ad tracking software [OT]

[Chris Denesha]

angela deangelo wrote:
> I work for a weekly shopper who prints 11 editions each week and we are 
> in the process of updating all their copies of Creator from 4.0.5 to 8.0.
> 
> We are also looking at buying Ad Tracking software. We need ad tracking 
> software to streamline our workflow, to have the repetitive things done 
> in the background, to tie our Vision Data Total Ads database to our 
> page-layout program.
> 
> We have visited print shops recently that run SCS and DPS Ad Tracking 
> software. We also visited a Roundhouse print shop a few years back.
> 
> Does anyone use any of these ad tracking solutions, and if you do, would 
> you suggest a fellow Creator user to go the same route as you and buy it??
> 
> Thanks,
> Ang
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------
> 
> Angela DeAngelo
> Macintosh Specialist
> 
> 
> 
> Kapp Advertising Services, Inc.
> 100 E. Cumberland Street
> Lebanon, PA 17042

Angela,

Our newspaper produces a daily and 15 weeklies.  We use Roundhouse for 
Ad Tracking and like it - 14 designers.  I haven't seen any other 
solutions in quite awhile so I don't know if it is the best for your 
needs or not.  It requires a Microsoft SQL Server database and an 
application server to run IIS web server for system management and 
proofing (for a smaller shop can be the same server if enough 
horsepower).  I think the interface is MAC-only right now (version 3.5) 
although there will be a web interface on version 4 (rebranded IPS 
Adtrac - requires SQL Server 2005).

Please note that your designers will need to change database statuses 
every time they touch the ad, and it will help to have someone dedicated 
to assigning incoming ads to a 'received/gatekeeper' status so you'll 
know when the ad has been received from the sales rep.  However being 
able to find where an ad is in the workflow and determine what has not 
yet been submitted is Very Nice.

I can tell you though that we had Vision Data Total Ad up until February 
of this year, so there is a proven export mechanism with it (they call 
it an 'MEI export interface').  Roundhouse imports tab delimited text 
files, which the Total Ad interface exports.

Roundhouse has an automated set of scripts that drive applications on a 
standalone MAC workstation called 'DocServer'.  When the job is placed 
into a certain user-definable database status, DocServer kicks in and 
finalizes it (EPS or PDF).  We actually do not have DocServer running 
and are manually finalizing each ad, since there was a bug with C2 and 
our Windows file server where it kept prompting for 'missing' parts that 
were actually there.  I just haven't had time to test it out since we 
upgraded to C7...

You didn't mention what you are using for page-layout software..

Hope this helps,

-- 

chris denesha
Advertising & Telephone Systems Support, IT
The Day Publishing Company
(860)701-4485; OR (800)542-3354, X4485
c.denesha at theday dot com - Work email
chris-list at denesha dot org - List email