EDS Says No to Round-Reel Tapes

ROUND-REEL TAPE, once the preferred way of shipping mailing lists, may be about to go the way of the dinosaur.

Plano, TX service bureau Electronic Data Systems (EDS) has informed clients that it will no longer output list rentals on tape after March 31.

Clients will have to accept them on cartridges, diskette or CD, or have them sent via e-mail or FTP.

Although they generally support the move, industry observers were taken by surprise.

“As a service bureau, it shouldn’t be saying that,” says Len Schenker, president of Anchor Computer. “But we are all still shipping the same tapes we did 25 years ago, and it’s crazy.”

Schenker adds, “It would make a lot of sense if bureaus and list companies communicated effectively.”

He estimates that 30% of the list rentals processed by Anchor Computer are sent on tape. E-mail and FTP account for more than 50% and CDs for 5%.

Worldata/WebConnect’s chief executive Roy Schwedelson agrees that tape has outlived its usefulness for most mailers.

Bill Vignola, president of Mailmen Inc., also supports the move from tape.

“It’s been a long time since tapes have been predominant,” he says.

Vignola estimates that 5% of what his firm handles is sent on tape. Roughly 60% is transmitted online and the rest goes out on cartridges, he says.

EDS clients received an e-mail in January stating, “Because round tape technology is rapidly becoming outdated, EDS List Services Group will not support round-reel tape output for list rentals after March 31, 2002.”

The e-mail, sent by EDS staffer Patty Woods, continued: “To accommodate mailers who are unable to accept 3480 cartridges, we offer files via e-mail, FTP, diskette or CD.”

Woods says the e-mail was sent because tape is “old technology.”

Won’t this hurt small mailers? Not according to Vignola.

“Most of the small guys are on PC anyway,” he says. “To put tape drives on a PC is always a pain in the neck.”