DataStore At Work

Times Picayune Newspaper, New Orleans

The Data Processing department at the Times Picayune Newspaper provides services to the major business units of the organization. Automated systems gather information concerning want ad content, subscriber wishes, advertiser and subscription billings, collections and general finance.

Data Processing Platforms

Two different platforms are employed for these applications. One, an IBM 4300, handles subscriber wishes, advertiser and subscription billings, dealer billings, collections and general finance. Another, a UNIX system, gathers want ad data, otherwise know as AD Proofs and ships them electronically to the presses.

Much of the report output is shared by various units in the regular course of business. Previously these reports, invoices and want ad proofs were committed to microfiche. The microfiche provided both information access and long term storage. With ever increasing volumes and the necessity of quick turn around, the organization was spending in excess of $3,500 per month on microfiche originals and copies.

Copies of the relevant microfiche were distributed to individual departments as necessary. They would then have the responsibility of organizing, storing and managing their own individual fiche copies.

Different departments need various combinations of the off-line data to complete their various business responsibilities. For instance:

Credit Department

The Credit Department utilizes a number of different documents and reports in the daily course of business. The receivable aging report is an important aspect of their work. It is generated weekly and can contain thousands of pages. It contains information that is common to other data such as the ad proofs. Often, a customer is debating an invoice for an ad that the customer claims did not have correct information in it. Prior to Hitec DataStore the credit department would have to first look at the aging report, (on one set of fiche), to see what the unique ad number was. Then access the ad proof microfiche to find the ad number and verify the content. This should be straight forward except the customer might have changed the ad in the middle of the run and the credit department would have to search through additional sets of fiche to find out if the change order had been submitted and that the ad had actually changed. This could require looking at the index fiche of many sets, just to find out if the ad number was in the batch.

Often, due to the way the UNIX system outputs the ad proofs, the ad text might roll over into a second page which was not in the microfiche index, causing the credit department to overlook it or spend extra time finding the non indexed portion. All very time consuming and subject to error.

With DataStore, the ad proofs are downloaded daily into the system and automatically indexed based on the ad number and date. DataStore tracks all pages, even those that run over on to a second page. Since all ads have a unique number, a search with DataStore retrieves, in just seconds, a unique ad as it was sent to the presses for every day it was run. Or, the credit department can retrieve only the days that are in question and quickly review what was actually printed and resolve the dispute quickly. The credit person never has to leave their workstation and can find the relevant information while the customer is on the phone.

If the customer believes the invoice is wrong, then the credit person can retrieve the electronically stored invoice from DataStore with another quick search and review with the customer the contents. If the customer needs a copy it can be printed or faxed directly from the workstation. In summary, the credit department utilizes a number of different reports that are now electronically stored on the DataStore system, including; General Billing invoices, Advertising Billing, Transient P&L (Receivable Aging), and Ad Proofs (used heavily for dispute resolution)

Circulation

Circulation is another department that uses a variety of off line documents and reports to provide customer service and resolve on going complaints. Dealer Billing statements are accessed to resolve disputes. Route activity reports that include starts, stops, holds and summaries of route complaints are reviewed constantly, Galley Master, Dealer Information, Route Manager reports contain all relevant information about independent dealers, prepaid subscriptions, etc.. They are used extensively by the circulation department.

Auditing Department

The internal Auditing Department reviews all information used by the circulation and credit departments. Including: P&L, Transient P&L, Condensed financial reports, General Billing, Commercial Billing, Retail Billing, and General financial reports

With Hitec DataStore the system, there is no need to replicate all the different reports for each department. There is one common repository, the DataStore server, that is connected to the organizations WAN (Wide Area Network). The server is accessed by individual workstations running DataStore client software. By using the notes facility, individual departments can store a comment on a page, such as an invoice, that will be available for viewing by another department when that invoice is accessed. This will help eliminate redundant efforts and promote communication between departments.

System Configuration

The system configuration for the Times Picayune incorporates the use of the Local Area Network, workstations running MS-Windows 95 and 3.11, which are connected to that network and high speed peripherals, such has optical sub systems and 9-track tape sub system.

The DataStore Server is a 200 MHz Pentium workstation with 64 MB of Memory and 6.2 GB of Magnetic disk. Attached to it is a 9-Track tape drive, 2 - 4.6 GB optical disk drives and a single CD-ROM drive. The server is connected to the Novell network via an Ethernet connection. The server is running MS-Windows NT Station and all applications, including the server application is under windows control. Client stations run Windows 95.

The 9-track tape is used due to the heavy volume of print data. The tape is faster than the direct connection facilities available and required no change in the procedures used for microfiche tape creation. Scripts were written by the integrator, Rodan, Inc. to take each type of tape and load the correct file attributes and DataStore data interchange, eliminating many operational issues associated with so many different report types.

The reports that are utilized constantly are segregated to on-line disks and reports that a simply to be archived and rarely looked at, are kept on disk that are not on-line. The data is compressed by DataStore’s hyper compression which allows for two million pages on a single optical volume. To provide future additional on-line access, the optical disk volumes can be copied to a DVD-ROM disk. The on-line DVD-ROM drives are much less expensive than optical drives. This allows for inexpensive on-line capacity without loss of speed. Magnetic disc can serve the same purpose

Ultimately, it is planned that the optical disks become the off-site archive copy and the newer DVD-ROM disks are used as the local working copies. DVD-ROM towers and autochangers can provide further scalability at reduced cost.

Economic Benefit

In terms of economic benefit, the entire DataStore system, including server hardware, client and server software, installation, etc., is leased for approximately $1,700 per month. It is significantly less than the previous costs for microfiche processing. Additional savings come from reduced expenditures on microfiche equipment/supplies and from reduction in labor caused by inefficiencies associated with microfiche. Now that all reports are available electronically, there is considerably less printing required, which further reduces operational costs.

There has been a great deal of attention from the executive offices as well. After reviewing the application, the Publisher of the organization ordered that the application be put on a new workstation in his office. Following his lead, other executives are becoming users. It’s the first time that detail information concerning daily operations has been available at their finger tips!