In a hectic world of media convergence, publishers and TV networks face a challenge – as they seek out the opportunities in new platforms, they also create administrative overhead and complexity.

That is why the ecosystem of software designed to help them is so rich.

One vendor of such software has been operating since 1992 – but Matrix Solutions has its eyes on the future, not the past.

Matching enabled

“There’s a lot of talk in the industry about getting universal customer IDs, et cetera,” says Matrix CEO Mark Gorman in this video interview with Beet.TV.

“And, of course, that would make it better and it would streamline a lot of the technology.

“But we have a lot of those things to already do those kinds of matchings within our system.

“We as an organisation have proprietary algorithms that can do a lot of that internal matching.”

Sales as a circle

The company offers Monarch, a CRM pipeline management, budgeting, forecasting projections and reporting and BI tool for media companies that sell advertising inventory.

Now it is also developing Matrix Sales Gateway, a system that will ultimately be an automation and convergence of the media ad sales workflow.

“I like to think of the sales workflow as a circle,” Gorman says.

“Really, the idea is to help manage that whole process from the initial identification of buy to the ultimate conclusion and revenue recognition for the media company.”

Gateway workflows

The gateway will start by identifying and displaying the buy-side demand signaled by platforms like Hudson, MX, MediaOcean and FreeWheel, after which a sell-side executive can build an electronic proposal for buyers.

The system will then send orders, and continues to offer revenue recognition and intelligence.

“The sales gateway is really seeking to bring in a lot of efficiencies into the process to help maximize the value of the various inventories you’re selling, reduce errors, et cetera,” Gorman adds.

You are watching “A Marketplace Transformed: The TV Ad Industry Powered by Automation,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Matrix. For more videos, please visit this page.

By Robert Andrews on @robertandrews