Managing a multi-format, multi-location and multi-environment media inventory is not an easy task. The management becomes even more difficult when part of the company’s expansion strategy involves acquiring other companies with different media and different data management systems.
And that’s where Key Systems enters. From four locations across the world, the UK company has been developing and providing software exclusively for the Out of Home industry for over 25 years. Able to manage both traditional and digital signage, Key Systems works internationally with leading media owners and agencies.
For example, Primesight, one of the UK's leading outdoor advertising companies, owns a diverse portfolio of products suitable for different vertical markets. Its media includes both digital and traditional signage, in major roadside locations and popular leisure destinations such as private health clubs, cinema foyers and the UK's second largest underground network, the Glasgow Subway. The company provides a range of formats including six-sheet, billboards and transport, up to premium backlights and digital.
Primesight has a national presence covering more towns and districts in the UK than any other outdoor contractor. But that success created a jungle of hard-to-manage inventory.
To tame that jungle, Primesight uses three core products from Key Systems: Fusion, Digital Director and Proof of Posting.
“We use Key Systems inventory management product, Fusion, which is the umbrella program that links everything together,” explains Paul Daniels, Operations Director at Primesight. “The software manages the details of individual frame data for Primesight including availability, pricing, scheduling, posting instructions and proof of posting. In essence, the heart of Primesight’s business process.”
Key Systems’ Fusion is adaptable and Primesight has been able to integrate it with third party software in other areas of the business process including accounting software, audience evaluation and its own customers systems. Fusion manages the full life-cycle of advertising for the company from a single entry-point.
Key Systems’ Digital Director focuses on the process of managing a digital portfolio for media owners and digital screen providers. It allows media owners to manage campaigns and finances. It fully integrates and manages digital products through to the execution of the playlist. Traditional Proof of Posting gives clients information on how the posting of their advertising is progressing-- and they can even see the photos as they happen as proof of it.
“Initially Primesight had developed its own in-house solution,” recalls Daniels, “but as the scale of our business grew it was no longer effective to support the skill set and development requirements of it. Key Systems was a recommended solution that we engaged with in 2003.”
Within Primesight there are 80 users of the software, managing 20,000 pieces of inventory, 100% of its assets.
“Key Systems has both a proven track record and an extremely detailed understanding of the mechanics of the industry,” continues Daniels. “This means they are an interested and involved partner with whom it is possible to continue to develop appropriate software solutions as Primesight’s business needs evolve.”
“As Primesight has grown, it has had the requirement to bring together different systems and varieties of inventory. Key Systems has been an important element in ensuring that we are able to provide business continuity to our existing and new customers throughout a systems integration process. The key challenge in any business integration is to ensure data integrity during the process. Our most recent acquisition involved the unification of databases which were carefully prepared for merger by Key Systems.”
Ian Morris, Key Systems’ Client Services Director adds, “Today, innovative media owners demand technology which works hand in hand with the ever more mobile world we operate in and the ever growing demand for real time data that clients expect, sales executives are able to walk around a city with their clients and give them instant answers on what there is available. Using mobile devices and Key Systems Digital Director, Primesight employees can access Fusion’s mobile website where they can find what digital screens are available and where; what ads are running on these.”
Daniels concludes: “If we had wanted to maintain the scale of Primesight’s operation using in-house resources, we would have incurred huge expense. By outsourcing to Key Systems, Primesight has avoided this expense, and also benefits from the continued development of its software, which keeps Primesight at the forefront of its industry.
“Primesight must manage its large and diverse inventory efficiently and effectively to remain competitive and deliver business growth. Key Systems provides a stable platform through which to achieve this.”
