BBC Monitoring Technology Refresh

Tender description

Background: BBC Monitoring (BBCM) is a 24×7×365 operation that monitors and reports upon the world’s open source media e.g. tv, radio, web. Its product is predominantly delivered to customers electronically through email services, websites and direct feeds. BBCM is based at Caversham in the UK and has an annual turnover of approx £25m, largely funded by a grant from the UK government. With five main international offices in Moscow, Nairobi, Tashkent, Kiev and Baku providing input from local operational units, BBCM currently employs around 500 people globally. Current Situation: The majority of BBCM’s output is currently text-based with niche video and rich media products developed for specific customer needs. The main production system is also principally text-based, although additional tactical solutions have been developed and added that allow limited multimedia production and delivery. This mix of products and solutions is becoming increasingly costly to support and is hampering the business’s ability to develop in a way which enables BBCM to fully support the needs of its customers and to provide a competitive service. BBCM is therefore looking to move away from these legacy systems, to a more integrated text and multimedia production and delivery system encompassing working across distances in a geographically dispersed operation. The Project: The Technology Refresh project is aiming to deliver a rich media content production and delivery platform incorporating a full range of content types e.g. text, video, audio, pictures and graphics. Its associated application toolset will enable users to work efficiently and effectively by providing quick and simple access to material in a range of formats. The platform will enable the analysis of a number of information sources, and production of a range of products which can be delivered to customers via ad hoc and scheduled emails, secure system to system feeds and portals / website searche