In the coming months you will be seeing a lot of changes here at Compact. You may have already noticed the changes to our main portal site www.compactlists.com. Soon, all of our sites will be modified to fit with this theme making it easier to navigate from one list ordering site to another, such as www.residentlists.com, www.consumerlists.com and www.businesslists.biz. In addition, to the changes in the look and feel of our site we are making major improvements in our mapping applications.

Our current mapping technology is based on Adobe’s Flash webpage plug-in, soon we will be converting to a Java based platform. This change will help us to bring new and more powerful mapping capabilities to all our list ordering websites. Some of the new features will include advanced polygon selection tools and enhanced radius functionality.

Together these changes will make your experience at Compact more user friendly and allow you to do more to target your direct mail list buying needs.

Randy – VP Tech

DM Days in NYC this year was small and not that well attended, so I’m hoping DM Days in San Diego in October doesn’t suffer the same fate. In the intervening months, from June in NYC to now, the economy appears to have hit rock bottom and done a bit of a bounce. The DOW certainly has picked up some steam, and right now is hovering close to 10,000 – seemingly trying to break through that psychological barrier which could send stocks soaring in another round of irrational exuberance! Gold is trading over $1,000 an ounce and oil is around $70 a barrel again. Ben Bernanke, Fed Chairman, has claimed the recession (which I’d call The Great Recession) is “very likely over.” Most economic indicators, for the first time in several years, are pointing up – so what does this mean to list buyers and resellers, and what effect will it have on DM Days?

Well, my feeling is that there will be a reasonable increase in attendance next month at DM Days, I think some life is returning to our industry and people are keen to get out there and see what’s going on – especially if they skipped NYC to save a few dollars last June. I’ve spoken to quite a few list brokers on both coasts lately, and the consensus seems to be that they should make every effort to attend, even if they don’t host a booth – keeping up with what is going on is important to everyone.

It also seems pretty apparent that some life is returning to daily order volumes for many of us. At Compact we’re seeing a return to volumes we haven’t seen for most of the year, the order size is still a little smaller than in previous years, but the total number of daily orders is slowly rising again – a very positive sign. So, fingers crossed, for now at least the marketplace appears to be rebounding and we are all hoping for a solid end to 2009. With any luck this will continue in to 2010 and beyond.

See you at DM Days!

Cheers Rich

This past year has been interesting for all of us, but I think the clearing has begun and business is starting to move again. At Compact, we’re certainly seeing more substantial activity and less quote and hope going on. We have to reinvent how we sell, compete and conduct business in this new global marketplace. Events half way around the world are influencing our economies, and every subtle nuance can send the markets up or down. Seeing our business more clearly will allow us to be ready with new products and services, faster delivery, and more creative solutions to help your business flourish.

Nature has a way of cleaning itself out and growing again. You see it after devastating forest fires or hurricanes. The first sprouts of greenery and then wave after wave of new plants, trees and animals re inhabit the space. Entrepreneurs are out there creating new businesses. Companies are positioning themselves for the recovery by providing better value and creating new products and services.

At Compact we’re always about the Customer and their experience with our company. This last quarter we’ve created new web technology, with more professional tools and demographics for making the best selections of prospects for your products. Our Business List site has been redesigned and is running at lightning speed. Our consumer site will undergo the same “brand change” but exciting new enhancements are going to be added making selections even easier. Our proprietary mapping technologies will be added to make this the premier Consumer data count and order system.

You are what drives us everyday to do our best.

We’ll see you (and the moon) in San Diego at DMA09.

Chris Slauter
Compact Information Systems

The “Run Radius” function is one of the most popular selection tools our customers use for Residential Lists. This completely flexible tool allows radius runs by distance, quantity, or drive time. The origin can be specified as an address, center of a route or a latitude/longitude coordinate. In addition, we recently added a “Run Multiple Radii” option that saves literally hours of time for multi segmented orders!

Over the years we have fielded many questions on this feature and I thought it would help to compile them all in one location for everyone’s benefit. Following is a collection of the most frequently asked:

Q: How does the radius calculation work?

A: Our address data is organized by carrier route within zip code. The radius tool determines which whole routes are applicable for a given radius by running a ranking process that measures the distance from the origin to the center point of possible routes. Those with the shortest distance receive the best ranking result. The Radius tool may include routes that seem to be further away than the desired distance, especially in very rural instances. However, the tool has determined the most densely populated portions of a route and if at least 80% is within the requested zone, it may be selected.

Q: Should I run my radius by Distance or Quantity

A: It depends on the requirements for the specific radius request. Some radius runs need to reach a certain quantity regardless of distance, so the “Quantity” select will compile the closest number of records to the origin address or route using whole routes. The Quantity radius will select the farthest route to cut off to the desired quantity. In other cases “Distance” may be a more important factor rather than quantity. The radius tool will run distances of anywhere from 0.10 miles to 99 miles.

Q: How does the Drive Time radius work?

A: Rather than determining the closest records to an origin by estimating distance “as the crow flies”, the Drive Time radius uses a navigation technology database behind the scenes to calculate addresses within the shortest drive time of an origin. For instance: a long curvy residential road may result in a longer drive time than a straight thoroughfare. Drive Times can be anywhere from 1 minute to 30 minutes from the origin.

Q: What does “Origin Route Rank Not in Top 3” or “Origin Route Not in file” mean?

A: During the Radius processing, each potential route receives a ranking which is based on a measurement between the origin of the radius and the center point of each route. Sometimes the origin route itself does not receive a ranking that is in the top 3 shortest distances. In some cases, selections for the radius run may result in the originating route not be included in the radius result. For instance: a radius select is run excluding business listings but the only listings in the origin route are businesses.

Q: Why won’t the Radius Tool find my address?

A: In order for the radius tool to perform on the address level, a given address needs to be considered valid by the USPS. It also needs to be currently receiving postal delivery to be included in our system. In addition, zip+4 and latitude/longitude coordinates for each address must be available behind the scenes for our processing to function. If any one of these variables is not in place, the address may not be able to be used. Often the best solution is to find a nearby address or to run the radius from the zip & appropriate route instead of an address.

Q: Can I drop duplicates between my radius segments?

A: If multiple radius segments have been set up in an order a “Dedupe” button will appear in the top box on the Job Summary screen. Using “Dedupe” will eliminate duplicate route listings between radius segments by determining which segment using the route has the shortest distance and keeping the route in that particular segment.

Q: Can I use demographic selects to narrow down my radius?

A: Yes, a radius can be filtered by our available median route demographics of age, income, home value and % of households with children.

Q: Can I edit the results of my radius?

A: Once a radius has been run, it can be rerun at any time. Also, the results may be modified using the standard Job Summary interface used in all list orders.

Let us know if your radius question wasn’t answered here… we would be happy to cover any additional questions you may have or provide further demonstration!

Mary McCarty

List Services Manager