Media Prima Berhad Implements Accenture Integrated Broadcast System
NEW YORK; May 26, 2010 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today announced that it has helped Media Prima Berhad (Media Prima), the leading integrated media group in Malaysia, replace its legacy broadcast management system with a state-of-the-art broadcast management application using Accenture’s Integrated Broadcast System (IBS). As a result, Media Prima has streamlined and simplified its broadcast management processes to achieve better time to market, higher productivity as well as efficiencies in its core broadcast operations.
The IBS platform, co-owned by Accenture and MediaCorp, delivers the following capabilities:
- Program Management covering program and promotion content, contractual rights, master and final tapes and ‘Playlist’ vs ‘As Run’ playout reconciliation;
- Airtime Sales Management for the management of advertiser master contracts, commercial libraries, bookings and airtime scheduling;
- Playout Automation providing seamless playlist and reconciliation integration between IBS and legacy automation platforms; and,
- Financial Automation covering management of stock, account payable, invoicing, account receivables and credit risks via integration to legacy financial platform.
“Media Prima was facing intense competition while relying on its outdated broadcast management system to manage its TV businesses,” said Alwin Magimay, managing director of Accenture’s ASEAN Communications & High Tech group.
“Media Prima needed a new competitive platform and asked Accenture to modernize its broadcast operations to embrace the efficiencies offered by an end-to-end, integrated system,” said Dharmendra Magasvaran, Accenture’s IBS project director.
Through this IBS implementation program, Accenture helped Media Prima achieve the ability to:
- automate, streamline and simplify core broadcasting processes including program planning, scheduling, airtime sales and finance, minimizing repetitive manual tasks;
- increase efficiencies between the Airtime Sales and Programming teams via the ‘Unified Grid’ by reducing inter-team dependencies and improving concurrent team activities;
- automate scheduling including the updating of programs, promotions and commercials, greatly decreasing time spent on playlist finalization before transmission;
- automate airtime spot booking operations for the tracking of contract fulfillment and utilization, spot pricing, spot positioning and product clashing checks;
- automate ‘Playlist’ and ‘As Run’ playout and reconciliation respectively across multiple legacy platforms; and,
- reduce discrepancies post-broadcast for program and commercial reconciliation, accounts receivable, stock recognition and accounts payable.
“The Integrated Broadcast System will enable Media Prima to fully focus its attention on advertisers and cater to their needs as we ensure they get the best value for their advertising dollars. With IBS, Media Prima now has a state-of-the-art tool to enable us to be more competitive in an increasingly saturated and fragmented market. The tool will allow us to help advertisers reach the right market at the right time, optimize reach and increase brand awareness as we drive up viewership for our programs,” said Dato’ Amrin Awaluddin, Group Managing Director, Media Prima.
Implementing IBS gives Media Prima’s airtime and program schedulers a common, virtually real-time view of programs, promotions and advertisement schedules. This means that grid closure can occur closer to transmission date, giving the schedulers the ability to sell advertising space closer to air date. IBS also increases scheduling flexibility by reducing overall inter-team dependencies, shorter reconciliation times, and improved reporting capabilities due to integrated data sources.
“IBS provides us with the end-to-end integrated back end solution from sales and acquisition to invoicing and payables. With this, the time taken to finalize both programming and commercial airtime schedules for transmission, reconciliation and closing of financials are significantly reduced” said Zuraidah Atan, Media Prima’s Chief Technology Officer.
“Since we can sell advertising space much closer to its air date, this increased flexibility coupled with shorter reconciliation times and more in depth reporting capabilities allows us to be more competitive in an increasingly fragmented advertising environment,” she added.
As part of its implementation, Accenture also conducted an organizational realignment effort at Media Prima to re-engineer processes, realign departments and workforces.
Accenture teamed with Microsoft Corp. and Avanade—a joint venture company of Accenture and Microsoft—to help Media Prima develop and customize the IBS solution. Avanade, via its Avanade Connected Architectures® for .NET, provided the capabilities to provide a rich, user friendly experience among complex systems, the ability to streamline spot placements and track fulfillment for advertisers, and the ability to centrally manage and share broadcast information across multiple applications, significantly reducing the cost and complexity of the implementation.
The IBS Solution was built using an integrated Microsoft stack including Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 181,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.58 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2009. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
About Media Prima Berhad
Media Prima Berhad (Media Prima), a company listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia, is Malaysia’s leading integrated media investment group. It currently owns 100 % equity interest in TV3, 8TV, ntv7 and TV9. In addition, Media Prima now owns 89.6% equity interest in The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) (NSTP) Berhad, one of Malaysia’s largest publishing groups.
Media Prima also owns three radio networks, Fly FM, Hot FM and One FM. Other cross media interests of Media Prima include content creation; event and talent management. The Group also acquired three outdoor media companies, Big Tree Outdoor Sdn Bhd, UPD Sdn Bhd and The Right Channel Sdn Bhd in March 2007. The Group has started its venture into online and new media platforms, culminating in the successful launch in September 2007 of both its TV Networks internet portals and a new Lifestyle Portal, gua.com.my. In November 2009, Media Prima acquired the country’s second largest advertising company, Kurnia Outdoor Sdn Bhd and Jupiter Outdoor Network Sdn Bhd (collectively known as “Kurnia”), further strengthening the Group’s leadership position in the outdoor advertising business.
Outside of Malaysia, Media Prima has a controlling stake in TV3 Network Ltd, Ghana’s leading private television station.
For more information, please visit: www.mediaprima.com.my
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Contacts:
Gary Morgenstern
Accenture
(O) +1 973 301-3347
(M) +1 973 486-2289
Gary.a.morgenstern@accenture.com
Eliza Mohamed
Media Prima
(O) (6-03) 7726 6333 ext 3311