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May 8, 2006 :: Volume 2, Issue 4
Next Issue: May 2007

Readers Digest: The Long Goodbye

Posted by TimSlavin at July 16, 2005

"At Reader's Digest, it was called, simply, the Unified File System.

The first system to unify tens of millions of names and addresses from different businesses into one file—and then, add a record of every marketing contact made with each customer. And then, add a record of every product sent to the customer. And then, a record of every payment, as well. Decades before the idea took hold that there was such a thing, The Reader's Digest Association was compiling a "360-degree view" of each of its customers—and allowing its direct marketing operation to figure out how much profit a campaign might produce, before the first envelope was sent out. In a time when years of information had to be crammed into the space of two letters, in a computer.

With Devanny's keystrokes on May 12, the UFS was finally being phased out, in front of a small gathering of marketing, quantitative analysis and technology staff nestled into the Pegasus C room. Corks on champagne bottles popped."

Neat story from Baseline, a highly readable IT magazine. Before there was Amazon, there was Reader's Digest. This story has a number of lessons about how to use customer data to meet customer needs.

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