Achieving high performance in the media and entertainment industries through application outsourcing

Achieving high performance in the media and entertainment industries through application outsourcing

Companies operating in today s global commerce rely on business application systems to energize supply chains, drive operations, manage marketing, maintain customer relations and report to stockholders. During the past 15 years, Accenture has worked with senior executives from companies around the world to address their most critical business imperatives through application outsourcing. Across the entertainment, printing, publishing and broadcasting industries these imperatives include navigating the digital transformation while simultaneously gaining flexibility and reducing costs. Although the overriding goals are the same, each industry segment must resolve different challenges to achieve these imperatives. Starting with the entertainment segment, major studios, game companies and music companies are searching for ways to optimize operations, thwart piracy, quickly clear content rights, improve marketing effectiveness and profitably serve a proliferation of new distribution channels such as Internet video on demand and Internet protocol television (IP TV). In the printing and publishing segments, companies are looking to gain more value from mergers and acquisitions through technology assimilation. Along with this, printers are seeking ways to reduce printing costs, increase printing and customer service capabilities and expand internationally. Likewise, publishers are hunting for ways to

The road to high performance starts with application outsourcing address competition from supplemental players, adopt new technology to decrease costs and more effectively manage demand and sales planning to reduce inventory. And for the broadcasting segment, broadcasters are searching for ways to reduce production costs, upgrade operational capabilities and transition to delivering digital services to television networks and stations around the globe all while developing strategies to keep ahead of new competitors. In each case, Accenture can help. Our global team of industry and functional experts are uniquely qualified to aid entertainment, printing, publishing and broadcasting companies in reaching high performance through innovative application outsourcing solutions. These arrangements deliver: Lower total cost of IT ownership From initial investment through deployment, maintenance and upgrades, every expenditure should be closely managed to maximize efficiencies, minimize costs and sustain a lean operation. Increased value from IT investments Application portfolios should be carefully aligned with established business objectives and must be rationalized and streamlined. Each application must be a solution to an essential business need and must contribute to a specific business outcome. Improved management control and flexibility Levels of service and spending should be managed in line with evolving business priorities. Key measures of performance should be provided to enable effective management at every level. Improved organizational performance IT professionals need to be provided with a career path that develops their skills and enables them to maximize their contribution. Through integrated organization models and structured work processes, they are able to deliver reliable and highquality service.

Maximizing return through application outsourcing Accenture s application outsourcing approach transforms application development and maintenance to help our entertainment, printing, publishing and broadcasting clients achieve high performance. Our worldclass industrialized capabilities provide the highest quality of service at competitive costs. Equally important, our focus goes far beyond cost reduction and delivers added value by ensuring that IT investments are strategically aligned with our clients' business imperatives. The result is greater operational control with better reporting and a higher rate of on-time, on-budget project delivery. Companies gain the flexibility of being able to refocus retained employees on critical business imperatives and adjust outsourcing service levels to meet changing business needs. The overall business outcome is high performance through increased value and lower costs. Accenture used this proven outsourcing approach to help Warner Bros. provide its client divisions with a tool to monitor, control, coordinate and distribute digital assets quickly and efficiently. Accenture worked with the studio to create the entertainment industry s first enterprise-wide digital asset management system, which supports the company s vast collection of advertising and publicity materials. The media asset retrieval system (MARS) enabled 18 business divisions, comprising 4,500 internal users and more than 30,000 unique trading partners, to securely share more than 800,000 assets and related metadata. Accenture built MARS to integrate with Warner Bros.' other enterprise applications and to run on enterpriseclass hardware in a secure data center with 24/7 availability, daily back-ups, monitoring and a comprehensive support infrastructure, which includes a dedicated support team from Accenture. Today MARS is digitally delivering more than 100,000 assets per month, almost eliminating physical duplication and fulfillment costs. Warner Bros. also is achieving greater collaboration and reuse across the enterprise, virtually eliminating unnecessary manufacturing costs and increasing brand consistency worldwide. Reducing the total cost of ownership through industrialization While labor costs are an important component of the total cost of application ownership, there are other factors to consider. Efficiency and productivity require careful assessment, as does the application infrastructure. But entertainment, printing, publishing and broadcasting businesses must take special care to ensure that cost reductions are not exercised at the expense of process excellence. Case in point is our work with Grupo ABRIL, the leading publishing group in Latin America, which selected Accenture to build a new global subscription management system for all of ABRIL s businesses. As part of the eight-year agreement, Accenture is designing, deploying and maintaining an integrated customer relationship management platform that will help Brazil s largest magazine publisher more effectively support its more than 3.7 million subscribers and 26 million readers and users. For the strategic transformation project, Accenture also will design the new subscription management and customer insight processes and replace ABRIL s existing legacy systems with an integrated customer relationship management system. The solution is intended to improve ABRIL s ability to launch new cross-product offers and promotions by bringing the benefits and capabilities of all its businesses together. As demonstrated at Grupo ABRIL, Accenture applies the disciplines of industrialization to ensure the company is doing things right through the following capabilities: Global sourcing Offering the scalability and flexibility of 24/7 access to extensive, industryleading capabilities worldwide. Using the Accenture Delivery Center Network, clients can achieve improved productivity, mitigated risk and lower cost of delivery. Integrated organization models Forming high-performance teams that integrate multi-disciplinary resources with complementary skills, process excellence and a streamlined work environment. This organization is designed to provide services and solutions to customers at an optimum level of quality while substantially reducing work effort, increasing productivity and maximizing the contribution of every team member. Standard processes, methods and tools The Accenture Delivery Suite for Outsourcing gives our clients the ability to out-deliver and the confidence to out-perform by serving as our standard framework

Accenture s application outsourcing services can improve application development and support productivity by 30 to 50 percent. for building and delivering solutions reliably, quickly and collaboratively with reduced risk and lower costs. Our capabilities support the application outsourcing life cycle from transition through service delivery and include the following powerful assets: - Accenture Rapid Transition Suite Facilitates and drives the transfer of services and startup of a new service delivery environment - Accenture Performance Management Suite Provides clients visibility and a higher degree of management control of Accenture services and performance - Accenture Service Management Suite Manages and controls the delivery of outsourced client services through a single, integrated approach - Accenture Application Optimization Suite Finds ways to optimize and improve service performance and efficiency from day one Metrics and performance management Measuring application development and maintenance on a consistent and actionable basis. Since companies cannot manage what they do not measure, Accenture provides visibility into business process and IT performance through automated dashboards. This allows quick access to information, demonstrates performance, tracks key goals, and enables effective management and control through business analytics and predictive management. Quality and continuous improvement Pursuing process and service excellence using proven industry and Accenture frameworks and best practices. Accenture uses CMM-compliant processes and a Six-Sigma-based continuous improvement program to continually drive down cost, improve quality, increase repeatability and achieve high performance.

We deliver real benefits to our clients Accenture has collaborated with hundreds of companies from around the globe, including a number of entertainment, printing, publishing and broadcasting companies, to achieve high performance through outsourcing. A final example comes from our work with Il Sole 24ORE, a major European publisher that wished to reduce newspaper and magazine distribution risks and react more quickly to marketing, production and distribution needs. To meet these goals, the publisher outsourced to Accenture the application management of its newspaper s circulation system from order management to distribution and delivery monitoring. Through outsourcing, Il Sole 24ORE improved customer service levels, reduced response time and optimized the operating model with consequent savings in daily operations and lower maintenance costs. Many companies continue to choose Accenture because of its ability to help clients achieve high performance and the potenial to achieve compelling business results like these: Tangible benefits Improve application development and support productivity: 30 to 50 percent Reduce total cost of application ownership: 20 to 50 percent Improve process quality: CMM certification Improve service execution: 90+ percent achievement of critical service level agreements Achieve reliable delivery: 90+ percent on-time and on-budget Re-engineer business processes to operate at best-in-class levels Intangible benefits Gain greater management control of investments in application development and maintenance Rationalize the application portfolio and underlying infrastructure Refresh technology platforms Increase ability to focus on core competencies Implement variable and scalable staffing based on business need Acquire access to highly specialized skills As a pioneer in the outsourcing industry, our clients ask: How can companies seeking to outsource their applications increase the probability that the arrangement will succeed? Indeed, outsourcing deals vary immensely in scope, size and complexity. To be on a clear path to success, you will want to work with Accenture a company with a proven track record. Our market-leading business More than 15 years of outsourcing innovation 585 clients worldwide Clients in 48 countries in more than 30 industries More than 36,000 outsourcing people In your quest for high performance, turn to Accenture. Through outsourcing, we can: Aid entertainment companies in developing new ways to securely and efficiently create, distribute and monetize content. Help printing and publishing companies focus on core capabilities and reduce costs while improving effectiveness. Support broadcasting companies as they leverage digital assets, transform production and broadcast operations and capture new sources of revenue. In all instances, we are ready to help you take control of your IT investments so you can concentrate on the next horizon of business opportunities. Accenture s focus goes far beyond cost reduction and delivers added value by ensuring that IT investments are strategically aligned with our clients business imperatives.

About Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources, and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 123,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$15.55 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2005. Its home page is www.accenture.com. Copyright 2005 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture. Barcode Placement