Miditech In Process Of Mapping A New Enterprise IT System

The current trend among media production companies is creating Value Added Services for emerging technologies like mobile phones, handheld devices, the web, etc. Not a lot, however, is heard about how media production companies handle their enterprise technology. When production company Miditech appointed Milind Naik as CTO earlier this year, his task was cut out - using the latest technology to deliver better quality content more efficiently to Miditech’s broadcast partners, and playing a critical role in the company’s foray into new media. Naik speaks to Biztech2.0 about how he intends to use his 15 years of experience in this dynamic field.

What kind of an IT infrastructure existed in Miditech earlier?

Till date there was no communication between the production centres across the locations; they worked in isolation. We intend to set up a central repository for the production house so that we can utilise the resources across the multiple locations we have. There has been a shared talent pool for the production, but that was more of a people movement. Now we are trying to harness the technology so that we can have resources operation across any location and still be able to deliver top class production.

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How do you handle simultaneous projects and keep track of progress on individual projects as well as resource allocation?

We are mapping the complete production function at an enterprise level. There is a lot of process mapping which has to go in before that can be done. We are currently evaluating a few solutions for the same. The idea being that the knowledge that we have across the organisation has to be made accessible across the locations. We are also mapping the project management in ERP so at any given moment of time, an authorised person will get the latest update on the various projects in hand, (production, costing, delays, work in progress, resource allocation etc); this would be from the sales cycle to the payment.

What sort of tools do you use to manage/store the content that you produce?

We are considering a Digital Asset management system. This way any person across the orgnisation can find out what content with what information (Meta Data) is available across the organisation. The idea is that if content exists in the archives, it should be available across the organisation. The data would be available as a low resolution file. If it matches the requirement, a request for the high resolution file would have to be made and that data can either be sent across as a tape or over the net.

When you were appointed as CTO at Miditech, you had mentioned, “I believe if we can marry Miditech’s content creation skill sets with technology, we can create some truly amazing new media properties that will take the world by storm." Can you elaborate on a few key areas of focus?

Today there is a big movement for content to be made available on different kinds of devices. TV is still the main medium, but we foresee that sooner or later it has to move to being more personalised content. A few years ago having a TV in the house was great but now we see multiple TVs. Similarly we have seen a shift from landlines to every member of the household having a personalised mobile device. We feel content has to be made available any time and on any device as well. We are looking at making our content available on mobile devices, PDAs, IPods etc.

What are some of your priorities on a day-today basis as an IT manager at Miditech?

Putting things in process and making life easy for the users is one of my main priorities right now. Media as an industry has been working for ages. Technology will help them be more efficient and productive. With forecasting tools, the management can be empowered to see what the present and future is at the flick of a button.