Shipping paper reports within the United States and to Europe on an expedited basis is extremely expensive relative to shipping a single CD-ROM disc. In addition, Source prescription and healthcare databases were normally distributed to Source clients on magnetic tape cartridges. Since Source's clients in the United States were generally 'mainframe oriented,' receiving the databases on tape was very acceptable. However, when Source expanded to Europe, Source found many of their international customers were 'PC oriented' and weren't able to easily handle magnetic tape cartridges. A pilot project was pursued and proved very successful.
Compact discs are small, yet provide high storage capacity.
Because of the ISO9660 standard, the discs can be read on any CD reader on any PC in the world. With the ubiquitous presence of CD readers on PCs, Source's clients were able to easily accept the databases on compact disc media. Because of the many advantages associated with CD-ROM and the positive client reception, the usage has increased dramatically over time. Even with the advent of new global network based services, CD-ROM will have a continuing critical role relative to Source's pharmaceutical and health care information delivery.