Every growth organization finds itself juggling an increasing number of projects, tasks, and tools. The key to success is establishing processes that enable your team to scale while managing risk. This requires a forward-thinking mindset. One company with the right proactive approach is CBS Marketing Group: they adopted new technologies and worked with an implementation partner, Isos Technology, to address multiple business and operational challenges…and increased production efficiency by 30%.

The challenge

Managing all original CBS programming, the CBS Marketing Group creates hundreds of annual promotional advertisements. Considerable planning goes into developing each advertisement — including talent allocation, voice-over management, and music licensing. Meticulous coordination among several stakeholders is essential.

As programming continued to grow in popularity, CBS Marketing Group realized their 20-year-old proprietary technology tool — which they’d relied on to manage the production lifecycle of promotional advertisements — was causing severe project bottlenecks and unnecessary risks. Simply put, the tool was unable to keep pace with evolving needs.

So the team did what you’d expect any team of professionals to do when confronted with an inadequate tool: they developed creative workarounds. This resulted in data critical to the production lifecycle being distributed across several systems, and key processes being executed outside their proprietary tool. Team members relied heavily on email for communicating, shared assets as email attachments, and resorted to tracking information in cumbersome spreadsheets.

CBS Marketing Group recognized they needed a user-friendly platform to improve project visibility and tracking. Their ideal solution would enable them to govern projects with confidence, integrate with their tech stack, and adapt to changing business needs and growth requirements.

The right solution

To improve their project management, CBS Marketing Group chose Atlassian tools, including Jira Software. At the same time, they partnered with Isos Technology — an Atlassian Platinum and Enterprise Solution Partner — to optimize the value of their investment in Atlassian technology and secure implementation support.

With more than 15 years of experience in business processes and change management, Nick Sommerfeld, strategic account manager at Isos Technology, and his team knew CBS Marketing Group needed more than what was available “out of the box.”

They needed a tailored solution to ensure a smooth transition from their in-house, custom-built tool to Jira. Recognizing they needed Atlassian marketplace apps to get the most out of their Jira instance, CBS Marketing Group chose Appfire’s Workflow and Automation Solution, including Jira Misc Workflow Extensions (JMWE) and Power Scripts for Jira.

“It's much easier to get things done with at least one of Appfire’s Workflow and Automation apps. For basic workflow automations, we use JSU. JMWE is a great all-rounder, and Power Scripts allows us to tackle more complex use cases requiring scripting.”
Nick Sommerfeld, Strategic Account Manager, Isos Technology

Isos Technology, powered by the Workflow and Automation Solution, turned its attention to helping CBS Marketing Group successfully tackle three long-standing challenges: project governance, scattered data, and staff payment.

Project governance. Fortified by Appfire’s Workflow and Automation Solution, Jira Software became the foundation for establishing strict guardrails for controlling the process of finalizing and releasing advertisements. Using Jira automation and JMWE, Isos Technology helped CBS Marketing Group establish custom workflows to ensure data consistency and synchronization. For example, with Jira automation, JQL-based conditions were set for how sub-tickets are linked with their parent issue. To guarantee that only the right people could move tickets to “done,” they set up JMWE conditions and validators. And, if data was moved or transferred from one ticket to another, JMWE linked issue conditions and updated information across the entire project.

Scattered data. CBS struggled with data distributed across multiple systems, tool integration was necessary to improve management and control of costs. To avoid potential six-figure penalties for using inappropriately licensed music, Isos Technology integrated CBS’s music repository directly with Jira using Power Scripts for Jira. They also built a bidirectional integration between Jira and their Data Asset Management (DAM) to synchronize data changes. A custom SIL (Simple Issue Language) panel was created to play back the final commercials from their DAM within Jira tickets.

Staff payment. To streamline payment cycles, CBS Marketing Group automated the invoicing process for announcers from within Jira. A Power Scripts SIL script aggregated data daily and calculated announcer rates, which were then converted into an invoice. By setting up guardrails with Power Scripts, CBS Marketing Group made sure that the right people were paid the right amount at the right time.

The results

Relying on its close partnerships with Atlassian and leading enterprise apps from Appfire, Isos Technology developed a tailored solution for CBS Marketing Group that has paid off big-time.

By creating automated processes that reduce project time and minimize errors, CBS Marketing Group reduced email requests by 90% and decreased the use of spreadsheets. Moreover, because they’ve improved control over usage rights, they have seen a measurable drop in unanticipated licensing fees and royalties. Finally, CBS Marketing Group is confident they now have the capacity to increase the production of promotional advertisements by 30% without hiring additional staff.

Throughout the process of automating tasks and improving data consistency across systems, Isos Technology took great care in ensuring CBS Marketing Group experienced a seamless transition. Needless to say, the team at CBS was delighted.

Lessons You Can Take Away

Don’t rely on outdated solutions. Establish scalable tools and processes that can grow with you, rather than tolerating delays because of process bottlenecks.
Coordinate and consolidate data. Coordinate efforts across teams and integrate systems to keep data “in sync” at all times.
Use automation to increase control. Look to third-party apps, like Appfire’s Workflow and Automation Solution, to establish and enforce process guardrails.

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As an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner with ITSM, Cloud, and Agile at Scale specializations, Isos Technology helps organizations optimize their technology tools, develop effective practices, and guide people toward agility and resilience.

CBS Entertainment is responsible for acquiring, developing, and scheduling the entertainment programming presented on the CBS Television Network. CBS Marketing Group is a comprehensive marketing, advertising, and media organization handling strategic and creative aspects of marketing for original CBS programming.

How CBS Marketing Group increased promotion production efficiency by 30%

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