DoubleClick Integrates with Donovan

If you've ever run an agency media department, you know that it's tough to set up a system with your finance department to make sure that the invoices that are supposed to be paid are paid. Many media departments handle this by having the person in charge of a campaign approve invoices as they come in. This tends to add a lot of work and can result in the delay of payments to media vendors, as it adds another person into the vendor payment process. However, DoubleClick has recently partnered up with Donovan Data Systems, which many agencies already use for estimating and billing, to integrate their two systems.

This rocks. Media planners who use the system can now offload their vendor payment duties to finance, which is where they belong in the first place.

Donovan already enjoys an installed base of agencies that rely on its somewhat archaic and proprietary systems. To a degree, Donovan resists making any moves that would jeopardize these agency relationships. And since there's very little incentive for Donovan to change anything about how their systems operate, I imagine that cutting this deal must have been a challenge. Hats off to those involved.