A Brief History of Australia On Disc

The Early Days

Since the very early eighties, marketing managers of both small and large companies had seen significant sales-lead generation potential in the Yellow pages, and to a somewhat lesser extent, the white pages. In late 1983, the former College Mercantile Group, a very successful Australian-owned and operated competitor to Dun and Bradstreet (Australia) P/L, was the first local company to make commercially available the national yellow pages, able to be selected by category and/or geographic area, remembering of course that then as now, the fifty-five printed national telephone directories all remained un-postcoded. Clients were offered the option of a range of mailing labels or having their data supplied on ASCII or EBCIDIC magnetic tape. Given that a PC with a 40 megabyte hard-disc was considered "cutting edge" then, mailing houses were mostly running mainframes.

in 1985, College Mercantile was taken over by the Canadian-based Moore Business Systems Group although the Yellow Page sales division ("National Data") continued unchanged. The following year however saw mass retrenchment and divisional closures, of which "National Data" was one.

In 1986 three ex-staff members incorporated a new company - "International Data Pty Ltd," which was formed principally to continue and expand the operations of the former "National Data." With offices in Melbourne and Sydney, the only persons less than enthusing about this development were the Board of Moore Business Systems themselves.

Yellow Page sales in the mid 80's was annually, a million dollar business. The only downside being the totally prohibitive costs of running a mainframe 24/7. Inevitably, conflicting directoral policy, some operational disagreement and financial unrest, claimed another partnership. International Data Pty Ltd was split, the Melbourne operation some years later, destined to become "Desk Top Marketing Systems (DTMS)" who like Dependable Database Data's business cd-rom division are now but a distant memory having been on the wrong end of a High Court decision regarding Telstra's alleged copyright, mid 2004

United Directory Systems (UDS) was formed in 1987 promoting now, not only Yellow Page data but White Page listings used primarily by local telemarketers and the larger business to consumer type of companies. By 1988, cd-rom was starting to make an impact in the U.S. and the technology appeared ideally suited to databases such that UDS was involving itself with. Following negotiations with Philips Data and Telecommunications Systems In May of that year, an agreement was made to co-produce the first "Australia On Disc" (Copyrighted by UDS) Utilising what today would be considered crude text-retrieval software, the disc was launched mid-year, promoted as " Every yellow and white page phone directory of Australia on one disc." At the time of AOD's release, it was estimated that there were less than six hundred cd-rom drives in the country, and the majority of those in Government use. Given that the external CD drives then at well over $2000, were three times the R.R.P. of AOD itself, the product needed a boost. That it received not a month later, when a segment of the ABC's high-rating TV show "Beyond 2000" featured "The wonders of a disc that replaces 62 telephone books" which the program host had stacked floor to ceiling behind him. It was impressive stuff. "Australia On Disc" had arrived.

However some months later, following alleged stock-take "anomalies" and with attorneys gearing up for a major question and answer session, Philips Telecommunications and Data Systems shut down their cd-rom division overnight, re-assigned every staff member (some overseas) and
"Australia On Disc" went into enforced hibernation.

The following year, with the market-place demanding an upgrade, a deal was struck between UDS and another Sydney-based company - Read Only Memory Pty Ltd (appropriately enough) founded by three former staff members of the Phillips Group. "Australia On Disc 2" hit the streets midway through 1989, split now into a separately purchasable "Business" and "Residential" disc. AOD 2 outsold the original disc two to one. Also released that year was the inaugural "New Zealand on Disc" which curiously enough was distributed by Philips themselves in Auckland.

Further Success with Australian Marketing Discs

It was in 1990 that indisputably the best and most successful of the early AOD series was released "Australia On Disc 3." If this had been a car, it would have been a 1951 2 1/2 litre Riley. Sales went through the roof for this disc. Internal cd-roms were becoming common-place and now at a fraction of the cost they were two years earlier. D.T.M.S. meanwhile had launched their first disc.

It was common knowledge that Australia On Disc's biggest client then, was none other than Telstra themselves, who under a 'Commercial Licence' arrangement, used many copies of the product inter-departmentally on a national basis. Telstra's Marketing department also sold and promoted internally generated lists off the disc for contracted third parties.

Early 1991 and once again the spectre of shady business-practises destroyed any realistic possibility of a continuing partnership. Read Only Memory Pty Ltd was by necessity shelved as a co-venturer and a third partner (in as many years) brought in. Brylar Pty Ltd, having gained credibility and market-place acceptance with their high-profile contact-tracking system "Contact's Plus," were assigned the task of bringing in "Australia On Disc 4" on time for the July Marketing convention at Sydney's Darling Harbour. Under pressure from time constraints, what was finally trucked into the pavilion literally at the very last second, for demonstration to the clustered horde of users desperate to update AOD3, was a disc that simply did not work. Not only that, more than one thousand replicated discs sat in Brylar's warehouse. Not a great demand for round metal drink-coasters that year!

Brylar were handed the rights to produce and market "Australia On Disc 4" indefinitely. Regrettably they found themselves bankrupted and were taken over lock, stock and compact-disc by the Dependable Database group themselves. Read Only Memory's fortunes burned bright for a while with their fully unauthorised "cover" product, "Oz On Disc." But finances, internal conflict and quite possibly karma, took their toll. ROM, as they were known, were sent out backwards by Telstra in the mid to late nineties, the first company to be closed-down over alleged "copyright " breach.

UDS continued to produce "Australia On Disc" during the nineties - as far as version eight, along with companion products such as "New Zealand on Disc 2," "Oz Biz 2 (The second Australian Business Compendium)" and its first tentative foray into the Asian market with the well-received but rather poorly marketed "Hong Kong on Disc" in 1997. Dependable Database Data meanwhile had now cranked up AOD4 into working mode and had begun releasing successive versions of their appropriately named "Brylar's Australia on Disc," which was put out of Telstra's misery by the High Court in late December 2003.

Thus after eighteen years, the wheel has almost turned full circle, leaving United Directory Systems alone once more at database Ground Zero.....and Australia On Disc, well into middle age!