IT Outsourcing at BBC

By
Soumen Nanda
Somendra Singh
Shubham Pandey
Sonu Tiwari
Sourav Pramanik
Souvik Ghosh

12/7/21 10:31 PM
 Introduction
• BBC at a glance
– Group Of British & American electrical
company
– Granted Royal Charter in 1927
– Earnings from Licenses
– Radio Broadcasting on 14th Nov,1922
– TV Broadcasting in 1936
• Competition after 1955
– Advent of ITV , Channel 4
• Role Of BECTU
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 • Division of BBC
– BBC Broadcast
– BBC Production
• Division of BBC Technology Group
– BBC Technology Direction
– BBCTL
• BBCTL  SBSMH
– Outsource the IT to SBS
• Why Outsourcing ?
– Need for outsourcing
– Requirement for BBC
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 Reasons for outsourcing at BBC

1. 20- 30 million pounds could be saved every year.

2. 350 employees could be saved from loosing their jobs.

3. UK government’s pressure for increasing revenues.

4. Change in the global broadcasting industry, the digital

factor.

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 Benefits of OUTSOURCING

1. The economies of scale.

2. Danger of management being over
stretched.
3. Gains could be used for investing in
other areas of BBC.
4. Development and innovation could be
accelerated.
5. Transfer of risk.
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 Selection of the supplier
Advertisement in the Official Journal of European Communities

Pre-qualifying Questionnaire to find

market position, financial strength & knowledge of the broadcast business

More information about the suppliers obtained that included

• Process for providing outsourced services and requirements for

transformations at BBC

• Their knowledge about the changes that were taking place in broadcast
market and the broadcasting technology that BBC used

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 BBC’s Criteria for evaluation
• Scale of operations, resources available with the firm and the
funding levels of the company to help the BBC realize its
technology vision over the next 10 years.

• Cultural fit

• Ability to deliver best value for money in technology

procurement.

• Realize best value for BBC Technology.

• Commitment to technology innovation.

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 Why SBS Was The Winner

• Thorough understanding of public service

organization and British culture.
• Engineering background.
• Availability of vast resources.

• Large scale of operation.

• Ability to deliver the best value.
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 BBCTL Under SBS Management
• Conformity with the previous procedure of BBC.

• Structured management of BBCTL projects -

(Governing board and Partnership board).

• Major success through broadcasting General

Election in UK on May 05, 2005.

• Expecting development outside core BBC market.

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 General election in UK(Story
of Success)
• Most technically advanced election ever in U.K. by built a £100,00
IT infrastructure.

• Journalists were send to 646 constituencies, sixty broadcast and

satellite vans were stationed, 200 computers were interlinked,
rehearsal program was carried out, also developed a contingency
plan.

• Website was upgraded to handle high traffic during the election

results.

• The successful election results broadcast earned SBS a good name.

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 LOOKING BACK…
• A deal to increase economies of scale for BBC.
• Faced with labour protests.
• Technology outsourcing proved to have been implemented successfully.
• However- 60% of the key technology projects in the deal's first
year suffered delays or went over budget.
• In the first year of the contract, savings were just £22m - 38% lower
that the original forecast of £35.2 m. *

…AND AHEAD
• BBC-SBS deal- A trend setter.
• Expansion of the broadcasting technology services sector.
• Advent of new technologies and improved production facilities.
• A new option and also a caution for broadcasters.

* source- www.computerworlduk.org
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