It has been a couple of months since we launched Ateme+. But the road doesn’t stop here. What have we learned from this transformative journey and where will it lead us next?
Jean-Louis Lods shares his thoughts about this journey plus tips for going SaaS — and where it will lead us next.
The Experience
The journey to Ateme+ and SaaS (Software as a Service) has been incredible. It began with the internal promotion to launch a SaaS service, and it continued through to getting the service ready for launch, which took place at IBC this year.
When any company decides to take its industry-leading products and construct an entirely new vertical based on SaaS, it’s essential to align the entire organization to that vision. So, as we continue to enhance Ateme+, moving to SaaS means shifting our mindset. It’s far from just a technology workstream; it is development and support to sales and marketing. It’s this drive that has kept me busy for the last two years. The result is something I’m very proud of as I can see the benefit Ateme+ will bring to our current and future customers.
Ateme has always been extremely centered on delivering best-in-class products with a laser-pointed focus on features and customer needs, demands, and experiences. The operational teams concentrate on agility to maximize functionality, typically gained through customer feedback. This is how we have been evolving the service features every day.
It’s all about you, our customers.
The feedback from our customers has been very positive. What has inspired us most is that you have expressed an equal amount of interest in both Ateme+ File and Ateme+ Live.
For incumbent customers of TITAN File, Ateme+ gives you an easy onramp to manage peaks in transcoding because the API in Ateme+ is the same as on-prem TFMS (TITAN File microservices). Thus, it is a simplified integration.
In the case of Ateme+ Live, we’re noticing increased occasional use, especially for sports. In addition, we’re learning new ways to manage 24/7 distribution, which allows you to insource and manage your needs.
What role do partnerships play in Ateme+?
Working with partners allows us to integrate a wealth of features. The software industry embraced partnerships a long time ago. Media & entertainment technology vendors are now realizing its benefits, and it’s a core doctrine of Ateme+. There are those more obvious partners required when releasing SaaS into the public cloud. But launching for us was more than just working with cloud providers. For example, Ateme+ also partnered with TAG for their multiviewer and alerts, a feature crucial in managing live events in the cloud.
The goal is to create a best-of-breed service with the greatest components. For this reason, and as we add more features and services to Ateme+, we will continue to form new partnerships.
What advice would you give others?
First, make sure you understand what your core tenets are, so you know what you need to deliver to your customer.
Fortunately, we have a great team of evangelists within Ateme. And from day one, we’ve had buy-in from senior management. Communication throughout the business is critical to making it a success. Sometimes you have to step outside the box to see it more as an innovation project within the business itself. But essentially we needed to make sure we understood your messaging and the benefits our service would bring to you. In turn, this will come back around to improve both our business and yours.
The best advice I can give would be to believe in your vision but have patience. Things always take longer than you expect. But the learning, the evolving, and a winning final service are all worth it in the end.
What’s next on the Ateme+ journey?
We are constantly learning and evolving. For example, thanks to your feedback at IBC, we will be adding a new panel to Ateme+ Live. This panel will enable real-time monitoring through a network operations map. So, you’ll be able to quickly visualize every service in a single view.
Overall, we have received a number of requests from customers regarding new features and services. So, we are aligning our roadmap based on your feedback, because you are the ones who drive our future.
Ateme is proud and excited to continue the Ateme+ evolution. We can already see that 2023 is going to be a busy and exciting year for Ateme+.