Bringing dynamism to a national institution

“Our enduring aim is to grow our unique relationship with the French people,” says Rodolphe Belmer, Chairman and CEO of TF1. TF1 is a national institution. France’s #1 free-to-air TV broadcaster has remained in the hearts of the nation’s viewers since its creation in 1935, scheduling France’s most popular entertainment brands, prestige drama, major sporting events, and Europe’s most-watched news bulletins. According to Statista, as of 2023, the private national TV channel was polled as the leading television channel in France.

To continue to grow this unique relationship with the nation, TF1 is evolving to be increasingly dynamic, progressive, and digital. With the launch of TF1+, its ambition is to create France’s go-to free streaming platform. The goal is for TF1 content to be on every screen, in every French home, available to every French citizen, from connected TVs to smartphones.

Keeping pace with a changing media landscape

To do so requires TF1 to not only change how content is consumed but also transform the way content is produced. TF1 content teams are now more mobile and more digital; post-production involves increasing amounts of software to optimize audio and image quality; content is passed between creative teams throughout France.

As a result, TF1 finds itself constantly investing in the latest technology, such as cameras, servers, mobile broadband internet access solutions, even bulletproof vests for its reporters. In the fast-moving TV industry this presents a unique challenge: TF1 wants its production teams to have creative freedom, but, as a business, it needs to retain control. Unmanaged technology assets present a cybersecurity risk, duplication is wasteful, and there is the day-to-day admin of dealing with suppliers and maintenance. All of which distracts from the business of creating compelling TV content.

“Having an accurate database of assets is essential for our activities,” says Jonathan Ambourg, IT Manager at TF1. “If nothing else, it is becoming vital for cybersecurity.”

Taking control of 140,000 hardware assets

By 2020, the business had an estimated 140,000 hardware assets, which required the intervention of 100 people to manage them. This team was reliant on a single piece of software that had gradually become obsolete and unnecessarily complex, and which ran on servers coming to the end of their useful lives.

The software was proving a real pain for users. It was inflexible, unreliable, and failed to generate the right level of detail needed by the business. TF1 needed clarity around compliance, the current value of assets, and whether assets were due to be disposed of or recycled.

The issue, according to Jonathan, was the quality of the database, “Our priority was to clean the database and improve its reliability. By creating a more qualitative database, it will make it easier to monitor the lifecycle of equipment, its place of installation, how it functions, and history of incidents.”

TF1 has been a long-term user of ServiceNow’s AI platform for business transformation, implementing IT Service Management (ITSM) in 2014, followed by the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) solution in 2016. Jonathan says, in hindsight, these were the first steps towards efficient asset management. “With our previous asset management tool coming to end-of-life, we didn’t really look too hard for a successor. We knew it would be the ServiceNow platform.”

Moving to ServiceNow CMDB creates a holistic overview of the IT infrastructure, services, and their relationships. This process was completed in 2023 with the addition of IT Asset Management (ITAM), including Hardware Asset Management (HAM Pro).

Creating a database that best reflects reality

The ServiceNow platform provides a more in-depth approach to hardware asset management and creates a gateway to process automation and work optimization and modernization. A single platform, a single data model, and a single architecture, the Now Platform immediately establishes a consistent, unified view of TF1’s disparate hardware, from cabling to microphones, cameras to laptops.  

Within weeks of the migration to the ServiceNow platform, carried out by the partner CloudSpirit and supported by ServiceNow Impact, TF1 had a clearer picture of its hardware estate. By identifying hardware that was obsolete, duplicate, or non-compliant, TF1 was able to reduce its asset count from 140,000 to 80,000. This generates a financial saving while also ensuring the remaining hardware is ready for use.

“That's what ServiceNow gives us: a database that best reflects reality,” says Jonathan. “We now have a virtuous circle of equipment management.”

Enabling an intuitive experience for users

For users, the ServiceNow platform provides a more intuitive experience with more practical features. The reporting function generates an immediate snapshot of stock; the regrouping feature simplifies bulk tasks.

For example, each year TF1 group gathers obsolete hardware to be sent to a specialist waste handler to be destroyed, donated, or resold. This task is now greatly facilitated by the ‘Disposal Order’ function, integrated as standard in HAM. This standard workflow process, developed by ServiceNow, was implemented into TF1's IT system with very few modifications. Obsolete hardware is packed up on wooden pallets, the pallet loads are logged on to the Now Platform, which generates a report with the hardware’s final destination.

Providing clarity around compliance, location, and value

Not only is there now clarity around the physical volume of hardware, but there is also a clearer picture of the status of each item. A more detailed asset inventory enables TF1 to confirm regulatory requirements, location, and value.

Today, each new asset is immediately given a QR Code and is entered into the CMDB. The HAM mobile app then allows smartphone users to read each QR Code and update the inventory. It means TF1 can know the exact whereabouts of a specific cable, for example. Like the waste disposal process, no modifications were required to set this up.

Rounding out a holistic approach

The TF1 approach to hardware asset management is increasingly holistic. It now spans procurement to cybersecurity to disposal. TF1 has created a purchase order system within the Now Platform. The order is first entered into the SAP management software and dispatched in ITAM. Once received, the ‘physical’ assets are assigned a bar code, moving from the ‘in stock’ status to ‘installed’. The lifecycle management operation workflow for these assets then starts, thanks to ITAM and HAM.

Tech assets are now attributed an IP address, enabling TF1’s DNS to monitor the location and user. In addition, ServiceNow’s standard functions for fixed asset management allow assets’ residual value to be calculated and their lifecycle predicted. There are plans to launch a third HAM functionality, Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA), to simplify the management of equipment repair through suppliers, updating the CMDB in real time.

Generating a 20% lift in productivity

The cumulative effect is that Jonathan’s team of 100 is 20% more productive and there is a culture of continuous improvement.

“ServiceNow changes the dynamic. Because updates are easier to perform, we can continuously refine the quality of the database. We’re moving from quantitative to qualitative.”