PlayRight Launches Neighboring Rights Management System with OutSystems in Half the Time

In half the time of traditional development approaches, OutSystems consolidates multiple, highly-complex processes into a unified system for managing artists’ rights payments. After three failed attempts building with .NET and facing a twelve-month regulatory deadline, OutSystems was identified as the only provider capable of delivering the complete solution on time. OutSystems deployed the first version in six and a half months, and within a year, PlayRight achieved an unprecedented level of efficiency by automating their complex payment processes.

“We needed a system built, ready and operational in one year.”

PlayRight is a Belgian collective management organization that collects and distributes rights on behalf of thousands of musicians and artists worldwide.
Managing and distributing rights to thousands of members and partner organizations is a complex undertaking requiring tremendous accuracy and handling of large volumes of data. The ‘comparison’ process alone requires making billions of matches from playlists to repertoires.

PlayRight was using a variety of spreadsheets and databases to manage individual components of rights management. This manual process was cumbersome, prone to errors, and expensive, and the risk to members was a loss of rights’ payments. Three unsuccessful attempts were made at creating a consolidated system using traditional technology approaches.

With growing demand and increasing data volume, meeting deadlines was impossible. Under regulatory pressure, PlayRight needed to restore a trustful and transparent relationship with members within a year’s time. There was no package available, and this was a highly-complex mission critical application that needed to be built from scratch.

Why OutSystems?

During the vendor selection process, an International Consulting Firm estimated two years to complete the project but ultimately withdrew from consideration when faced with the overwhelming complexity and risk.

After looking at various vendors, OutSystems Platform was chosen as the solution to tackle the complex integration and quickly deliver a consolidated system that solved PlayRight’s growing problems - on time and at a fraction of the cost.

“The complexity of the project was enormous, and our previous three attempts had failed miserably. But with OutSystems, we had the first version live in six and a half months.” 

Christophe van Vaerenbergh, Director

First deployment in six and a half months

Solution Capabilities

In just six and a half months, PlayRight rapidly developed and deployed their Single Customer Portal, and within six months, they began launching components of RIDER, their core system. In just under a year, all of the web application functionality was fully operational. Both projects were developed using the high-productivity OutSystems Platform and an agile development methodology.

Together, RIDER and the Customer Portal comprise several fully integrated web business processes that have dramatically improved business performance by integrating core processes with accounting and their financial institution.

“For the first time in our history, we are up to date on all our rights payments.”

The PlayRight Neighboring Rights Management System project was a huge success in terms of customer and internal team satisfaction as adoption by users far exceeded initial expectations. In just under a year with OutSystems, PlayRight delivered a comprehensive core system that automated and consolidated multiple complex functions and a single customer portal for streamlined communications between members and the collective management organization.

Moreover, from a business perspective, PlayRight came back from the verge of disaster brought on by the complex nature of the collective management industry, the massive volumes of data they handle, and various systems needed to operate the business.

• Over 7.000.000 € payments made
• 20,140 registered artists
• 750 billion comparisons
• Decreased time for payments
  
  • from years to weeks
• Reduced operational costs
• Eliminated manual processing errors by automating processes end-to-end
• First version live in 6.5 months, fully operational system in under 13 months
• Complete visibility to track all transactions - millions saved