InfiNet, the leading application service provider for U.S. media companies, needed to help a client meet a tough corporate mandate. The client was Knight Ridder, the second-largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., and owner of 32 news dailies across the country. One of Knight Ridder’s operating goals called for a web-based solution that would let newspaper customers manage certain aspects of their subscriptions.
Help Wanted: Web Self-Service
As in other industries, customer contact centers in the newspaper industry can get bogged down by a set of routine tasks that don’t always generate revenue. Because Knight Ridder’s contact center operation is a separate business unit that charges per-call rates, the publisher was eager to introduce the cost-saving measures made possible by the Internet. They also wanted to take full advantage of the web as a subscrip-tion sales channel.
Knight Ridder began by identifying typical contact-center transactions that had a potential for web self-service. Then they selected the newspapers where they wanted to roll out the project. Using Attachmate® Verastream® Host Integrator, InfiNet was able to produce a subscriber service portal and use that model to deploy web solutions for the Akron, Ohio, Beacon Journal, the Columbia, S.C., State, the St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press, the San Jose, Calif., Mercury News, and a consortium of five Contra Costa, Calif., papers.
Why Verastream?
Verastream Host Integrator encapsulates mainframe data and logic via the screen interface to enable participation in today’s service-oriented architectures. Verastream delivers rapid results because you can use existing development skills, familiar IT tools, and proven mainframe investments.
Knight Ridder, a long-time satisfied user of Attachmate® Reflection® terminal emulation software, had already heard favorable reports on Verastream from The Miami Herald, one of their largest dailies. That newspaper had paved the way by using Verastream Host Integrator as a legacy-to-web solution. Impressed with the Herald’s outstanding results, Knight Ridder turned to InfiNet and stated a preference for Verastream.
The Technical Challenges
The IT systems at Knight Ridder have some unique characteristics. The newspapers, geographically dispersed across three time zones, are connected by WAN and all individual transactions traverse that WAN. The papers handle their circulation processes with both custom applications and an order management/distribution system called GEAC.
These customer-focused applications, which handle billing, accounts receivable, collections, and redeliveries, run on HP e3000 or iSeries (AS/400) hosts, depending on the newspaper. One issue shared by all five newspapers is that these legacy systems—representing a combined accumulation of some 100-plus years of valuable business logic—were never conceived to address today’s rapidly changing customer-service needs.
Although accessing multiple legacy systems can be tricky, Verastream simplified the
process and let InfiNet reuse Knight Ridder’s proven code to develop the web-based solution. The two organizations worked closely to establish the firewalls, security practices, and host connectivity requirements at each newspaper. They also defined the parameters for the user functions.
Reading Between the Lines at Knight Ridder
On the surface, Knight Ridder’s technical challenges seemed daunting. But with Verastream providing the ability to encapsulate the legacy logic and model the host application, InfiNet was able to quickly provide the required web functionality. Verastream’s advanced technology requires no changes to existing legacy application code, so there was no interruption to Knight Ridder’s day-to-day operations.
The InfiNet development process was further simplified by Verastream’s table layer abstraction, which presents legacy functionality in a database view, for easier access. This let InfiNet web programmers—independent of the mainframe programmers—manipulate the information in the legacy application through the database interface, providing a degree of commonality across the various newspapers. It also opened up customization options for individual newspapers, even though they were using the same model.
Turning the Page to Excellent Customer Service
Because Verastream lets you merge different combinations of legacy functionality, the InfiNet IT staff was able to closely map selected fields on the circulation systems to the screens on the web application. This not only enhances the customer experience, but also blocks user access to certain functions on the Knight Ridder back-end systems. (For example, there is no option for customers to cancel their subscription on line, so contact center agents can have an opportunity to be involved in the process.)
Now Knight Ridder newspaper subscribers can use the online service to:
- Purchase subscriptions.
- Temporarily stop and restart service.
- Report delivery problems.
- Check account status.
- Make payments.
Customers simply enter their account number and select the transaction they want. Although they never see what happens behind the scenes, Verastream syncs their account number up with the legacy system, where the actual processing takes place.
InfiNet hosts the web applications and associated Verastream software, which remotely connect to the legacy systems in all five locations. In addition to more satisfied customers and improved circulation numbers, the web solution has had a positive impact on Knight Ridder’s contact center; it can now handle more calls that actually generate revenue.
Pulling It All Together
Attachmate Consulting Services played a key role in this endeavor, providing project guidance and implemen-tation support as InfiNet deployed the new web application at each newspaper. In fact, the consulting team helped create the original legacy model used to develop the first web front end, at the St. Paul newspaper. A strategically engineered design allowed Knight Ridder to use the same model as they intro-duced web functionality to their other affiliates.
“The InfiNet team found working with Attachmate to be a very positive experience, both because of the company’s knowledge base and because of its skill at partnering,” said Angus Twombly, InfiNet’s vice president of customer development. “They understood the intri-cacies of the newspapers’ legacy systems, and were excellent at project management at the individual sites. Their timelines and followthrough were important to achieving an overall positive experience with our Knight Ridder customers.”
This solution has the potential for ongoing value to Knight Ridder due to the reusability of the legacy models created with Verastream. Now, each new web application can be developed faster than the one before it, because the “building blocks” have already been generated. They can be mixed and matched to power the application needed for the next business mandate, just around the corner.
See this Solution in Action
One example of the InfiNet solution is the online Subscription Service Center for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. This web site shows how Verastream makes it possible for subscribers to handle their own transactions by interfacing, in real time, with the newspaper’s back-end systems. To try it out, go to www.pioneerpress.com. Click on Subscribe in the blue header bar at the top, and you’ll land in the Subscription Service Center, where you can choose the service you need from the items in the left nav.