The following comments are excerpted from a discussion about CIS-Net AVI between CIS-Net AVI Project Leader Sylvain Masson of BMI and SACEM’s Business Liaison Frédéric Rampelberg.
Sylvain Masson: Do you recall that when launching the project, we came to the conclusion that the best solution was to combine the FastTrack Search Engine with CISAC AV Index?
Frédéric Rampelberg: Yes, I remember the constraints we faced in turning the search engine into such a targeted tool specific to audio-visual business. The AV Index was a good tool. The main problem faced by our SACEM users was the delay in the delivery of cue sheets: It could take a long time before we received the paper, and we were not sure that we would receive quick answers to our requests. Now that some suppliers have integrated the CIS-Net AVI process in their business, it has drastically changed and streamlined our work. We can also more easily track our requests.
SM: Yes, and the benefits are noticeable with substantial savings in operation costs, which have already been reduced at BMI since we automated and simplified our work processes. It also provides better service to our customers, with cue sheets going directly to their PC.
FR: Don’t forget that the project team avoided two major risks! First, the risk of developing an unnecessary tool, and then the risk of creating a kind of monster so complicated that no one would have used it. You did a great job in avoiding this. I made a request some days ago and realized how user-friendly it was and how quickly I obtained an answer to my request. Don’t forget, I’m not a specialist! If we talk about efficiency, I requested three cue-sheets three days ago from one of our sister societies and I got an answer yesterday, which represents tremendous progress in terms of efficiency.
SM: We wanted to avoid the usual motto “this is just another tool”… so it was important to look at the existing tools and business practices to find the best solution. The pilot and acceptance phases provided great feedback, too. CIS-Net AVI is the glue connecting all the pieces of the puzzle. We designed it to be as simple and as flexible as possible to cover all possible needs and internal systems configuration. This flexibility allows societies to choose among various options and to set up a transition period between manual and fully automated process that only a few societies are able to perform today.
FR: Let’s come to the future of the tool. The first thing I foresee is that most of the societies will gradually use the complete set of functionalities due to an increasing exchange of data.
SM: Hopefully, 2009 will be the transition year that will first allow us to integrate enhancements requested by the users, improving friendliness and productivity. Secondly, we will take full benefit of our solid foundation to integrate the online access to cue sheet details. This being said, our targets will of course depend on the outcome of final decisions made on allocated budgets. We will also assist the CIS-Net ‘Performance Working Group’ in monitoring response times to sustain user productivity. Lastly, I think some further investigation on the way to reduce unidentified audio-visual works could be done.
FR: We must be aware that the TV situation in terms of revenues is currently at stake but in the long term societies will probably increase their TV revenues and consequently the volume of exchanged data.
SM: Right! The same probably applies to Internet business…
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