CIOIN

Sunil Mehta

Sr. VP and Area Systems Director (Central Asia) JWT India

“We wanted to provide a graphical user interface for all archived data and put it online. Today, users rave about it.”

Executive summary

CIO 100 Winner: At J Walter Thomson, data search in the company's studio  archive was becoming a lengthy and complicated process.  CIO, Sunil Mehta created a platform on  which JWT staffers from India can store, find and access advertising material and stock images.

One of the world's oldest and most prestigious advertising agencies, JWT has 200 offices in 90 countries. In India, its client list read like the who's who of the corporate world including Unilever, Microsoft, Nokia and Rolex.

But its size worked against JWT: it took too long to search for something in the company's studio archive. "Our biggest challenge was finding and accessing print advertisements, commercial films advertisements as well as data from planning departments. It was scattered across offices and existed in duplicate and even triplicate. Finding anything using a text search was laborious," says Sunil Mehta, senior VP and area systems director (Central Asia), JWT.

So he envisioned what is called project Hunter: a digital archiving system for media assets. "The idea was to give a graphical user interface to all archived data and put it online," Mehta says. But because there were no readymade solutions, the system would have to be created in-house, and it needed to be done on the cheap. Basing themselves on the day-to-day needs of its client servicing arm and creative department, Mehta and team created five categories of ad material under a 'home' page for quick navigation. Further classifications and sub divisions were added. Designing was done on FrontPage and an Apple server was used as a host.

An important part of the project was guaranteeing secure access to the company's data. Using RSA 2048 bit SSL security, user access management tools and users and groups management tools, Mehta controlled access. He also put in anti-hacking measures that barred any unauthorized access within 10 seconds and ensured that only pre-defined IP addresses could use the Web.

Because of the multiple formats the media house used, the biggest challenge to the project was capturing all of the company's data. Mehta got the production team to pitch in, which he says was not hard given the support project Hunter received.

Today, the Rs 1 lakh project has made it easy to identify ad material using thumbnails. New search functions allow employees and clients anywhere in the world (using a VPN connection) to surf through JWT's archives. It enables users to access a higher number of already-paid for stock images and permits clients to search through their own material - and added service.