By Ed Laczynski, CEO, Zype
Media and entertainment companies, enterprises, ecommerce, and high-growth video-focused startups are feeling the pressure to perform as they aim to capture a lucrative, but complex direct-to-consumer market opportunity that demands video anytime, anywhere, on multiple devices. Technology providers offer platforms and services that handle the technical elements of modern content management and distribution.
However, it is the teams and people within the organization who often remain in flux against the challenges of successfully growing a video business. “VidOps” is a new framework to help teams overcome challenges and support video as a core business goal.
Without a clear overarching vision or guidance around video streaming for business, the entire industry suffers. Teams are siloed, tools are disparate, actionable data is hard to capture, and audience engagement is practically non-existent. The OTT market is rapidly growing but the opportunity to snag a piece of the pie is reserved for the high performers. Connecting teams, tools and processes is the key to improving operations and increasing video valuation, which is achieved through connected workflows, technologies and shared responsibilities — thus leading to VidOps.
What is VidOps?
VidOps is a framework to unify video developers, technical assets, business stakeholders and content operations work into a single workflow. It aims to empower cross-functional business, creative and video operations teams to effectively deliver business value from premium video content through integrated processes, teams and tools. The framework promotes collaboration, visibility and shared-goals to drive the expansion of owner-controlled video content — and the value it delivers — across all delivery platforms and audiences, and to drive engagement and ROI with speed and quality. To learn more about VidOps, you can download the whitepaper here.
What are VidOps Core Principles?
- VidOps is a philosophy and practice to bring video creation, distribution, management and monetization teams under one umbrella, to meet business objectives through collaboration and shared responsibilities.
- VidOps must help cross-functional teams set clear objectives and work collectively to create a high performing, value-driven and efficient video lifecycle environment.
- VidOps is a strategic initiative — to transform the streaming video lifecycle by unifying all teams, tools and processes into a single business process.
What do Emerging VidOps Teams Want?
- A shared vision that guides strategy and de-emphasises isolated tactics.
- A structure for cross-functional teams to share ideas, success measures and goals.
- Shared data that is useful across teams to accomplish stated goals.
- Open systems and workflows that promote collaboration and understanding, and provide actionable data in real-time.
VidOps Value Stream
Dovetailing with Lean approaches for manufacturing, and more recently DevOps for software delivery, VidOps extends the streaming video paradigm, and aligns all those responsible, to core business values. It aims to elevate the entire video lifecycle, and how organizations think about it, to a higher-level strategic initiative.
Industry Vision for Video Management and Distribution
- Connect Teams & Workflows: The silos between business and video operations must be removed and shared collaboration promoted.
- Open Integration: Tools, platforms, systems and data must flow freely through connected frameworks that streamline the entire video lifecycle.
- Beyond Distribution: Video operations teams must expand traditional “distribution” capabilities to embrace customer-and business-facing technologies and processes.
- Business Driven: Quality video isn’t enough anymore, and the mindset of video professionals and associated teams need to be aligned and focused on shared business goals and objectives.
- Better Quality, Faster: Video-driven organizations must deliver “TV quality” video when and where customers want it — fast.
- Results Oriented: Business stakeholders must have access to high-quality quantitative data to make good decisions regarding content investments.
- Personalization: Video content curators must focus on increasing viewer engagement through content recommendations and next-generation personal tailored linear streams.
VidOps has risen as the strategic approach for video streaming businesses that want to align processes, tools and technologies around the same goals. By breaking down the silos and working past complexities, a connected, streamlined approach is what businesses need to capture the OTT market opportunity, increase valuation and build a video streaming business that delights and delivers premium content.