Listings in the giant BT OSIS database - con or credible?

[Fuel]

We've been contacted with an offer to have the details of our locksmith company listed in numerous places in the OSIS database.

OSIS stands for Operator Services Information System, it is the database which British Telecom sells amongst others to the 500-odd 118 directories.

On the surface this sound highly attractive: To be listed at ground level in a huge database, which then gets dished out to 100s of 118-firms who might hand out our telephone number.

I am now wondering: Is this at all a credible proposition? Googling the proposers has no useful result.

[Will-man Rodders]

Until you posted I had never heard of OSIS. However, after searching the internet and reading the admar.co.**/osos.htm site (Sorry - I cannot link directly to the site as I have insufficient posts) my understanding is that the Directory Solutions Unit (DSU) are responsible for collating all the telephone numbers in the UK, and maintaining that database. The above site explains that the only omissions to the database are some companies with full page adverts.

So my question is ... Why are you being asked now to have your business details added to a database when it is the DSU responsibility to ensure your details are contained in the database anyway?

Would I be correct in guessing you are being asked to pay a fee? (If so, this sets my alarm bells ringing.)

HTH

[An Oasis]

Googling the proposers has no useful result.

Possibly the most accurate indicator. BT were a nationlised monopoly and have steadily gone down hill since, which probably tell us a lot about the people within the company, worked well when they held the whip but floundering around like a rag doll these days. Some hideous examples of bad decisions and lack of market insight to be seen at every turn. Draw your own conclusions.

[cjd]

This is bullsh1t.

Any telephone number can be OSIS listed. We charge a one-off fee for doing it of £10.

[Fuel]

This database apparently percolates to 100s of resellers. Some of them are very powerful, such as 118Media (running the 118118 service) or Yell (running the Talking Pages Service). In the "hot" classifications (escorts, minicabs, plumbing etc), these 2 will create their own databases and resell the slots in those to advertisers, presumably simply overriding their OSIS data.

I would still be interested in getting increased exposure to the other takers of the OSIS database, who are not set up to resell any slots.

Consequently, I should have an interest in entering as many addresses and phone numbers as I possibly can into that database.

Depending on the result, £10 may not seem unreasonable.

[An Oasis]

...Depending on the result, £10 may not seem unreasonable.

Given the industry that you are in, I would have thought CJD's service was not only cost effective but virtually imperative.

[cjd]

The point is that unless you tell them NOT to, a BT number is automatically OSIS listed. Telcos are obliged to provide directory listings so I can't see what new service is being offered here.

[Fuel]

The "knack" or point of interest is really to be offered a medium, which, so they say, can soak up many different phone numbers and addresses. That could be an interesting advertising avenue for a multi-location service provider.

But I can't really see, that OSIS would find itself agreeable to such advertising.

[cjd]

Official info on OSIS listing here:

http://www.btwholesale.com/pages/static/Products/Managed_Services_and_Outsourcing/Directory_Solutions/directory_solutions/library.html

They provide a contact number to discuss how your business can benefit from OSIS. I'd love to hear it :-)

For further information on how the OSIS data base can help your business, or to receive a FREE sample of our data, call us on 0800 085 3127, Option 2, or email: btcontact@bt.com (btcontact@bt.com)