FOX Network Group reviews Advertising Sales and Commercial Operations

FOX Networks Group (FNG) – Since the late 1980s FNG has relied on in-house developed systems to support all their sales and commercial operations across all networks, broadcast and cable. Senior FNG management in 2011 decided to explore suitable alternatives from outside vendors, and engaged Edge to capture the functional requirements and workflow managing over $9US-Billion in advertising assets, and perform a Fit/Gap Analysis against current systems as well as leading 3^rd party applications. The Edge team surveyed and prioritized the requirements, built an F/GA decision-making matrix and conducted an RFI process to pinpoint leading choices for outside vendor, solution and integration to replace the retiring systems. FNG’s CIO called the Edge results and recommendations ‘thorough’ and ‘just what we needed’ to make key decisions on the future course of their operations. FNG has since proceeded to contract and begin implementations with one of the vendors Edge profiled.

Edge's Media Practice provides full-service business management, technology consultancy and staffing to the Media, Broadcasting and Advertising industry. Edge's Media Practice has an established track record for helping media, broadcasting and advertising companies achieve quantifiable ROI with evolving and emerging systems and supporting technologies. Within the Media Practice business consultants are engaged with many of the world's major media organizations adding insight, value and innovation to their operations and workflow.

Edge was retained by Disney to conduct a Gap Analysis in order to determine the feasibility of implementing ESPN’s internally developed Ad Sales and Traffic system at other Disney owned media properties. The results of this study were used to assess and determine where it made sense to deploy the application. The analysis was extensive and required an in depth interview process of all functional departments for all of the Disney media properties. Our methodology, approach and deliverables for conducting this analysis are briefly summarized below:

Business Process Architecture - defines how all of the functional requirements are captured and organized and “outlines” the component parts of each function.

Business user interview session notes - were compiled based on information gathered during interview sessions and meetings that were held with all of the related functional areas. 

Functional Narratives - Describe Individual business processes and the “inputs and outputs” to each business process. The functional narratives also describe the inter-relationships and process flows that make up each function.  The narratives are derived from a validated set of Business User Interview Notes for each functional area and are presented within the framework of the Business Process Architecture. 

Business Process Flows  - process flows are developed to support the information captured by the functional narratives. The Process flows visually depict what has been captured in the narratives and the user interview notes. “Swim lane” diagrams are used as the technique for documenting the process flows. This method is useful when attempting to highlight both the user roles and how data/workflow occurs across departmental or functional boundaries for a given business process.

System capabilities - Based on the user interviews, narratives and process flows, a set of system capabilities (business requirements) can be extracted. The requirements are represented as “short sentence descriptions” of necessary system capabilities. These capabilities can then be weighted, ranked, defined in terms of complexity, prioritized etc. The capability list can then be used as a tool when evaluating the “fit” of alternatives for a system selection, build, or deployment. The capabilities are also defined within the framework of the process architecture. 

Edge's Media Practice provides full-service business management, technology consultancy and staffing to the Media, Broadcasting and Advertising industry. Edge's Media Practice has an established track record for helping media, broadcasting and advertising companies achieve quantifiable ROI with evolving and emerging systems and supporting technologies. Within the Media Practice business consultants are engaged with many of the world's major media organizations adding insight, value and innovation to their operations and workflow.

Edge selected as the exclusive partner by the NFL to access the business functionality, systems and structure necessary for the launch of the New NFL Network

Edge was selected as the exclusive partner by the NFL to assess the business functionality, systems and organizational structure necessary for the launch of the new NFL network.

Even though this was a new network launch, the NFL was already selling some commercial time on CBS, Fox, ESPN, and DirecTV. They were also syndicating their own ancillary programming on these networks with barter agreements for commercial inventory.  While these activities were not part of the new network launch, they still needed to be considered in order to assess capabilities and the systems that could support all of the new existing business functionality.

Edge conducted interviews with all related user departments.  Since the network was a startup, there was no “As-Is” business process to evaluate.  Instead the NFL relied on our experience with other customers to help define the proper procedures, workflow, and staffing necessary to launch a new network.  This expertise was vital in helping the NFL establish the framework for a successful launch.

Once the required functionality was documented, a vendor assessment was conducted to determine which product best fit the requirements of the NFL. The study was to rate product functionality based on the NFL’s prioritized requirements, including a cost and services analysis.

Recommendations for software, staffing, and process were provided by Edge to NFL.  

Edge was also retained to manage the sales/traffic system implementation and oversee the implementation of process improvements for the network.

Edge's Media Practice provides full-service business management, technology consultancy and staffing to the Media, Broadcasting and Advertising industry. Edge's Media Practice has an established track record for helping media, broadcasting and advertising companies achieve quantifiable ROI with evolving and emerging systems and supporting technologies. Within the Media Practice business consultants are engaged with many of the world's major media organizations adding insight, value and innovation to their operations and workflow.

MTV Networks/Viacom – MTVN was relying on an internally-developed ad sales and proposal system when, in 2009, Viacom turned to Edge to design and lead a project developing a next-generation solution with a 3^rd party supplier. Edge also provided guidance in selecting the appropriate vendor with which to build the Plan-It proprietary system. The following services were delivered by Edge during the engagement:

·      System requirements gathering and prioritization

·      Gap analysis

·      Current and future business process flow mapping by network

·      System integration requirements

·      Use and test case development

·      Third-party vendor engagement

·      Functional design specifications

·      Software release management

·      Software defect reporting and tracking

·      Network rollout implementation

·      Data Conversion

·      User training and support

Edge then led the implementation and training phase of the project resulting in high customer satisfaction across a total of 15 networks.

Edge's Media Practice provides full-service business management, technology consultancy and staffing to the Media, Broadcasting and Advertising industry. Edge's Media Practice has an established track record for helping media, broadcasting and advertising companies achieve quantifiable ROI with evolving and emerging systems and supporting technologies. Within the Media Practice business consultants are engaged with many of the world's major media organizations adding insight, value and innovation to their operations and workflow.

• Business requirements definition and analysis for a new Deal Planning system
• Responsible for project oversight, application strategy and vendor management
• Managed all phases of software specification and development, detail design, integration, QA testing and implementation