European IT – Product Lifecycle and Release Definition

Concepts across E1, Atlas and Siebel

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The Product Lifecycle

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• Fox releases a film cinema-wide

• DVD / BluRay (home entertainment) released circa 6 months after theatrical release

From Cinema To Home Entertainment

The Product Lifecycle

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• What does product ‘lifecycle’ refer to?

• Time period [in months] allocated to a physical product (DV/BD)

• Period split into stages (FNR/FTP/catalogue)

• Metrics / key business functions are set and measured against these stages

Lifecycle Defined

The Product Lifecycle

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• Physical DV / BD production• Marketing activity• Forecasting• Orders• Sales• Re-promotions• Retail [group] promotions• Financial reporting• Budgeting

 

…Lifecycle Defined – Key Business Functions:

• Lifecycle is key to concept of forecasting / managing entertainment products

• Home entertainment products have a full reporting lifecycle

The Product Lifecycle

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• Forecasting• Budgeting• Sales tracking• Returns• Marketing• Accounting• Financial reporting

 

Fox Lifecycle & Key Business Areas:

…all essential functions for Fox

The Product Lifecycle

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• Product Manufacturing- Plan manufacture schedule- Estimating unit quantities (by period – FNR/FTP)

• Sales tracking- Sales preparation

- Maximising sales revenue based on known lifecycle features

- Bottom-line sales forecasts / actual sales tagged to lifecycle periods, for –

• Fox local and HO (e.g. IA3 lifecycle-based impact across whole group)• Newscorp Intl

- Sales patterns based on previous / competitive releases

Lifecycle By Area

The Product Lifecycle

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• Returns

- Predicting / allocating returns- Providing logistical support to managing returns (managing by predicted volume)

…Lifecycle By Area

• Marketing- Release planning (FNR / FTP / catalogue stages)- Reporting on / predicting sales patterns

- Competing titles and Fox titles (e.g. release date [start of lifecycle] based on competing titles)- Assessing marketing spend in the light of forecast sales (cut back / reallocate spend where forecast is poor over lifecycle)

The Product Lifecycle

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…Lifecycle By Area• Accounting

- Fiscal / financial year planned and managed alongside concept of lifecycle- Financial reporting throughout the business- Fits in with standard legal accounting obligations

Lifecycle Stages

• FNR – feature new release: first three months of new release lifecycle

• FTP / FTC – first to promotion / catalogue – next nine months

• Catalogue / back catalogue: from one to two years after FNR

Lifecycle Overview

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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE / RELEASE CONCEPT

MPG / L.A. REPORTING v. UK / LOCAL RELEASE CYCLE CONCEPT

The Release Concept

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What Is A Release?

• A release is:

- A unique physical product or set of closely related physical products

… whose key attributes (including sales, orders, returns, etc) are viewed, reported on and managed in relation to a defined period

The Release Concept

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Release By System• Atlas 

- Release is the key concept in Atlas (and release ID is key to the core entity structure of Atlas)

- Central MAP resource for all systems handling MAPs

- Usage / function of Atlas differs between Siebel / non-Siebel territories (Siebel territories create releases sent to Atlas)

- No concept of customer

- Physical product attributes (SKU, channel, format, title) are secondary to release (whilst mandatory)

- More focus on promotion / grouping of releases (Atlas pivotal to other systems in this respect, e.g. Siebel)

The Release Concept

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Release By System• E1 - Repository for all distributor / financial transactions at release level

- Release exists as in Atlas

- Can report / view release information by Atlas release ID

- Can report / view based on Siebel concept of group customer, release as a sub-section

- Can report on accounting groups / companies etc

 • Siebel

- Releases handled as a promotional concept (like Atlas)

- Additionally, customer-based concept of release (unlike Atlas)

Release - Concept Across Systems

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Product Lifecycle / Release Definition

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Any Questions?