Fremantle is a world leader in scripted and unscripted content, creating over 12,000 hours of media programming a year, rolling out more than 70 formats and airing 400 programmes a year worldwide.
It is essential for an organisation such as Fremantle to securely store, manage and access large volumes of content, including contracts and all of the paperwork required to produce much of the world’s best loved TV programmes. Behind the scenes, staff in Fremantle’s Legal Department were faced with inefficiencies, with an iManage Document Management System that was poorly tailored to suit users’ needs, with an ineffective workflow structure. With this, staff had no choice but to store their information in irregular clusters. This meant that iManage’s superior search functionality was ineffective and obsolete, further limiting Fremantle’s ability to utilise the system.
Staff found it difficult to find both specific documents, and the context behind them. Project data, including emails, contracts and more, were sourced manually. With information stored much like a directory, staff were required to manually navigate the nooks and crannies of their iManage database to locate documents relating to individual seasons and episodes.
Clearly, both the technology and the strategy behind Fremantle’s workflow structure needed to be analysed and redesigned. Fremantle planned to re-work its workflow structure, overhauling its iManage solution and upgrading to iManage Work 10. This way, staff could finally utilise iManage’s advanced search functionality.
Tiger Eye, trusted iManage partner, was recommended for the project.
Consultancy sessions and collaborative workshops were conducted with all of Fremantle’s DMS users, to analyse how staff naturally interacted with the iManage system. Using these observations, Tiger Eye worked collaboratively to redesign Fremantle’s database.
It was apparent that Fremantle was limited by the traditional DMS format of client and matter, which was ineffective for the way they worked. Working department by department, Tiger Eye customised Fremantle’s root workspace structure, with workspaces ordered around shows and seasons.
Co-authoring a best practice approach for Fremantle’s DMS users, Tiger Eye and Fremantle outlined guidelines for document title syntax and metadata, to ensure all staff titled documents in the same, ordered manner. This simple, manageable document structure, ensured that both existing data and future projects were coherently taxonomized, labelled with appropriate meta data and became searchable using iManage’s search functionality.
After migrating all required data to iManage Work, Tiger Eye’s experienced trainer hosted user training for Fremantle’s staff. This ensured that Fremantle users had the skills and know-how to truly utilise the system, and to structure documentation in accordance with company policy.
With a system that is truly designed to suit the needs of users, Fremantle staff can search for, find and access documents with ease. With all staff skilled in using the iManage system, Fremantle is able to minimise pressure on internal resources, with the DMS helping, rather than hindering, users’ access to documentation. Jacqueline Moreton, General Counsel at Fremantle (and the firm’s iManage Work Business Sponsor, added: “Tiger Eye has been very responsive to our queries and prompt to resolve issues.”
Fremantle operates a global content production and distribution business, with operations in 28 countries, including the production and licensing of television programmes and digital content across both scripted and non-scripted genres, as well as the distribution of content through Fremantle International, one of the world’s largest distributors of television content.
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