1. Why are the standards a “Beta” release?
The IAB Interactive E-Business standards were released as Beta versions because it is the first attempt by the interactive industry to deliver data between a disparate number of systems and trading partners. Many companies from the entire interactive advertising ecosystem were involved in developing the standards, but implementation of the standards will be a learning experience for everyone. The IAB will coordinate the first trading partner implementations of the standards in order to help everyone learn at the same time from development issues. Therefore, if changes need to be made to the standards, the Beta testing group of companies will be able to make those changes together.
The IAB hopes that the Beta period for the standards will last approximately one year and conclude sometime in late 2009. This will allow enough time for most of the large vendors in interactive to allocate the development resources and test the solution with their customers. When the standards move out of Beta they will continue to be updated periodically to meet the changing needs of the industry.
2. How much do you expect the standards to change during the Beta period?
The standards are not expected to change materially throughout the Beta period. Because of the number of vendors and other companies involved in the development of the standards, they are believed to be very comprehensive. Data fields may be added, or current fields may be changed from optional to required, but it is unlikely that fields will be removed. It is also possible that some fields may be moved to different groupings, but this is also considered unlikely.
3. How do I sign up to be a Beta tester?
The IAB is accepting Beta testers at this time. If you are a systems vendor or a company that develops and maintains its own systems that would need to integrate the E-business standards, please email Jeremy Fain, Vice President of Industry Services, at jeremy@iab.net. If you are a company that uses third-party systems for your planning, order management, ad serving and/or billing, please ask them to contact Jeremy directly.
4. How does my company start using these E-business standards?
The IAB Interactive E-business standards have been designed to be integrated into planning, order management, ad-serving, and billing software. If your company uses a third-party vendor for any of these functions, please contact them and ask them when they will be implementing the E-business standards in their products. Please check the list of Beta testers
5. Does this solution store my business data in a clearinghouse?
No. The E-business working group decided that because of vendor and other trading partner expertise in electronic data exchange, the E-business standards would use a one-to-one communication solution. This means that when your company sends an RFP, a proposal, etc, it will be sent directly to the trading partner and will not pass through a middle-man system. Each system you use to create any of these documents will need to be integrated in some way with the E-business standards, but once they support the standards they will be able to communicate directly with your trading partners.
6. Why was the Invoice left out of the covered business documents?
The Invoice was left out because the development of the standards began in late 2007 when there were no major agency-side systems capable of handling interactive invoices. By late 2008, several systems were in testing on the agency side and the Invoice solution will be developed and tested throughout the E-business Beta period (ending late 2009). The Invoice solution will closely mimic the IO solution with additional fields for data points like delivered metrics (impressions, clicks, etc) and final billed costs.
7. Why are revisions not supported in the Beta version of the E-business standards?
This was a heavily debated decision within the E-business working group. In the end, the reason the workflow was kept to a strict one-way communication standard was because revisions need to be negotiated and the negotiations between publisher and agency are generally non-standard and it was important that the largest number of trading partners would be able to adopt the standards immediately.
The complexity of inventory management in interactive advertising usually necessitates a holistic solution to any change in a proposal or IO. The working group decided to keep these negotiations offline (via email, phone, etc) in order to let publishers and agencies work out the complexities all at the same time. Once a revision has been agreed upon by both parties, the publisher should send a revised Proposal to the agency, whether before or during the campaign run, and the agency can then send back an accepted IO document with revised ad tags, IDs, or other necessary information. This will keep the E-business process simple enough for a larger number of trading partners to adopt.
8. Can I attach additional documents like spreadsheets or presentations when sending information through these standards?
Yes. It is likely that agencies who begin to use the E-business RFP solution will still attach additional spreadsheets or presentations for the foreseeable future. It also likely that publishers will need to attach additional materials to their Proposals. Regardless of what the documents are, the standards allow for attachments.
9. Who was involved in creating these standards?
The following companies, groups, and organizations were a part of the IAB Ad Ops Council E-Business Working Group:
AAAA
AOL/Platform-A
Atlas Solutions
CNET Networks/CBS Interactive
Disney Interactive Media Group
Donovan Data Systems
DoubleClick
Google
Mediabank
Microsoft
Operative
Solbright
Time Inc
Turner Broadcasting
TVB
Univision Online
Weather Channel Interactive
Yahoo!, Inc
The E-business standards also incorporate standard document datasets that were developed by publishers and agencies through other working groups and initiatives, including the IAB/AAAA Reinvention project.
