The Cole Digest, November 8, 1995

We're with my colleague Pete Wetmore, and he's looking at newspaper system integrators:

In talking with a baker's half-dozen integrators, it became apparent that the differences among them are broader than newspapers used to encounter among suppliers of proprietary systems.

Some, like Digital Equipment Corp., are old-line newspaper industry suppliers, who can tout how intimate they've been with Someone Just Like You in the past. They can promote their knowledge of how a newspaper works in offering not only newspaper-tailored systems, but access to third-party solutions they're capable of installing for you, or with you.

Others have come to the print world from other businesses and can claim that their experience with companies far larger than any newspaper positions them to help you assess your business as an entity, not that collection of puzzle pieces -- and perhaps provide solutions heretofore not used by newspapers.

ACI, for example, has three major client bases: accounting, medical services and newspapers. In a global economy, they have one thing in common -- 24/7 (they operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week). With each, Killoh said, "We take exactly the same approach. We model the business from top to bottom, finding what the requirements of the system are."

This modeling process goes beyond the familiar Request for Proposal that newspapers are accustomed to generating when shopping for technical solutions. ACI is joined by Pantheon of Seattle and Rosecomm of Nashville, two other integrators fairly fresh to newspapering, in taking this broader view in helping a publisher assess what's needed where.

"My role as integrator is that I've dealt with technology and I know what's coming down the pike in a paperless society," said Rose Atkins, president of Rosecomm.

"I lead clients toward their business goals -- more efficiency, greater productivity and revenue gain," she said. "We help them redefine the roles and responsibilities of their people; it's not enough just to put the system in."

One company long familiar to newsrooms and classified alleys alike is courting customers with a fresh bouquet of services to go along with its handsome product line, and its new attitude has won it the hearts and wallets of several major buyers.

"We're in the integration business whether we want to be or not," said Allen Miller, vice president of marketing for the Americas at Atex Publishing Systems Corp. of Bedford, Mass. "Anybody who is building standard systems today is an integrator, whether they call themselves an integrator or not."

In 1993, Atex went north of the border to manage a $2.2 million, multisupplier, multisite project at Le Journal de Montreal, the Quebec city's largest daily. No Atex products were used, Miller noted, while Atex oversaw subcontracts with eight major players, among them CText Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., for classified ad entry and pagination, and Digital Technology International of Orem, Utah, for display ad makeup.

It's not just plug and play, and newspapers need to realize that, and shop for help accordingly. The Atex Affair in Montreal, and ACI's ongoing coziness with The Record of Troy, N.Y., spotlight the complexity of bringing in a tailored system.

"Anyone who says, 'If we can't buy it we won't do it,' is saying they'll do a piece only," Killoh said. "Integration requires writing code in every business. You write whatever you have to, you buy whatever you can."

At Troy, total pagination -- 28 pages a day, on average, straight to negative -- was achieved with "three coded things and 250 different vendors' packages," Killoh said.

Next time: Who are the customers?

Onward.

\dmc

[THE COLE DIGEST is written by consultant David M. Cole, editor and publisher of the industry newsletter THE COLE PAPERS. The DIGEST is made available to PressLink subscribers every Wednesday at no extra charge. Send comments by e-mail to cole@plink.geis.com. The COLE DIGEST is the property of The Cole Group, a California sole proprietorship. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of The Cole Group is prohibited. Copyright (C) 1995, The Cole Group. Opinions expressed are those of The Cole Group, unless otherwise noted.

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