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CBS Marketing Group Partners with Isos Technology to Streamline Complex
Project Management Processes
150+
team members
100+
promos created per year
30%
efficiency increase
Project Snapshot
- Developed a project management system for CBS Marketing Group to streamline the promotional spot production process, utilizing Jira Software, Confluence, Jira Service Management, and custom scripting and integrations.
- Simplified complex, multi-step workflows and manual processes through automation, while implementing governance to ensure consistent project structure and management, with built-in flexibility to support specialized needs.
- Enabled the organization to track work in progress, access information and assets more easily, and report granularly on completed work; the new system supports a 30% increase in project volume without additional staffing and has reduced email-based requests by 90%.
Case Study
The CBS Marketing Group is a full-service marketing, advertising, and media organization responsible for all strategic and creative aspects of marketing for original CBS programming—news, sports, and entertainment. Each year, the group creates hundreds of promotional spots for seasonal television, digital, social, and outdoor media advertising campaigns. Each individual promotional spot requires detailed, labor-intensive coordination around a multitude of tasks like generating scripts, assigning talent, managing voice-overs, and licensing music.
Challenge
CBS Marketing Group’s more than 150 team members had been using a proprietary, .NET-based system aptly named Promo Tracker to manage the promotional spot production lifecycle. Over time, workgroups with different areas of focus (e.g., strategy, design, production, etc.) had developed different processes and methodologies and modified it to meet their specific needs. Further, Promo Tracker had gaps in functionality so many processes were still taking place outside the system—requests were being made through email, assets were being shared as attachments, and information was being tracked through spreadsheets. Spreadsheets posed a particular challenge—with no way to enforce taxonomy, information was being tracked in different formats and there were version control issues. With data in so many different places, it was difficult to track usage rights, resulting in excessive royalty and licensing fees. It was nearly impossible to get a clear picture of work-in-progress or to report on it.
With the rise in popularity of CBS programming, including fan favorites like Big Brother, Survivor and 60 Minutes, it became apparent that the difficult-to-scale Promo Tracker was becoming a bottleneck rather than an asset. The organization needed a single, easy-to-use technology platform that would support complex, multi-step workflows, allow them to exert governance over processes and methodologies so projects were structured and managed consistently, yet flexible enough to accommodate the specialized needs of individual work groups. They were seeking to bring as many ancillary processes into the system as possible to eliminate cumbersome, error-prone, manual tasks; to have detailed visibility into the status of each project; to be able to report on their entire body of work; to improve traceability of completed work; to evolve processes as business needs dictated; and to be better able to scale for growth.
CBS executives formed a committee to research potential solutions, and they quickly identified Atlassian tools, including Jira Software, as their solution of choice. The committee, led by Mitch Cardwell, Vice President, Brand Identity and Systems, then identified Isos Technology as their implementation partner. While CBS Marketing Group was replacing an existing system, they did not necessarily want to replicate existing processes. Instead, they wanted to find the greatest efficiencies, even if it meant doing things differently.
Solution
CBS Marketing Group was open to new approaches that would streamline complex workflows and maximize productivity. After an in-depth discovery and planning stage focused on listening to the client and understanding their unique needs, Isos Technology implemented:
- Jira Software as their primary project management tool. To support governance, ensure projects are managed consistently, save time, and minimize errors, Isos Technology established default configurations and workflows for new projects. Jira Software provided 100% of the feature coverage of Promo Tracker, enabling the production pipeline to run dynamically and smoothly.
- Custom scripting so that information can be exported or saved in PDF format and shared with people who do not work in or have access to the system; to connect with critical third-party tools like their digital asset management system; and to support complex, ancillary, manual processes that used to take place outside the system. For example, once a project is completed, the system automatically creates a ticket in a separate project that calculates standard rates for external vendors and sends the information to the vendor’s agency.
- Confluence for documentation. When a project is created, a corresponding Confluence space is automatically generated. The Confluence space features default configurations to ensure all documentation is consistent. It also contains links to all digital assets associated with the show, so they can be easily accessed when needed at a later date.
- Jira Service Management as their ticketing system so other Viacom and CBS employees outside the marketing group can make various types of requests. This has significantly reduced email volume and streamlined asset tracking.
Results
Increased efficiency and accuracy: The group has seen significant gains in efficiency due to streamlined and automated processes that save time and minimize errors. They anticipate being able to manage a 30% increase in promotional spots without the need for additional staff. In addition, time-consuming, manual processes that used to take place outside the system can now be accomplished in Jira with a few keystrokes. Further, there has been a 90% reduction in requests made via email. They have also seen dramatic reductions in spreadsheet use, are able to more closely manage usage rights resulting in a reduction of unanticipated licensing fees and royalties, and assets are much easier to find.
Granular reporting: The group can now measure work far more accurately: they can pull highly granular data detailing what materials are being produced, how long it is taking to produce them, and how many times they are revised. As a result, they can more easily identify and maximize efficiencies, identify and resolve issues, and reduce time-consuming revisions.
Increased visibility and collaboration: Knowledge flows automatically through different groups, so work groups have the information they need when and where they need it and can more readily collaborate and move projects forward.
Enhanced governance: All projects, files, and documentation are consistently structured, named, tagged, and managed, making it easier to initiate new projects, trace and track information, assets, and usage rights; manage permissions; and scale the system.
The Atlassian tools work incredibly well in our complex creative and production environment. With Jira, we have detailed insight into the status of every project and what everyone is working on. Not only does it save a huge amount of time, but it also prevents errors.
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