Maybe others saw the signs before I did, but I’ll admit to being surprised this past summer when Google announced it would be sunsetting DoubleClick Sales Manager (DSM) in 2019.
On top of all the other major challenges they’re facing right now—GDPR, ads.txt, contextual relevance, Facebook, etc.—more than a hundred publishers also need to select and then migrate to a new order management system (OMS) before summer 2019.
Right after Google’s announcement, Craig Leshen, President of OAO, heard from his clients that this was a big concern heading into 2018, and he decided to look at potential solutions. OAO is a Google Certified Publishing Partner, and reseller of DFP, DSM, along with a variety of other technical solutions, so it naturally made sense for them to find another platform which their clients could swap in for DSM.
When we spoke with Leshen, he noted, “Publishers continue to maintain direct relationships with agencies, and a lot of the larger ones rely on order management systems to help streamline their operations, sales process, and billing. Removing their OMS from the equation could result in significant cost increases and process inefficiencies.”
Leshen and the team at OAO decided to take action, and the result was a partnership with FatTail to be a reseller of their AdBook+ platform.
“At OAO, we work with clients who directly contract for DFP and DSM through us, and also provide services for clients who maintain direct relationships with Google,” Leshen said. “As always, we’re trying to stay one step ahead for them and partnering up with FatTail, one of the leaders in their field, made a ton of sense. We’ve worked with FatTail many times over the past 14 years, and our teams are already working together to ensure our clients’ transition to AdBook+ will be seamless.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Craig and his team to deliver a comprehensive revenue management solution to publishers,” commented Doug Huntington, CEO of FatTail. “We have long been impressed by OAO’s commitment to moving the advertising industry forward by driving down operational and transaction costs, and helping premium publishers optimize the value of their inventory.”
OMS migrations will be a big topic at AdMonsters Publisher Forums this year, like Huntington Beach in March. Three things all publishers thinking about migrating from DSM to another OMS should consider according to Leshen are:
- Change Management:
- Does the OMS already have an integration into DFP which will offer similar, or the same, functionality as DSM? What additional functionality does the OMS bring to the table?
- How extensive will the training be? How quickly will your team be able to learn the new system?
- Roadmap:
- DSM and DFP were both owned by the same company; the same will not hold true when you move to a new OMS.
- How in tune with DFP is the new OMS, and what are the planned feature releases the OMS has in the works?
- Migration and Ongoing Support:
- What kind of assistance will be provided during the migration to your new OMS?
- Make sure to understand the details regarding the types of ongoing support available to you, and how the support process works.