Guest blog: Demystifying and Implementing Successful Automated Workflows

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About the author: Nick Morgan, Sales Director APAC at VSN

A media industry veteran of over 30 years in TV, Radio and live entertainment, with 22 years spent in Asia: Worked for media companies such as SKY TV in NZ, SONY AXN & World Sport Group in Singapore. Launched the first all-sports TV channel in Vietnam in 2003 as Director of Operations. Moved to technology vendors in 2004 and now heads up the regional business for VSN APAC.

These days, with so much industry analysis out there checking the impact this global pandemic has had on our businesses, one thing is clear from the data, operational priorities are shifting and the focus on the rapid adoption of specific technologies has greatly increased.

The Emergence of Production Workflow Automation

Along with shifts to IP and cloud architectures, as well as web-based technologies becoming essential hedges against fixed-operation disruption (like a global pandemic), another increasingly requested technology is Workflow Automation. With more production staff working remotely and fewer personnel at the office, production issues or process bottlenecks are quite often more difficult to resolve.

Pair this with a desire by many media companies to reduce costs to counter market pressure with short-falls in typical revenues and the obvious solution is to automate production processes & workflows to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. Workflow Automation is more frequently used to justify linear or nonlinear (OTT, VOD, social) channel expansion without incurring significant setup costs, as many of the prep & delivery processes become automated. More channels generally means more effort and resources to produce and deliver new content.

Putting the Automation Pieces Together

Workflow automation does not always require a MAM solution to function. There are many types of workflow automation, some operate independently of MAM, DAM or PAM and others which have a tight integration with these solutions, it really just depends on the desired application and whether the workflows are a production sub-operation or a part of a holistic content & production management platform. The latter is the primary focus of this article.

So, what benefits does MAM-centric workflow automation bring? Well, the primary advantage is the ability to tie together a company's media assets, users and third-party platforms such as ingest, playout, scheduling, delivery and also specialist operations such as QC, review & approval, publishing, censorship and archival. A good MAM solution can integrate all these business systems, operations and processes in a holistic way that makes it much easier to produce, manage and track media operations on a larger scale.

MAM systems often include built-in workflow engines but these are typically sequential, meaning, one single operation-after-another and often don't allow for manual (human) processes to be part of the workflow. Another type of workflow orchestration involves the use of a Business Process Management or BPM system, which is a more advanced solution for creating complex sequential/parallel processes and workflows which provides greater collaboration and visibility while reducing human error and double-handling.

Rollup for the Workflow Mystery Tour

So, if you are a media company which has identified the need for automating many of the mundane daily production tasks and processes that consume human resources and often provide less than satisfactory outcomes, then perhaps some well-designed workflow Automation is what you need.

The problem I often see from the get-go is there is a lack of in-house domain expertise within media organizations in the area of Workflow Automation and MAM in general. I have to admit, it often seems like a mysterious black art and it's a lot to get your head around, it takes time and effort to first understand how it works and then how it could' be applied to your production environment. There are seemingly endless possibilities on how to tackle a workflow, so where do you start?

Well, before you begin a dialogue with technology vendors who are all pushing their own wagon, here's a basic how-to guide:

Identify the actual areas where you want to improve your production processes, not just a general we want to improve our workflows line from the company executives but drill-down to where you know things don't work so well and circle it as a problem area.

Read, read, and read everything you can get your hands on! The more you read, the more questions you will have, and that's a good thing. There's no such thing as a dumb question, I ask them constantly (just ask my colleagues), it's the best way to learn quickly.

Seek out some non-vendor experts - There are several out there that may have even had local experience of workflow automation and may be willing to share their experience or pain. Listen to their pain particularly as this often holds more lessons for the inexperienced. There are also workflow experts you can locate on social platforms like LinkedIn or you can enquire through IABM or similar organizations representative of our industry. Many of these individuals will be happy to share their knowledge and experience with you.

Hire a consultant - If your company is keen to get it right and not rely on technology vendors to point the direction, they should seriously consider hiring a respected workflow consultant. Yes, there are individuals and companies who do this for a living and who remain impartial with regards to technology brands.

Create diagrams and process step charts - I personally love it when customers turn up with workflow drawings, possibly because I'm visually oriented but also because the best way you understand a process or workflow is to map

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