FINCONS GROUP believes that the Broadcast/

Broadband convergence represents one of the

most relevant trends in the Media industry, which

will play a key role in driving the evolution of

products/services and will emphasize the

importance of a customer-centric proposition.

In its day-by-day work with market leading operators

in the Media industry, during the last years

FINCONS GROUP has invested a lot of effort in

understanding and analyzing the implications of

such disruptive scenario, which not only impacts

the organization, processes and technology of

existing media companies but also allows new

players to enter into the game.

Market Convergence

As an outcome of such analysis, FINCONS GROUP developed its own OTT Digital Video Framework (DVF), which:

FINCONS GROUP Digital Framework

● represents a high level map including all capabilities

required to deliver and sustain a latest generation OTT

service;

● leverages the experience gained on the field by

collaborating with tier-one broadcasters such as Sky Italia

and Sky Deutschland in innovative OTT initiatives;

● simplifies and structures the mapping of software

package solutions;

● can be used as an asset and project accelerator during

project activities such as assessment phases, to-be

solution design, software selections, etc.

DUE TO THE growing request for on-demand contents, Sky Italia decided to

introduce a new VOD service dedicated to the "digital native" audience

and all those who are not Sky subscribers yet.

This brought in 2014 to the launch of Sky Online: the new way to experience

the Sky world, anytime and anywhere, using a simple Internet connection.

Sky Italia architecture strategy for this new service was to select the best

components to cover the different architectural elements - building its own

overall solution - instead of adopting an end to end OTT platform.

Following this strategy, FINCONS GROUP helped Sky Italia in implementing

the Sky Online platform through the development of three main components:

the e-Commerce platform; the Content Management System (CMS) and the

web portal.

C L I E N T T E S T I M O N I A L - S K Y O N L I N E

In real life implementations, the different areas of the OTT DVF can be covered in different ways and by different components,

either software market packages or custom solutions, with which FINCONS GROUP is typically familiar thanks to its traditional

system integrator role.

The architectural choices, jointly made by FINCONS GROUP and Sky Italia to address some areas of the OTT DVF - in particular

those related to e-Commerce capabilities belonging to the DVF Business Back-end Foundation Services block - suggested

FINCONS GROUP to derive from the related project experience a pre-configured, reusable and feature-rich component.

Commerce4Media is the packaged solution - based on Magento Enterprise Edition - derived by FINCONS GROUP from its Sky

Online project experience and offered to the market to complement the traditional offering (consulting + system integration)

with a "ready-to-use" application component which can be integrated in the overall end to end solution and provide content

commerce and monetization advanced functionalities.

The implemented solution is based on a "verticalization" of the open-source software Magento, one of the leading e-Commerce

platform mainly consolidated in the retail and consumer-goods industries, which has been customized to address the specific

needs of an advanced OTT service, thus becoming the new tool to sell, manage and deliver multimedia content online,

anywhere and anytime.

COMMERCE4MEDIAFINCONS GROUP Digital Framework

The main retail and consumer-goods open-source

software Magento becomes Magento for Media, the

new tool to sell, manage and deliver multimedia

contents: online, anywhere and anytime.

KEY FEATURES

Client master data Mgmt

Client profiling

Client clustering (generic, VIP, free-tax zone, …)

Device Mgmt

PIN Mgmt – Parental Rating

Client registration

Authentication/Authorization

Self-care

Integration with CRM system (e.g. SalesForce) for eCaring processes

Integration with ERP system (client master data)

Integration with BI system (client registrations)

Inbound integration with scheduling (BMS) and Content Mgmt Systems (CMS) for the acquisition of base products (VOD items, linear events)

Subscriptions Mgmt (e.g. Cinema) and event packages Mgmt (e.g. Wimbledon)

Product Catalogue Mgmt

Support for automatic (based on configurable rules) and manual association between content and commercial packages (both bundles and subscriptions)

Pricing and advanced discounts Mgmt

Voucher Mgmt

Outbound integration with CMS system for product catalog publication

Integration with ERP system (partner Mgmt, voucher Mgmt)

C L I E N T M A N A G E M E N T

O F F E R M A N A G E M E N T

Bundle subscription (2 discounted price packages)

Packages and bundle free trial period

Early subscription (discounted price package if ordered

within a fixed data)

Product Catalogue Mgmt

Discounted price second subscription

Free package for a limited period

Credit on customer balance wallet

Purchasing process

Support of main payment methods through payment

gateway integration

Order Mgmt

Invoicing

Refunds Mgmt (total, partial, credit-based VS wallet-based) Fraud Mgmt

Transaction History

Integration with ERP system (purchases, orders,

invoices, refunds, transfers)

Integration with DRM Policy Mgr (clients login data,

purchases, entitlements, device registration and resets, etc.)

A D V A N C E D P R O M O T I O N M A N A G E M E N T

T R A N S A C T I O N M A N A G E M E N T

Rather than focusing on an end-to-end full coverage of ready-to-use functionalities, Commerce4Media aims at providing a

predefined but configurable set of well defined features, which can be selected and tuned to be effectively integrated within

existing environments.

The result is the capability to enhance our customer's and partner's multi-screen environments, maximizing the exploitation

of their previous investments, and focusing on innovative features which can bring their OTT initiatives to successful

monetization on an increasingly competitive market.

One of the key aspect of Commerce4Media is a clear separation between the back-end features and the way these can be

accessed by front-end client applications, taking into account the complexities coming from the big focus on a

comprehensive multi-screen coverage which characterizes the most advanced OTT services.

The 3 Commerce4Media key components are:

● Commerce4Media CLIENT SERVICES

The Commerce4Media Client Services module is a Java web application that decouples the Magento services towards the front-end clients to enable an efficient multi-screen approach. It is in charge of adapting the responses format to the different client needs and improves the overall service performance throughout a caching mechanism of customer data based on NoSQL database technology (Couchbase).

● MAGENTO

Magento is a platform built with open source technologies and is based on the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL,

PHP). Magento uses what is known as configuration-based MVC pattern and relies on the Zend Development

Framework, ensuring:

Flexibility - Magento’s code allows for seamless customizations;

Extensibility - by separating the core code from customizations, Magento can be easily customized without loosing the ability to upgrade;Performance & Security - the coding standards used by developers follow the best practices to maximize the software efficiency and to provide a secure online storefront.

● Commerce4Media DATAHUB

The Commerce4Media Data Hub is a normalized, standard and easy to access data structure that exposes all the core

Commerce4Media entities to simplify integration with 3rd party systems.

Based on a platform specifically developed as an e-Commerce enabler.

Differentiating from alternative approaches based on the adoption of end-to-end OTT platforms.

Advanced out-of-the-box features for product catalogue mgmt, offer mgmt, pricing and discounts, promotions,

voucher mgmt, etc.

1 B U I L T W I T H S T R O N G F O C U S O N C O N T E N T M O N E T I Z A T I O N

Based on one of the leading e-Commerce platforms, backed by a company such as eBay.

Flexibility, configurability, interoperability and extensibility typical of a standard-based open-source platform.

Extensive and growing development community.

Enterprise-grade performance enabled by Magento Enterprise Edition.

2 C O N S O L I D A T E D E - C O M M E R C E P L A T F O R M

3 C U S T O M I Z E D T O M E E T S P E C I F I C N E E D S O F O T T S E R V I C E S

Pre-configured object model representing entities such as linear channels, events, series, episodes, subscriptions,

etc.

Customized application logic enabling the different business models (SVOD, TVOD, PPV on linear channels/events,

etc.).

Availability of standard interfaces towards the typically involved systems (BMS, VCMS, ERP, CRM, etc.).

4 P R O V E N

Powering the new Sky Italia service “Sky Online” (http://skyonline.it/).

Possibility of reference visits in Sky Italia.

In summary, the Commerce4Media architecture is designed to guarantee:

● modular coverage of main functionality blocks (User Management, Offer and Promotion Management,

Transaction Management);

● support for several business models (S/T/A-VOD, PPV on linear channels/events, …);

● well defined APIs based on common integration standards (REST/SOAP services, Web views, DB views, etc.);

● native integration with third party typical components of an OTT technological landscape (such as BMS, VCMS,

ERP, CRM, BI);

● configurability of key services and export of core functionalities as web services.

With 35 years of experience in IT Business Consulting, FINCONS GROUP partners with clients to

support business growth through innovation.

It delivers customised end-to-end software solutions to leading players in several markets, with a

significant footprint presence in the Media sector: broadcasters, publishers and media companies.

High quality and competitiveness are further guaranteed by the Smart-shore IT Service strategy made

available through the Delivery Center in Bari, Italy.

The Group has ongoing collaborations with businesses, public institutions, research centers and

universities via its Innovation Lab and offices in Switzerland (Küssnacht am Rigi, Bern, Zurich,

Lugano), Italy (Milan, Verona, Rome, Bari, Catania), in the UK (London) and in the US (Los Angeles,

New York).

ABOUT US

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