Operational Assessment

What is Discover360?

Discover360 is an operational assessment framework. It is the primary means of assessing your operational capability and whether your organisation is falling short on delivery and cost-effectiveness.

The primary goal of Discover360 is to find opportunities to improve operational delivery and find areas to reduce costs.

When would Discover360 be useful?

Discover360 may be helpful in a variety of events:

• Lower advertising and subscription revenues;
• Loss of viewers, listeners or end-users;
• Higher costs due to service credits and service recovery actions;
• Loss of reputation with customers and the wider industry.
• Teams report inefficiencies or key performance indicators indicate poor performance
• Significant operational issues;
• Poor customer feedback indicates dissatisfied customers may be about to defect to your competitors;
• Customer contracts are up for renewal and you’d like to improve operational delivery;
• Poor supplier performance;
• Need to assess performance prior to integrating companies or operational facilities;
• Need to cut costs.

What’s involved in Discover360?

Step 1: Fact-finding

All information relevant to the operation is gathered for review, including:

• Facilities and supporting infrastructure;
• Platform health and maintenance regimes;
• Back-up systems, information systems and business continuity;
• Physical and cybersecurity;
• Processes, workflow and continuous improvement measures;
• People skills and training needs;
• Supplier performance;
• Communication, reporting and escalation;
• All related costs.

We can also interview customers, employees and suppliers to gain different perspectives. Clearly there may be sensitivities involved in which case we will be guided by our customers’ wishes.

Step 2: Analysis

The information gathered under Step 1 is then reviewed and analysed systematically. This enables all aspects of operational capability to be reviewed in as much detail as required.

We review operational performance including key performance indicators, service availability, equipment reliability, early life failures, outages, including root cause analysis of outages.

We also assess technical systems and infrastructure including preventative and reactive maintenance routines and resources.

We also review relevant workflow and processes for their usability and effectiveness. Evidence of continuous improvement is explored to gauge if people regularly look for ways to improve the processes.

Peoples’ skills and experience to manage the service is assessed. This covers team capability and also whether these capabilities are present at the right time and in the right quantity.

Information systems involved in delivering the service are reviewed as well as the data required to manage services.

Communications materials and processes are assessed including distribution and timeliness.

Supplier performance is reviewed and depending on the critical nature of the service provided all steps described above will be covered.

We review all costs involved in delivering services, including direct costs and overheads, looking for opportunities to save money.

Step 3: Report and presentation

Results from the audit are presented in a report which clearly outlines the result of the audit including information established under Step 1 and analysis under Step 2. Recommendations are covered in detail with suggestions for improvements, actions, targets and cost savings. A presentation of the work done and recommendations is available for audiences as required.

If required The Hawk Media Partnership can put together a programme of improvements using Excel360.

Why Use The Hawk Media Partnership?

Technical and operational auditing needs to be carried out by experienced professionals. Our partners possess a wide range of broadcast and media expertise. Our technical skills cover the complete broadcast ecosystem.

In addition, we have real, in-post practitioner experience with access to an industry-leading set of skills and expertise. That’s why we’re the natural choice.

"Angus Blackwood was the first auditor in WTA’s Teleport Certification program, and his performance as an auditor of technical facilities and procedures has helped shape the success of the program. In addition to conducting site inspections and reporting on results to WTA and the teleport operators, he has been instrumental in improving the survey instrument that teleport operators complete to qualify for provisional certification. He is a thorough-going professional who excels at collaborative contribution to our program.”

Robert Bell, Executive Director, World Teleport Association