Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Music Leader Optimises its Technological Innovation
Overview
Country or Region:United Kingdom
Industry:Media and Entertainment
Customer Profile
EMI is the world’s largest independent music company. EMI Music comprises some 70 recording companies who represent more than 1,000 artists spanning all musical tastes and genres.
Business Situation
The company is preparing its infrastructure for the changes demanded by the digital revolution. Partnering with Microsoft, it has embarked on several change programmes, which require best practices and a high degree of Microsoft knowledge to be successful.
Solution
EMI Music opted to use Microsoft® Technology Strategy Services (MTSS), a Microsoft Services offering. A Microsoft Enterprise Strategy Consultant (ESC) provides ongoing dedicated support and strategic guidance on selecting and deriving maximum value from Microsoft technology.
Benefits
Direct relationship with Microsoft and access to its vast technical knowledge base
Assistance with partner management
Privileged insight into product development
Guidance as to the best product for each scenario
A shared vision for the future of technology in recorded music / “Working with an Enterprise Strategy Consultant has given us access to a great deal of information and best practice expertise to confirm that the way EMI is designing, configuring, and deploying its systems is bestinclass.”
Michael Austin, Head of Global Technical Architecture, EMI Music
EMI Music is evolving its business to capitalise on the growth opportunities created by the digital revolution. In an effort to respond more quickly to demands for new music products and services, EMI has partnered with Microsoft and identified a series of core projects that will help the company achieve those goals. These projects are being realised using Microsoft® technology and range from providing real-time management information to the standardisation of financial and sales systems. To ensure best practices and best use of technology and resources across all projects, EMI Music has engaged Microsoft® Technology Strategy Services (MTSS), an offering from Microsoft Services. EMI benefits from a dedicated Enterprise Strategy Consultant (ESC) who has deep knowledge of both Microsoft technology and the music industry, and who uses this expertise to help future-proof EMI Music’s technology infrastructure.
Situation
EMI, the world’s largest independent music company, has embraced the digital revolution currently taking place in the music industry and is re-tooling its technology infrastructure to meet the needs of a more dynamic market. EMI Music, its recorded music division, operates directly in 50 countries and licenses its music to another 20 countries around the world. The company represents more than 1,000 artists across all genres, and is committed to using technology to its advantage to demonstrate innovation and market leadership.
As fans seek new ways in which to obtain and listen to music, EMI Music must evolve its technology strategy to ensure it is able to deal with changing consumer behaviour. After strategically reviewing its global infrastructure, EMI Music decided to embark on several core change programmes that will better prepare the business for the digital age. These programmes cover a broad range of infrastructure modifications, from front-office and marketing applications to standardisation of global financial and sales systems.
Another core transformation initiative underpins these change programmes: the creation of a new Global Technology Architecture (GTA). GTA is about both processes and technology. Each of the new systems implemented as part of the change process has a requirement to deliver information, either to other systems or end users. In each case, EMI Music needs to ensure the necessary integration to make this possible. To facilitate this, the company created an integration competency centre, which sits in the service delivery group. Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2004, which is part of Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software, will underpin the GTA and the integration of other change programme technologies.
The GTA also defines the context, support processes, and approach to how each project stream should be carried out. The company has partnered with Microsoft Certified Partner ThoughtWorks to support GTA integration objectives. As a leading, global organisation, EMI Music has access to a broad range of skills and expertise through its in-house IT department. However, given the importance of the change programmes and GTA, the company decided that it was sensible to engage a third-party consultant who could help keep the project on track, and provide useful external perspective.
Michael Austin, Head of Global Technical Architecture, EMI Music, says: “Each of the change programmes plays a role in ensuring the future success of our business in a rapidlyevolving marketplace. As such, the decisions we make now about technologies or methodologies need to be right first time. We had already decided to partner with Microsoft, but needed to make sure that we were using its products and knowledge in the most effective way possible.”
Solution
By linking with Microsoft Technology Strategy Services (MTSS), a Microsoft Services offering, EMI Music was able to extract the best possible knowledge of Microsoft products and technologies and its developmental roadmap.
MTSS offers companies like EMI the option of choosing from a wide portfolio of high-value, strategic consultation offerings. Enterprise Strategy Consultants (ESCs) lie at the heart of this programme, and each company that signs an MTSS agreement benefits from dedicated, onsite consultants who are highly knowledgeable not just about Microsoft technology, but also about their customer’s industry—in this case, media. In EMI Music’s case, the signing of an agreement for an ESC in 2003 marked the beginning of a close working relationship with Microsoft ESC Andy Hill.
Hill says: “It is my job to work closely with EMI to understand what drives its business and what is holding it back. By closely observing the existing technology, people, and processes, I’m able to offer my advice to the company as it seeks to move strategically from where it is to where it wants to be, particularly with regard to making the appropriate investments in technology and personnel.”
Typically, an MTSS engagement involves various stages of strategic assistance. The process starts with a Discovery Phase where an ESC works closely with key stakeholders at all levels of the client organisation to create an IT roadmap, which then evolves throughout the relationship.
As such, Hill and the Microsoft team began working closely with EMI Music to gain a broad understanding of its aims and objectives as a company, as well as its specific intentions for each of the change projects. This allowed the team to recommend the most appropriate Microsoft solutions—detailing technologies and their perceived advantages in white papers, and making technical product demonstrations where appropriate—to help EMI realize its vision. Since Hill is an integral member of the team, he is also able to provide advanced detail on new and emerging products.
“It became clear very quickly that Andy Hill would bring a lot of value to the ongoing work we are doing with GTA. We’re using different technologies and roadmaps, each with their own product silos, and Hill’s input was very valuable as we worked to connect these systems,” says Austin.
Benefits
Ensuring the Technology Puzzle Fits Together
Each of the change projects, underpinned by the GTA, will provide individual benefits. But it is the combined benefits that will deliver the greatest advantage to EMI Music going forward. As a result, EMI chose to pursue these projects in parallel to speed the timetodeployment, but this approach also introduced a greater deal of change and complexity in a shorter period of time. To simplify this complexity and provide an independent, universal view of business change, Hill contributed to a number of technical sub-groups within EMI Music, answered questions, and provided a direct link to Microsoft.
EMI Music is a global company, and coordinating development and project efforts around the world is no easy task. Given his ties to Microsoft and his deep knowledge of EMI Music, Hill helps coordinate account teams around the world to ensure a consistent and coherent approach—24 hoursaday, seven daysaweek—for each project.
Austin says: “Working with an Enterprise Strategy Consultant has given us access to a great deal of information and best practice expertise to confirm that the way EMI is designing, configuring, and deploying its systems is bestinclass. It’s an incredible way for us to tap into the vast knowledge that exists within Microsoft, which historically was difficult as there are so many different products that overlap. Rather like the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Microsoft also has its own standards around how these products should be used, which ensures everything we do follows best practice.”
Minimising Risk, Maximising Success
Much of the work Hill and his team did in the initial stages of the engagement was based around partner management. Microsoft has an extensive network of partners, each providing specialist skills in core technologies with varying levels of certification.
Austin says: “Andy has helped us a great deal in establishing good relationships with partners. Whenever I have expressed a need to work with a partner for a specific area, he helps ensure that they are best suited to the job and the needs of EMI Music.”
Hill says: “EMI Music is placing a great deal of emphasis on Microsoft technology and using some very new products and technologies, such as the [Microsoft] BizTalk Adapter for mySAP. Understandably, the company needs the reassurance that comes with knowing you have someone on the inside working on your behalf.”
A Vision for the Future
“Microsoft is a diverse organisation with product offerings spanning home users and enterprises, and provides unique technological insight into where we think the industry is headed. In the case of EMI Music, we have leveraged our technical expertise to help the company build out its infrastructure to realize its business goals. Technology is behind the business of the future, and we’re helping EMI Music take advantage of Microsoft’s knowledge of that future,” Hill says.
Like any organisation with a vision of where it is and where it wants to be as the industry evolves, security is very important to EMI Music. Given its commitment to ensuring the highest possible levels of security in its products and working with security policy groups to safeguard against potential malicious technology threats, MTSS has played a supporting role as EMI works to build a secure, digital future.