A media company turned to Fusionex’s Big Data Analytics solution, Fusionex GIANT, to tame and make sense of its disparate data sources.
Introduction
The client is a group holding company with interests in multimedia businesses. It owns and manages television networks, radio stations, print publications, out-of home advertising, digital media, and content creation business units. While some of its units have been built up organically, other units have been the result of acquisitions. With a 5000-strong workforce, the client reaches millions of viewers and listeners daily via its media channels.
The Challenge
With a wide variety of business units, each with their own unique identity and processes, the client was unable to efficiently consolidate the myriad of information stemming from all of them. Data strewn across the group prevented C-level executives from receiving a comprehensive overview in a timely manner. As the data was sequestered in silos, group IT also found it challenging to extricate data quickly.
This was because older, more mature units were using legacy data recording and reporting instruments, while newer and recently acquired units employ software incompatible with the rest of the group. From the time a report request was made until IT managed to compile the data for business analysts to pore over and report to upper management, a timeframe of about a month would have passed – resulting in decision- makers crafting group strategies based on outdated information.
This inability to manage data also limited the client’s ambitions for expanding its business interests to other regions. While the client is a market leader in its home country, it had to think twice before investing in neighboring countries. The thought was that if it could not handle data well initially, communication with business units abroad would be even messier.
Many attempts at data management were carried out manually which not only took longer than necessary, it meant reports were static. After receiving a report on a certain issue, managers who wanted to look at the issue in different angles had to relay the request back to IT, which had to come up with a new set of figures. This method proved to be cumbersome and prohibitive to efficient workflow.
The Solution
After deploying the Fusionex Big Data Analytics solution, GIANT, the client could consolidate business data from various sources into a centralized data warehouse. As the platform comes equipped with connectors for almost every data source, this meant that the issue of incompatible data formats did not arise. All data related to every process and procedure in the group would now be accessible all in one place.
Information from its various business units such as finance and budget details, sales and revenue figures, customer data, product information and others could be analyzed easily with interactive dashboards. These interfaces allowed the management to perform self-service analytics. Being interactive, the dashboards were capable of slice-and-dice analysis, which lets users look at information from different angles to find trends and insights.
Fusionex GIANT also prepared the groundwork for long-term growth as the client sought to make use of a broader scope of data. Apart from porting data from legacy systems into the new warehouse, the platform also supports huge volumes of data from various sources including business transactional systems, social media, and other unstructured data sources.
A class of management-approved power-users was also formed where certain personnel were granted the knowledge and authority to modify data reports. This function meant a platform was developed to support separate log-ins and passwords for different users with varying authority levels from each of the client’s business units. A two-week course was also held for client representatives to receive end-user training, dashboard user training, and system admin training which covered troubleshooting and other technical aspects.
The Benefits
The client experienced a paradigm shift following its improved data management:
An estimated 30-fold reduction in the reporting cycle: The client used to carry out reporting on a
monthly-basis at the group level. As data has been consolidated across the group, reports are being received daily instead of monthly – representing a data preparation duration which is 30 times faster.
More agile outlook on business development: The client shed some of its character as a lumbering
group juggernaut and could adopt a leaner and meaner stance akin to more agile companies. It could seize business opportunities, rollout new strategies, and evaluate its performance rapidly to determine potential success or failure. Thanks to speedier reporting and consolidation of data, the client could decide whether the new venture is worth expanding or whether it is time to move on to different strategies. This stance on business development allows the client to invest in other forms of media which evolves rapidly as technology changes. Further diversifying its portfolio would also allow the client to better absorb hits from poor advertising numbers due to economic downturns and social media advertising titans such as Facebook and Google eating into their sales.
Zero-in on consumers with targeted marketing: The client could evolve its advertising from a pay-and- display mode, where it is readily consumed by everyone, to more personalized forms of advertisement. By running viewer analytics, the client could identify, based for example on TV program, what the
viewing patterns of particular users are.
The TV program could indicate particular user demographics such as age and targeted advertisements could then be rolled out, allowing for viewers of one TV to be seeing different advertising from viewers of another TV. More targeted marketing would bring better returns to the client’s customers, further solidifying the client as a premier media and advertisement channel.
Summary
A company’s growth is usually seen as beneficial but may turn out to be a double-edged sword as massive amounts of data threaten to bog down the decision-making process and prevent company management from making good, accurate decisions. Fusionex GIANT provides a comprehensive consolidated data warehouse which streamlines information from the client’s diverse business units. With speedier reporting and the ability to analyze data from different angles, the client is seeing agility and innovation increase, and can start making future plans for its continued growth in the industry.
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