• April 1, 2005

The Television Bureau of Advertising is moving to expand its electronic data interchange EDI) initiative in a deal with Harris Corp., Abby Auerbach, the TVB's executive vice president, announced Thursday during the association's marketing conference in New York. This week, Harris, a business systems provider, will begin working with the TVB on new EDI initiatives, Auerbach noted in her presentation at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York. Harris, which entered the advertising systems business with the acquisition of Encoda Systems last November, is working with the TVB and the American Association of Advertising Agencies to extend the open standards to develop two-way E-orders and E-orders for local television stations. The company will help create hub standards - online sites where reps, broadcasters, and media buyers can meet to complete EDI transactions -- and open systems with XML formats, which is the standard for EDI. -- D.K.