ePORT DESERVES THE INDUSTRY'

Kudos to the Television Bureau of Advertising for making a commitment to create ePort, an e-business digital platform to support multi-platform ad sales transactions, and to NAB for providing the financial backing for launching the portal in cyberspace later this year.

For several years now, Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association (BCFM) and its Broadcast Cable Credit Association (BCCA) subsidiary have worked with TVB, supporting the its work with the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies on e-business initiatives. The TVB platform represents a quantum leap toward realizing this common vision.

As the trade organizations for the industry's financial and credit and collections professionals, BCFM and BCCA have long recognized the link between closing the DSO (day sales outstanding) window and improving financial accounting procedures through electronic ordering and invoicing.

Sarbanes-Oxley requirements for documenting internal control processes have further highlighted the importance of having standardized systems that can be used throughout the industry to improve the quality and efficiency of our revenue recognition activities.

The industry's early commitment to e-business provides a solid foundation for the e-Port platform. As TVB notes, roughly 1,000 stations around the country already use electronic invoicing systems and 15 major agencies and their clients are accepting "paperless" invoices.

Also helping to lay the foundation for e-Port was the eBiz for Media initiative, launched by AAAA. With the goal of reducing the manual work and errors that result from paper transactions between media sellers and buyers, the initiative launched an eBiz Media Lab, allowing trading partners to conduct eBiz tests in a controlled environment.

These tests have been effective in demonstrating that the services provided by a platform like ePort will result in "reduced errors, lower costs and increased competition." In addition, the e-biz initiative found that participants can more easily make adjustments that respond to changing business needs and provide audit trails for procurement requirements and advertising verification.

Our own experience shows us that e-business initiatives represent an opportunity to replace traditional practices such as notarized invoices. The practice of notarizing invoices for local television stations dates back to a time when stations were small, invoices were created manually and the station manager had personal knowledge and responsibility for the contents of invoices.

Although it may still be a requirement, a notarized signature on an invoice confirms only the authenticity of the signature; it does not validate the content of that document. Furthermore, a survey conducted by BCCA indicates that, in most states, notarization does not contribute to the validity or legality of the document.

Last winter, BCFM, AAAA, TVB and ANA unanimously agreed to recommend the end of notarized invoicing requirements. The groups also called on the industry to fully embrace all of the advantages of e-business, including electronic invoicing and electronic ordering of television time, and we are again speaking with one voice in our support for the ePort platform.

It is important to recognize that e-Port doesn't interfere with the dynamics of the selling process. As Abby Auerbach, executive vice president of TVB, stressed when ePort was announced last week, "the purpose for the platform is about automating the backroom process, not online negotiation."

I hope you will make a point to visit the ePort site, http://www.tvb.org/ARC/edi/toolbox/eport.asp, and learn more about this important step into the future for our industry.

One of the best ways for us to do business in the new media world is to use the new media tools that make it easier for our customers to do business with us.

Mary Collins is the president of the Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association, a professional society for financial, MIS and HR executives in the electronic media. Her column appears here every other Friday. She can be contacted at mcollins@bcfm.com or 847-716-7000.