Futurewatch: Enterprise
Metrics: The Golden Compass
The proverbial rubber meets the road in the form of not just user experience but accurate statistical data and its conversion into viable metrics. In lieu of this, advertising and publishing budgetary commitments will undergo increased scrutiny. The good news is that there are companies such as Skytide, among others, that are gearing up to prove their programs in 2008 and that claim to have enterprise SLA-worthy software that can attach meaningful "dimensions" to a given media strategy. The dimensions that can be modeled across a catalog of web properties are infinite, and any application that leaves behind a log of any kind can be viewed from a complete, 360-degree perspective to validate any given effort.
In the enterprise environment the dynamic might be demonstrated by taking raw logs and tracking the successful completion of mandatory training, for example. If there are streaming media components that are not working as expected, you will be able to see this even if users do not call in tickets to the help desk. This will also identify systems along the path that are not working that can be refined to be made more efficient. It is this real-time view of an enterprise that will allow IT and accounting to have a meeting of the minds to target opportunities in their worlds that will lead to savings, efficiency, or overall optimization.
The attitude toward streaming media, whether in the enterprise or the consumer environment, is that while still experimental at the core, there is an overall willingness to take some risk to try to make the technology work. If it doesn’t work, there is an eagerness to simply try again with a fresh approach.
Validation and Integration
There are many challenges as we look ahead, but those who chose to avail themselves of this powerful means of content delivery have demonstrated a willingness to make streaming-powered content an area to watch, primarily because of the promise inherent in integration with IP-based tracking methodologies. But there is still much to be done.
George Kliavkoff, NBC Universal’s chief digital officer and Hulu-guru said it best at OMMA in September 2007: Success involves setting up "processes to fail fast."