Microsoft Corp. and Ascent Media Group have said that they will be working on a strategic alliance to formulate new solutions based on Microsoft’s Dynamics AX platform to automate and streamline the supply chain for the media and entertainment industry and help it to transition to the digital age.
“Avanade’s partnership with Microsoft and Ascent offers media companies an opportunity to better monetize content and simplify the digital workflow process,” said Mike Pazak, vice president of Enterprise Business Solutions at Avanade.
The new solution aims to integrate and streamline media production processes which will also be offered by Ascent as a hosted version with integrated managed services to film studios, broadcasters, global media enterprises and advertising agencies, all of which are demanding capabilities that allow the immediate distribution of digital content to outlets around the world.
According to Microsoft, the new Microsoft Dynamics AX functions are tailored to address typical business processes in media and entertainment organizations including work order management, library management, resource scheduling, element tracking, digital ordering and distribution, among others.
“The transformation to an all-digital world has completely redefined how the media industry creates, manages and delivers rich media content,” said Martha Béjar, corporate vice president for the Communications Sector at Microsoft.
“However, the business processes that support the entire digital value chain have not necessarily kept pace, and currently hinder the effective monetization of that content. The partnership we have forged with Ascent draws on our companies’ respective strengths and expertise, and will result in new business management solutions and services that address the specific requirements of the media and entertainment industry.”
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply-chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively.
“The delivery of media over a wide range of devices has added tremendous complexity to the digital workflow process,” said Jose Royo, CEO of Ascent Media Group.
“That complexity has given us an opportunity to develop new services that help alleviate the pains being felt by our customers. Our strategic alliance with Microsoft not only delivers a new business system backbone that will help streamline our own production workflows and order management, but also allows us to create additional revenue streams through new service offerings.” |
