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Software services are now a new element in Apex’s operations as the company signed a collaboration agreement with Transtel Communications Ltd. According to the agreement, Apex is now Transtel’s media monitoring and publishing system representative in Finland and in the Baltic countries. Among NewsManager users are for example BBC and Reuters.

NewsManager is a software built to meet the needs of media companies and large organisations that want effectively to monitor, receive and search for news, analyse the news as well as manage and implement multi-channel news productions.

Apex’s role is larger than this, however: it has worked in the further development of the newest NewsManager G2 version.

“Apex Communications was founded on the premise of industry-specific telecommunications know-how and IT project specialisation. The same areas form the core of our customer base even today,” says Managing Director Hannu Peltola, Apex Communications.

According to Peltola, customers want Apex’s specialist help in solving problems which are unfortunately common in all IT projects. Clients want to make sure that project schedules and budgets are realistic and that any project complexities are kept in check.

In Apex projects the typical issue is often the production-critical operating environment. Quality and reliability are key factors.

“Mistakes for instance in system initialisation would cause the TV not to work, e-mails or MSMs not to be sent to receivers or ERP systems not to be accessible. That’s why it’s important to understand how critical systems and their functions in different industries are. Changes and initialisations require extremely thorough planning and are usually carried out during night time,” Peltola says.

Apex’s industry expertise and successfulness in customer projects is easily showcased in terms of continuity: the company, established in 1998, has ever since maintained customer relationships with for example tele-operators, IT service providers and media agencies.

The specialists at Apex have experience on both the customer and supplier roles. Before Apex, they have worked for big media enterprises such as YLE, tele-operators or ITC consulting and service companies.

Apex takes part in the use and development of IT systems throughout their life cycle. For the strategy work the company creates an ITC perspective and at the end of the life span, helps in the shutdown of old systems.

Among Apex’s services are business developing consultancy and project management in sizeable ICT endeavours such as competitive biddings, productisation, outsourcing, large-scale system upgrades and re-organisations.

Peltola believes that business process automatization will play an even more critical role in the future, particularly in connection with improving of competitiveness.

“We’re trailing behind when compared to the US and many European countries. Production automatization is the easiest way to improve competitiveness and that’s why companies in for instance Germany and the United States are investing heavily in it. If we are to improve our competitiveness, we have a lot to do with for example developing IoT and accelerating the automatization in production, sales and across industries,” says Hannu Peltola. 

Digital information specialists evaluate that of all the information measurable in bytes in the world only about one percent ever gets analysed. It’s also been said that of all above information, only 80 percent is secure.

In 2012, the volume of data in the world was appr. 3 zetabytes (ZB). In 2020, the figure is expected to rise to 40 zetabytes. That’s quite a lot, 1 ZB being equivalent to 10²¹.

The volume is astonishing, but don’t let it overwhelm you, says John Evans, Managing Director of the UK-based Transtel Communications Ltd. Transtel Communications develops systems for the publishing, analyses and management of news and information in multi-channel environments. In 2014, Transtel and Apex made a product representation contract regarding the media products of Transtel Communications, such as the NewsManager tool for news production.

“The more companies themselves publish and share information, the more they’ll learn to monitor, analyse and utilise it, too. Today it’s not enough for a company just to exist in a circle of sending out information and sitting back waiting for it to find its way into larger circulation. As information leaves the home plate, it should be directed and fostered.”

Evans says that any large company that needs the attention of consumers or decision-makers or any other stakeholder group must be able actively to “sell” news about itself. The quality and placement of information is crucial.

“Large news agencies such as Reuters as well as popular search engines retain their place high up in the food chain. A piece of news may well reach its recipient via Twitter or Facebook, but it’s the original place and issuer of the information that defines its importance.”

“Of course there are industries which particularly rely on the availability of real-time information. In commercial aviation, for instance, weather-related information is crucial and the same applies to industries that place their decision-making on the constantly fluctuating prices of raw materials.”

The volume of digital information is easily distorted by the fact that it lives on in different channels and gets modified to meet the needs of each said channel. A video clip extracted out of a live news broadcast can be uploaded on YouTube, from which it’s further shared throughout the social media. As the clip is moving around the digital space, it takes on the handprints of each user that handles it. In the past few weeks in Finland, for instance, social media has been infiltrated with “re-touched” political interviews, on top of which a new sound – track complete with nonsense voice content – has been added.

“There seems to be a big wish to monitor news to see how your own PR publication has been received.  By understanding how metadata (data that describes content) is used by search engines and web apps, a company can publish PR in a much more effective way. Metadata is not visible as part of the content, it is attached to the content, and is visible to the search engines and web apps. Really smart companies will be mastering the use of metadata.”

It’s not necessarily a world of front page scoops with stop-the-presses anymore. A piece of news or information that is valuable keeps its news value from day to day and week to week, at the same time generating side streams of added news, views, statements and commentary.

“Gathering of information is important, but no more so than its publication. The best way for a company to maintain visibility in today’s world is to make consistent use of information, to evolve it into content that can be simultaneously published on tv, radio, web, mobile apps.”

Transtel Communications’ flagship product NewsManager is a flexible and cost-effective tool for all media management situations. The software is designed especially for the editorial needs of newsrooms, but it is also suitable for efficient reception, editing and distribution of other communicative information content to end users.

Apex Communications is the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s (YLE) ICT consultant and has been involved in numerous demanding projects. Director Maarit Waskilampi-Kuikka, who is responsible for iCT and production technology at YLE, says that for media companies, change is the permanent state. YLE’s goal is to be both a nationally and internationally respected company renowned for its innovative services.

To reach this goal, the company must keep developing its operations and in many cases, the very apex of this development is with technology services. For this reason, skilled partners are a necessity. With Apex, Waskilampi-Kuikka is particularly pleased with three aspects of service: to begin with, Apex is able to handle extended project families and knows the ins and outs of the broadcasting industry. This, in its part, has secured the successful roll-out of the YLE projects.

“Apex provides us with ICT project management and specialist services. Its consultants have taken part in for example the implementation of competitive biddings for LAN and WLAN solutions, re-organisation of ICT services and upgrading of production-critical broadcast systems,” Waskilampi-Kuikka says.

These projects have been multi-supplier endeavours with a number of participants. Moreover, Apex has provided YLE with technical consultation on application support of broadcast systems and with the shutdown of Notes system applications.

“The role of YLE’s partners in ICT development has grown continuously. We want to focus on our own core competence and its development. Also, our objective is to build ICT services with increased value, with expert partners.”

The other important aspect of collaboration is careful project planning and co-ordination. A successful IT project is created in the planning stage already. During the projects Apex has co-ordinated – both in the planning and implementation stage – the activities of different project members, which in YLE’s case are usually product technology and equipment suppliers, representatives of programming operations and other service partners.

The third key success factor has been successful risk and change management. Waskilampi-Kuikka says that change management plays a critical role in any ICT project.

“ICT projects may well undergo significant changes in the middle of implementation and as a result of technical design becoming more accurate. This is why reliable ICT partners, who know how to apply risk and change management, are key people,” says Waskilampi-Kuikka.

Apex’s input in YLE is visible both in short and long term. Competitive biddings for new services have an effect that reaches over as many as 6–10 years. The results of systems projects carried out are typically visible over the next few years. The controlled shutdown of old systems and transfer of services to new environments has, for its part, an immediate effect on the usability and costs of the systems.

NewsManager software version 2.1 has been released. This version will provide even more versatile possibilities than before for defining the work flows in news production, for example.

Keijo Aittomäki started with Apex Communications as a technical consultant. Keijo’s areas of responsibility include especially technical consulting for Notes/Domino systems and technical support for NewsManager environments.

Tapio Miettinen started with Apex Communications as a business management consultant. Tapio’s main task consists of acting as a commercial liaison officer for the NewsManager customer base.

Apex Communications Finland Oy and Transtel Communications Ltd. made a product representation contract regarding the media products of Transtel Communications, such as the NewsManager tool for news production.

Ari Rantanen started with Apex Communications as a technical consultant. Ari’s areas of responsibility include especially technical consulting for Radioman and other production systems in the media field.

Kai Mattlar started with Apex Communications as a business management consultant. Kai’s areas of responsibility include development of business operations and project management for companies in the media and ICT fields.

The markets in the ICT and media fields have changed radically during the past few years. In the ICT field, development is advanced by especially different kinds of mobile applications. Industrial internet is also becoming an every-day reality. In the media field, a historical change is taking course, where the emphasis of media use is shifting strongly online. For an increasing number of companies, appropriate ICT services form an essential part of the company’s strategic success factors.

At Apex Communications, we believe that making use of the appropriate ICT services is often the most cost-effective way of developing new business operations and the easiest way to develop a company’s operations. In many cases, an external consultant may recognise the development possibilities more clearly than the company’s own personnel. The consultant’s vast experience regarding different organisations and solutions as well as the possibilities to focus in depth on the customers’ needs significantly enhance the performance of the development project.

Hannu Peltola

CEO