• by January 8, 2001

By Debbi K.Swanson

In the world of e-commerce, business names are frequently entertaining. And with MediaOcean.com, a new player in the media exchange industry, its name comes from the idea that not only are buyers and sellers in the same boat, it's a big ocean of possibilities out there that needs some astute navigation.

Ray Heacox, former president of KNBC-TV Los Angeles is at the helm of MediaOcean, based in Atlanta. With technical operations and about 50 employees there, Heacox will be heading to New York to add client service offices and employees soon. Though no launch date is yet set, once established in New York, client announcements followed by beta testing will begin. Financing has been provided by NewCarta Ventures, Mellon Ventures, Gray Ventures, iXL Ventures and others.

Just what is MediaOcean going to do in the world of online ad exchanges that hasn't been done yet? Heacox says it provide a seamless integration of the legacy systems used by both buyers and sellers, for all media.

"We describe it as a collaborative commerce solution for the media industry. We consider ourselves an end-to-end solution (the legacy systems being on one end, MediaOcean on the other),"says Heacox.

Going deeper, it means that buyers and sellers will use MediaOcean as a private, web-based channel to conduct media transactions, including negotiations, as they have always done either in-person, via faxes and other systems requiring both sides to enter the data separately. And Heacox explains that users won't have to learn new technology or systems, solving one of the complaints of many buyers with other online media exchanges. The other is the attempt to remove person-to-person relationships from the buying system.

"We intend to follow business as the industry does it today, not force people to do business differently than they're used to," promises Heacox. "On the agency side of business, we'll work with whatever their systems they're using for planning, worksheets and backroom support. We'll integrate with those systems to keep inputted data constantly reconciled."

Heacox adds that at the pre-buy process, there will be worksheet capabilities, and then the buyers would start communicating with sellers, ask for a proposal, etc. Sellers would be able to respond using the same worksheets, without having to re-input any information.

And when the parties conclude their agreement, MediaOcean would integrate putting the order into system, reconciling notifications, makegoods, etc., and would also negotiate the makegoods, while reconciling between databases. Invoicing is also "ultimately" in the plans.

"Our goal is to have as little human re-input as necessary, not eliminate relationships," says Heacox. "Our value is in making the transaction process hyper-efficient, allowing people more time to interact. We have patents pending and a unique approach to transaction process. We'll create an integration bridge, and act as a supe