About Us

United Directory Systems

United Directory Systems has been helping businesses connect with more customers for over two decades now. The trusted name in Database Marketing Software solutions, UDS brings you closer to the information you need.

We have been compiling comprehensive databases & giving our clients easy access to these listings since 1983. Our flagship product Australia On Disc is a product that has stood the test of time due to our uncomprimising policies on quality & afforability. Since it's inception is has gained a reputation as one of the most popular business marketing tools and in fact many businesses rely on AOD as a core element to their business. It is in active use year-after-year by many Fortune 500 companies, Australian Government departments, PhD students, Market Research Companies, Small Businesses & the list goes on...

Australia On Disc was originally sold on the shelves of Harvey Norman but we have since identified the need for speedy online purchasing and embraced the internet as our main point of contact. This also allows us to focus on the most important part of our business - updating & maintaining the best business & residential databases in Australia as well as keeping costs down so we can pass on the savings to you.

20 Year Anniversary

In 2008 we celebrated our 20 year anniversary here at United Directory Systems. From our early days UDS has always been a pioneering force, being the first company in Australia to provide a "Yellow Pages On Disc" database in the 1980's. Watch the video of the first incarnation of Australia On Disc that was aired on Beyond 2000 and read our rich history below for more of an insight into our company.

Please note since these early days Australia On Disc has improved greatly year after year and has a lot more information and features since the 80s! If you are looking for a Yellow Pages on Disc or White Pages on Disc these days you will find they don't exist as such. Australia On Disc is now the best available alternative and has improved immensely in both content and functionality since the original versions in the 1980s.

History of United Directory Systems & AOD

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) Utilizing 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 55 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.

Redefining 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 "Contacts 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 by 2006, the wheel had almost turned full circle, leaving United Directory Systems alone once more at database Ground Zero.....and Australia On Disc, well into middle age!

Australia On disc 9 and 10, offering a greater degree of data-enhancement than ever before, was co-produced with Sydney-based RWS and maintained the popularity of its predecessors. During this period, United Directory Systems itself, relocated to the American Midwest.

In 2007, Australia On Disc was acquired by a new corporate structure - United Directory Systems (UK) The disc is now produced in the United Kingdom and is far better served from an International viewpoint. Australia on Disc 2008 edition carried the product through to its "twenty-year anniversary" in May 2008 and was ably supported the following year by the popular 2009 release. The significantly updated Australia On Disc 2010 continued to value-add to many Australian companies' marketing strategies.

February 12th 2010 now holds particular relevance for Australia On Disc.  It was on that day that common sense prevailed when the NSW Federal Court reversed the 2003 court ruling that Telstra held “creative” copyright to the White and Yellow pages. It has meant that Australia On Disc has been able to return to its origins and supply far more current “across the board” data than has been possible the last few years.

Australia On Disc Today

Australia On Disc Business 2011

Australia On Disc: Reloaded the latest version of Australia On Disc is now available. In a concerted effort to get the product to the market-place sooner rather than later, we have had to dispense temporarily with a few of our previously selectable field options (SIC/ANZSIC codes, multiple business categories etc). The trade-off is majorly updated businesses nationally. We considered this of paramount importance to users. Visit the Business Database page for more information.

Australia On Disc Residential 2011

Due to popular demand we have re-updated our 2011 Residential disc which is now on sale! Visit the Residential Database page for more information.

Purchasing Online - Direct from the Developer

AOD has been re-written to provide speed and ease of use to all users. The trusted name in marketing discs has produced an exceptional product and now we have the facility of purchasing online - direct from the developer. All orders are sent via Australian Express Post and delivery is free!