Pandemic brings change in direction for media sector
Several weeks into lockdown, there was a definite shift in how organisations looked to technology to help them.
Pandemic brings change in direction for media sector
Creativity is key in the fast-moving media sector. Sitting round a table to brainstorm a new ad campaign, wallpapering the meeting room with post-it-notes and storyboarding your ideas on a whiteboard is just everyday life in a creative agency. But what happens when a pandemic strikes?
Until recently, homeworking in this sector was negligible. It wasn’t because people didn’t want to do it; it’s more because in creative industries, the norm is to travel (sometimes long distances), meet face-to-face or sit in front of big, industrial-strength video conferencing platforms. Whatever is needed to be together, bounce ideas around and get things done.
Media companies also tend to be very fragmented due to multiple mergers and divestitures. The result is that they often have local IT functions with local budgets keeping local management happy with their IT spend. This impacts on their ability to integrate and standardise.
And this is exacerbated further when shadow IT creeps in - people signing up for ‘free’ online services or paying for it using their credit card. End users’ tech expectations are greater than ever, and if they don’t have the tools they want at their fingertips, they’ll find a way to make it possible. While this can work on a local level, it’s not sustainable or productive when you need to deliver a single common experience to bring a global workforce together.
So, while many media companies were taking part in collaboration technology trials and running proof-of-concepts, the sheer nature and structure of their businesses made it very challenging to progress and scale.
Fast-forward to 2020 and things changed. Media firms had to react, fast. They had to mobilise predominantly office-based employees with very little homeworking experience to be just as productive at home as they are in the office.
What does the future hold?
At the start of the pandemic, technology was at the forefront of how media firms – just like every other business – coped and kept running. Then, several weeks into lockdown, we saw a definite shift in how organisations looked to technology to help them. They now wanted to explore how they could make things fit for purpose, as well as simplify their business and their go-to-market strategy.
No one’s 100% sure what meeting rooms of the future will look like – big boardroom, smaller huddle rooms or something in between. What’s clear is the benefit media firms have seen from homeworking over the last three months – the multi-million-dollar pitches are still taking place – and being won. This means they’re not feeling pressured into returning to the office until they feel comfortable and safe to do so.
Meeting your challenges head on
Media firms want to benefit from digital workplace transformation, but they don’t want to disrupt creativity. This calls for simpler solutions – ones that let your employees to collaborate internally and externally, at scale and at speed, regardless of location. Increasing your agility will help you respond quicker to new business opportunities, and improved knowledge-sharing will help you boost creativity.
We can help you achieve these things. Our approach to transformation means that multiple technologies, legacy systems, and varied infrastructure can be migrated to create a single, seamless, secure global ecosystem that optimises the entire creativity cycle.
We can help you connect smoothly and securely to collaboration applications, and any third-party platforms you may be considering for big data, AI and digital logistics.
And we can use all the knowledge and expertise we’ve gained from protecting our own network and corporate assets to help you secure your organisation, your employees and your customers.
Boosting adoption across your business
One of the major keys to success is proactively making sure your people make the most of collaboration and digital services.
Research shows that many employees already have 6-8 collaboration tools - yet businesses fail to see the promised productivity gains. We focus on making sure that employees understand the benefits of using these tools. Once users see how much these tools can improve efficiency, they’re very quick to embrace them. Delivering a great end user experience is key to uptake and success of any tool or platform and helps you prove the value from your investment.
Our adoption management approach uses a persona methodology to make sure each member of your workforce gets the tools they need to be as productive as possible. And the training they need to use them effectively, regardless of previous experience.
Our user adoption services ensure the best end user journey from the first day of delivery.
Helping you create a compelling business case
Our innovative commercial models mean you can manage your costs and scale as needed. A single global price per user allows you to predict costs and you can flex up and down on users, so you only pay for what you use. This means you can realise and demonstrate a quicker return on investment and assess the effect of collaboration on throughput and innovation to build a stronger business case for future transformation.
The real value comes from your end user experience
Collaboration across your entire organisation will reap the rewards of digital transformation: increased productivity, reduced costs, greater operational agility and more effective use of resources. Our approach delivers rapid adoption, a fantastic user experience and rapid returns: you can be saving money up 80% faster.