The shift of how companies in the media technology industry operates

Over the last years there has been a shift in how companies in the media technology industry operate. The demand for financial flexibility is growing and companies are moving to price models where they can respond to market shifts. This means that buyers put more investments in software and service offerings and move away from legacy systems such as hardware equipment and licenses.

Comparing the media industry with other verticals, the IABM report shows that the media industry has been slow in implementing the SaaS model which already is widespread in other industries. Yet, the transition from software licenses to subscriptions and pay-as-you-go models is happening, and in 2018, the revenues from software and services exceeded hardware for the first time.

As an answer to the fast-moving media landscape, and the transformation happening in the industry, Vidispine created Vidinet. Vidinet is our cloud-based media service platform where you can buy scalable media services. You pay for the services you use, when you use it, no upfront costs. With Vidinet’s transparent and straightforward cost structure, and the ability to predict the cost of running a service on Vidinet on your specific asset, the user is always in control.

“Flexibility and scalability have been a big challenge in the industry – both for fast-growing start-ups and large established players. As the demands and priorities for content providers are always changing, it is impossible to invest in all the tools they may one day need. With Vidinet, we give access to anyone that wants to access advanced media services without large initial investments” Erik Åhlin, CEO at Vidispine.

The transformation to SaaS business models enables more collaborative and agile technology development. Software updates are being made continuously based on customer feedback, rather than major releases every few years. This is something Erik Åhlin calls “constant delivery”. It implies a higher pace of delivering new features, but also a better relationship with customers in terms of flexibility in obtaining customer requirements and feedback for the development. IABM state this as “perhaps the most important shift in technology development with some buyers telling us that they won’t even consider vendors that do not have this approach”. The relationship between suppliers and buyers has come to rely more on customization, both from a business and technology point of view.

For us at Vidispine, constant delivery also entails a closer collaboration with partners and suppliers. Strong and long-term partnerships are essential. Together with our partners we can provide our customers with advanced and innovative media services in Vidinet, which enables us to provide content owners with a fully managed media supply chain backbone. Our cloud ecosystem is continuously growing with solutions from media specialists, and we are always looking for new partners like software companies, system integrators, independent consultants and anyone who has bright ideas, great software or extraordinary skills. The importance of partnerships is something that IABM also highlights, and they mean that partnerships have grown significantly in recent years. This has given rise to an ecosystem of media services specialists.

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Are you curious about flexible and collaborative technology business models, the effects of the changes happening and how you can transform these into opportunities? Have a look at the full report here.