VCI adds analysis Toolkit

Traffic and automation vendor VCI is introducing a "Sales Analysis Toolkit" to its Starz II+ system. Comprising two products—the Cube and the Trend Analyzer—it is designed to enable sales managers to take a more comprehensive look at sales and traffic data.

The Cube allows raw data to be reconfigured any way a sales manager would like (its name refers to its ability to spin data on any axis).

"Almost every system out there leaves sales managers stuck with paper presentations," says CEO Lowell Putnam. "If you want to look at the numbers in a different way, you need to go back into the system and redesign it or call up another report and print it."

He says the advantage of the Cube software, which will be available as a free upgrade this fall following customer feedback, is that it takes advantage of data the Starz II+ system collects and never purges. A user can reprint, in full, every logged entry since the system was implemented. "If the user comes up with a new way to look at data," Lowell explains, "they can use it for the future and also historically."

The data can be sent as an HTML document, eliminating the need for a paper presentation.

The Trend Analyzer, Putnam says, will allow sales managers to more easily see when demand for inventory is up and when dollars started hitting the books. "If a sales manager knows when agencies and advertisers are going to start the heavy up period, they can know when to re-examine the rate card and make sure it prices out at an appropriate point."

The analysis can be done by daypart, specific advertisers or categories (such as General Motors or automotive), or type of programming (news, for example).

The Toolkit will continue to expand, according to Putnam. An anticipated feature is a base-rate modeling program, which he describes as an interactive "base-rate" budgeting applet allowing users to do "what-if" scenarios on inventory pricing to determine optimal rate structure.