Now it all adds up for leading non-theatrical content distributor
Scalable cloud platform improves calculations, reporting and controls for licensor and distributor of film content.
“Vistex Go-to-Market Suite was a game-changer for our rights and royalty management. We slashed intricate royalty calculations from 20 days to 2 days while streamlining rights management, royalty closings and studio reporting — all in one platform.”
Chief Finance Executive
Overview
Addressing the need to replace its legacy AS400 system, a leading licensor and distributor of film content sought a cloud-based solution to effectively integrate with its ordering and general ledger (GL) applications, reduce on-premise hardware requirements and IT infrastructure maintenance, and ease software update requirements. The company introduces different variables based on orders received from distinct markets, making royalty calculations extremely complex. Lacking proper connectivity between rights, orders and royalties, the team struggled to calculate the royalties they were obligated to pay their studio partners.
The company worked with Vistex to address:
• Limitations of in-house custom solutions built over decades
• Contract specs typically kept in paper format or on shared drives
• Manual completion of royalty calculations
Solution
The company sought a flexible solution to meet its multifaceted rights and royalty processing needs. A cloud-first enterprise solution was needed to streamline ordering and GL integration, add new calculations to support future growth and reduce overhead. Rights vary by market, format and territory, with multiple dates required and various restrictions — including holdbacks, moratoriums and zip codes. The company updates rights daily and pushes them nightly. The way rights are defined directly affects royalty calculations, so the company needed the flexibility to account for variations in rights at the contract level.
Results
In selecting Vistex’s Go-to-Market Suite (GTMS) enterprise software, all titles were placed into a single title group, with rights attached. The company acquired a highly efficient solution that assigns rights in groups rather than at the individual level, eliminating human error while delivering greater rights-entry efficiency. Royalty calculations, reporting and controls allowed the company to close work within the month. As a result, the final closing time for royalties was reduced by 80% and the company gained greater rights and improved royalty management efficiencies.
Other critical benefits realized:
Significant reduction of manual processes and validations
Customization of views and displays for specific requirements
Ability to create specific and tailored exception reporting
Availability dates are title-specific and moratoriums are built into the platform
Efficiency enhancement related to statement extraction
Better management of rights at the studio, contract, market and title group level
Specific field population at the time of record creation
About
This leading content distributor partners with major studios to bring film and television to non-theatrical venues worldwide — including cruise lines, schools, hospitals and businesses — while maintaining strong studio and client relationships.
Vistex solutions implemented:
Go-to-Market Suite
– Rights and Royalties