Commentary
Mediaocean's Smart Move To Automate Billing And Account Management With DSPs
- by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, October 27, 2016
Mediaocean, a provider of workflow management software, announced it will integrate with four demand-side platforms (DSPs) to automate programmatic account management and billing for agencies. This is a smart move, as these types of functions remain unorganized and scattered. If you’re going to automate media, you may as well automate the account management and billing that support the function. It's automation not only for media, but for the functions that support the entire process.
The program, called Connect Programmatic, was announced at AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O conference on Wednesday. It is launching with DSPs TubeMogul, The Trade Desk, Rocket Fuel, and MediaMath. The function is available to all agencies using Mediaocean and buying through the participating platforms.
Here's the way it works: The DSPs, via API integrations, will connect with Mediaocean’s Prisma workflow platform, which automates invoicing, billing, and other back-office functions for media buying.
The industry is likely to see more of these types of integrations, as not only the media buying process gets automated but all the functions that support it do too. It’s solving a problem, since there are still manual, time-consuming processes associated with media buying.
Mediaocean’s new program will enable agencies to automate insertion orders, invoices, and bills to DSPs. Conversely, the DSPs will be able to offer real-time reporting to agencies. This helps buyers understand how their programmatic media buys are performing, compared to standard media buys.
Tobi Elkin is the Editor of MediaPost's Real-Time Daily and the RTBlog. You can reach Tobi at telkin@mediapost.com.
I only wonder why it took so long for this to happen. DDS, and now the combined MediaOcean, have pretty much owned these agency support processes since the 1970s. In large measure, it is why agencies have limited their in house systems capabilities; they rely on DDS/MO to handle it for them. Now the new services can be absorbed into the flow. It may not work as smoothly as some in the business may want (or say they want,) but MediaOcean has been, and remains, the only game in town. I suppose numerous other programmatic providers will fall in line over time, even if the integration path is slower and bumpier than the new tech providers want.