-of-all-trades. They would be responsible for all aspects of the system from operating system up. Because of the closed nature of the programming environment, if an application needed creating they would need to create it. Now, specialist packages (address cleaning, BACS / direct debit processing, tax calculators, word processing, spreadsheets, email, data analysis etc etc) can be bolted, seamlessly, onto the system. Whereas, before, your system supplier would have had to acquire an expertise in all these different areas, now they can rely on specialists, freeing them up for publisher specific work. Advantage Computing Systems’ Dan Heffernan notes that, within their team, the balance of system engineers and application engineers has shifted over time in favour of the application engineers.

Another by-product of the changing computer environment is the more tech savvy publisher. Publishing teams are experienced users of standard PC packages as well as online and mobile communications, and are, consequently, more knowledgeable about what computers can and can’t do and … more demanding. They are less tolerant of bugs and long lead times for fixes and enhancements. As the boundaries of what is possible are steadily pushed back, so have publisher expectations increased, especially in relation to the marketing and revenue opportunities of their circulation file.

Marketing orientation

In the distant past, the simple goal of the system was the efficient management of the circulation – the capture of contact information, the generation of mailing labels and the management of the subscription process from acquisition through to renewal. By and large, publishers did not expect much more from their systems. That has totally changed, and whilst the efficient administration of the circulation system is a given, the emphasis for many publishers, and their system suppliers, is on what the system can offer in terms of marketing capability.

Most system suppliers have enhanced the marketing functions of their systems over the past five years in line with publisher expectations. Naturally, some publishers demand more in the way of marketing functionality than others, and the systems out there reflect this. Some are more highly configured than others. Choosing the right system for you will depend on your budget, your requirements and the skill sets of your staff.

The following marketing ‘features’ show the direction marketing lead publishers, and their system suppliers, are going.

* Contact history
Systems are being required to show full contact history, both in terms of your contact with them and also their contact with you. Every piece of communication, every offer and every response is being captured, and is selectable, reportable and actionable. Some systems are showing not only the detail, but are coding up types of communication to further aid analysis and are also holding images – both of the marketing piece and the response. This is of benefit to both customer service operators and marketing planners.

* Tailor the offer
Long gone are the days when the typical order was a one year subscription to a print magazine, starting in January and expiring in December. Publishers now need infinite flexibility in defining their offering, irrespective of term, type, or number of products. Sussex Computer’s Garry Marsh no longer refers to his system as a ‘publication’ system but a ‘product’ system, and that product can be anything: magazine, book, digital edition, email newsletter, access to a website, seminar place, golfing umbrella, cuddly toy, whatever! And how those products are accounted for is now more complex. Alan Weaver says that systems need to be flexible enough to account for traditional ‘issue based’ fulfilment as well as the typical online models of: ‘time based’ or ‘usage’. Furthermore, as Media Services Group’s Allen Marks says, "in the age of cross and up-sell, any publisher of two or more products, is going to try and bundle their various products together" and systems need to be able to offer virtually unrestricted bundling, the correct tax calculations of bundle components, and efficient handling of the package, both at acquisition and at renewal. Advantage’s Dan Heffernan notes that "publishers are packaging more than one item together more than they were ten years ago, and we are also seeing components which are diversified."

* Segmentation
Increasingly, publishers need the ability to segment their database by any criteria, and to then apply that segment to any process, be it a report, selection, campaign, issue run, renewal or billing series.

* Campaign planning
Having all the data in the world is no use, unless it is actionable. Data needs to be coded, categorised and selectable and marketers need the ability to specify multi-channel, multi-shot campaigns targeted at precisely defined segments of the database, and to automate the process so that certain things happen to a pre-determined schedule. The absence of limits or constraints is important for marketers. In some systems, this flexibility has been extended to renewal and billing series. Where previously, says Gordon & Gotch’s Graham Elliott, there might have been an assumption that everyone got the same renewal notice and that there was a finite number of efforts, much greater flexibility is now expected.

* Import / export
Going hand in hand with improved campaign planning functionality is the need for efficient import / export and merge / purge tools.

* Instant access to data
Whether it be for making selections or reporting, marketers now expect instant access to the data using either the system supplier’s own tools or third party ones … or both. R.E.D Computing’s Helen Jeffrey also noted an increased use of circulation modelling, which is being driven, in part, by the marketing department’s need to show performance, not just on a campaign basis, but on a magazine wide basis.

* Customer service
To maximise cross and up-selling opportunities, system providers are also being asked to provide call scripting and pop up prompts to remind the customer service operators of relevant offers.

Administration

The five drivers of change, mentioned earlier, had a profound impact on circulation administration. The trends are towards automating business processes, streamlining operations, removing inefficiencies and the dispersal of functions like data input and customer service. Of particular note are the following:

1. Automation
In their efforts to cut costs and increase efficiency, the drive towards automation continues apace. Advances in scanning technology mean that much reader correspondence (particularly renewals and reregistrations) can be scanned rather than keyed, resulting in faster, cheaper and more accurate input. Another area of increased focus is the various interfaces between circulation and other systems. According to Oak Software’s Robert Eyre, the ideal should be to link the whole process electronically from the web right through to accounts. This linking is increasingly seamless, with system providers moving away from import / export routines, which are too reliant on the publisher and therefore prone to the occasional hitch, to seamless communications between systems and departments.

2. Customisation
Some systems allow the user to customise the data entry screens, both in terms of cosmetics (background colours etc), and, more meaningfully, in terms of field layout and functionality. This way, publishers can use different screens for, say, inbound customer service where the operator might need to see the full array of available information, and quick batch input screens for controlled circulation reregistrations or subscription renewals where perhaps only one or two fields might be required.

3. Globalisation
The growth of the internet has greatly increased the potential for overseas sales, so systems are having to cater for multi-currency and foreign addressing.

4. Business rules
5 fifteen’s David Montgomery says that "there now is the potential for an increased level of business automation through the introduction of business process servers and rules engines." The increasing affordability of products like Microsoft’s BizTalk has the potential to streamline some of the more complex areas of circulation administration; for instance, the vetting of online controlled circulation registrations and the management of inbound customer service calls, where the precise action to be taken is determined by a set of business rules which will vary from title to title. Typically, these are currently processed manually, where an operator first undergoes a period of product training before being let loose on the data and / or customer. Products like BizTalk can help automate some of these processes, making them quicker, more consistent and less vulnerable to operator error.

5. Self serve
One of the biggest changes in circulation administration has been the use of the web for subscriber self service. The subscriber can go to the website, order a subscription, and, depending on the sophistication of the interface, edit their address details and renew their subscription. On the click of the submit button the data will do one of three things (again, depending on publisher policy and system sophistication): get printed out and rekeyed, be put in a holding area to be batch loaded, or go straight through, in real time, to the database. Which route is taken clearly has workflow implications. Another consideration is permissioning. Increasingly, taking a subscription entitles the subscriber to certain online benefits, often accessible via a password. When the link to the subscriber database is real time, then this does not present a problem. Where the link is delayed, then some workaround is needed to get a password generated in good time.

6. Complete dispersal
According to Gordon & Gotch’s Jon Szwer, in ten years time, "people will not distinguish between inhouse and online systems. People will work locally or remotely via a browser. Data input and customer service functions will be outsourced and the office will be manned by ‘power users’ importing and exporting data files." Watch this space.

Horses for courses

Are all systems doing all of the above? No. Should all systems be doing it? Not necessarily. It depends on the requirements of the publisher. The demands of a newsletter publisher, heavily dependent on subscription revenue, will be very different to those of a newsstand publisher with a small subs base. However, it is fair to say that systems, in general, are moving towards a more market oriented focus, and are being constructed in open architecture environments. Many suppliers have ‘rearchitectured’ their systems in the last few years and their packages are very impressive. Many are still supporting old DOS versions of their software, but are steadily converting their existing clients across and new clients, obviously, take the new version. Legacy systems are not a big constraining factor on software developers. As Alan Weaver says, "at the top end, the systems are exceptional; they balance to the nearest penny, are feature rich and have an excellent look and feel."