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TV Guide

FileMaker Pro Keeps TV Guide on the Air

As manager of affiliate marketing, Cara Hathaway and her staff act as a liaison between affiliate marketing sales representatives and cable operator clients such as TCI, Cox Communications and others that offer their respective cable customers programming such as Prevue, TV Guide Magazine and TV Guide interactive.

The affiliate marketing department is responsible for a variety of tasks that are integral to serving a cable operator client. Art specs; copy and art deadlines, printer estimates, vendor and purchase order information all are examples of myriad elements that must be chronicled, monitored, and executed on for each client and project.

The department has eight employees using one major internally developed FileMaker Pro database that contains more than 475 records, six layouts and 10 different scripts. The database runs atop a Windows-based server accessible through a collection of PCs connected through a local area network.

Hathaway has been a long time user of FileMaker Pro. 'FileMaker has been and still is the only database software that lets users visually build applications and quickly view information in numerous ways,' she says. 'Because there is no programming required, users are only limited by what they can imagine the product can do.'

What's most impressive about FileMaker Pro to Hathaway? Time and money saved. By being able to develop a necessary database structure in-house, Hathaway estimates she's saved TV Guide close to $20,000 in developer fees. 'Plus, I can quickly refine and tweak our application to continually optimize it for our use,' she concludes.

Contact information

Contact Info for Customer:

Cara Hathaway
TV Guide
918/488-4000 ext. 4244
cara.hathaway@tvguide.com

Filemaker Contact:

Kevin Mallon
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
http://www.filemaker.com

• TV Guide's Affiliate Marketing Department needed a solution that could manage art specs, deadlines, printer estimates, vendor information and purchase orders, as well as all the other information needed to serve cable operator clients. By building a FileMaker Pro solution in-house, Affiliate Marketing Manager Cara Hathaway estimates she's saved TV Guide close to $20,000 in developer fees.

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