CHENNAI: Cognizant Technology Solutions has formed a digital media centre of excellence. The centre will focus on developing fresh tools and frameworks for the new media market space.

Through this centre, Cognizant is hoping to develop tools and frameworks that target the current industry pain-points like streaming media securitisation, restricting unauthorised online video and music downloads, digital asset management (DAM) and digital rights management (DRM).

In DRM, Cognizant sees the next significant wave in the `digitisation' space. DRM offers media companies the ability to control distribution and use of their content, thereby protecting the associated revenue. "We see an increased adoption of DRM software in content industries like film, music and book publishing, where migrating from traditional distribution of physical media to new, networked and online methods of selling content is the future imperative," said Shankar Srinivasan, Vice-President, Media and Entertainment Practice, Cognizant.

The effective use of DRM is expected to create for media companies newer revenue opportunities like paid download services, subscription services, pay-per-view/listen/read et al.

Though Cognizant has been in the media space with a couple of clients since 1994 (when the company had a different name), its focus on "media, publishing and information services industry'' has intensified in the last one year or so.

It has now over 2,000 person-years experience working for customers across the media spectrum — media information services, publishing, broadcasting, advertising, entertainment, and digital media. Publishers Circulation Fulfillment, Inc. (PCF), the largest independent provider of newspaper home and office delivery services in the U.S., has recently chosen Cognizant to deploy a complete end-to-end SAP IS-Media solution across the company's internal and external operations.

According to a study by PwC Global, increased adoption of the Internet, digitisation of most media business streams, broadband revolution, acquisitions, content syndication by telecom providers and business process consolidation will prove key to the growth of the media and entertainment industry.

Key segments

Online methods of selling content and digitisation appear to be emerging as key segments.

Many print media players have, of late, come out with novel ways of increasing customer affinity and retaining customers. Access to free online content for print subscribers and rewards packaged and branded in corporate programs akin to those made famous by the credit card and airlines industries are among the innovative ideas rolled by the print media.

"Such reward programs involve the challenging task of bringing the old world (print) and the new world (online) together in strategic IT programs, thereby presenting a distinct opportunity for companies such as Cognizant to leverage the domain knowledge in print and publishing and the extensive experience in handling large complex engagements to take such IT programs to fruition," according to Mr. Srinivasan.

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