Established in 1976 by two entrepreneurial brothers, MPI Media Group is a licensed media distribution company that has carved a distinct niche in the industry with an impressive collection of horror films. Despite being a team of 15 to 20 full-time employees, they effectively manage the complexities of dealing with licensors, preparing royalties, and making sales.

This involves intricate and tedious calculations, meticulous reporting, and rigorous tracking – a process that is common in the financial sector in the Hollywood industry. However, as a forward-thinking corporation, MPI Media Group’s VP of Technology, Randy Burgess, is keenly aware of the need for modernization as they move towards distributing modern multimedia  platforms. With an eye towards the future and a commitment to continual improvement, the company searched for a Cloud solution to evolve their business processes and fuel the ongoing expansion of their company.

MPI Media’s Decision Process

During the peak of Covid, MPI Media’s VP of Technology, Randy Burgess became proactive in his search.

MPI Media was looking for:

It was a natural decision for MPI Media to upgrade to Business Central, as it was based on NAV, featured a modern interface, and could be deployed on the Cloud.

Microsoft Solutions Partner Decision

In terms of choosing a partner, MPI Media interviewed 15 Microsoft Solutions partners, including TMC. Randy, who has been in the industry for a long time and has experience both as a vendor and in hiring vendors, knew all the necessary requirements for selecting the right partner and was very meticulous in making this choice.

TMC distinguished itself early in the sales process with their organization, thoughtful responses, expertise in upgrading NAV, honesty, and attention to detail. They collaborated effectively with MPI Media to balance requirements while avoiding the cost of a full intensive analysis, helping them stay within their estimated budget.

In addition, the feedback from MPI Media employees was that TMC stood above some of the other companies they talked to, and they appreciated TMC’s upfront approach to discussing the challenges and setting clear expectations on cost and time.

“Every person from Brett to Amy, Tabri, and Brian, and each person brought onto the team stood out not just to me but to everybody on my team. Every discussion from the sales process to the transition to the decision-making process was smooth and organized. The feedback I received from my team every time we spoke with TMC was, ‘Wow, they stand above some of the other folks we’ve talked to.’ And were upfront about the challenges. It’s always more reassuring that I’m going to be talking to people honestly.

We’ve been taken care of by TMC along every step. Everything about TMC is consistency at the high-quality level. My stress is lowered knowing that TMC cares about MPI’s success, and I am confident in them that they’ll never leave us hanging.”

– Randy Burgess | VP of Technology at MPI Media

“TMC didn’t Sugarcoat things which I didn’t need because I know how these projects go, but it’s always more reassuring that I’m going to be talking to people honestly. About what I’m asking for and the expectations. I know the project will go well because TMC does their job and MPI’s folks have to deliver their side of the requirements.”

– Randy Burgess | VP of Technology at MPI Media

TMC’s Solutions and Customizations

To address MPI Media’s challenges, TMC recommended the following solutions:

In their initial meetings with TMC, MPI Media discussed redesigning their royalty system. There are many variables that go into a royalty solution, and these variables can change from contract to contract over the years. Since Business Central doesn’t have an out-of-the-box royalty functionality, TMC addressed their Royalty’s requirements and built a system that allows MPI Media to evolve their royalties over time without being locked into one piece of software. This reduces the need to export data to Excel for further manipulation, as everything can be handled within Business Central.

TMC’s development team made this customization possible due to their deep understanding of Business Central’s capabilities and their extensive experience in tailoring it to meet their client’s unique requirements.

“We have a very strong development team here at TMC which was able to handle all the requirements that were needed and the complexity surrounding Royalties to create a custom solution for MPI that is going to change their Business on how efficient it will make their royalties process.”
– Amy C. | Project Manager at TMC

Collaborations with 3PL

Unlike many Microsoft Partners, TMC worked directly with MPI Media’s 3PL. As MPI Media was switching major vendors, including their EDI provider and warehouse, TMC not only customized their 3PL integration but also managed the 3PL file management during the migration process. This saved MPI Media both time and money by reducing the stress of communication between the vendors. With TMC’s extensive knowledge of MPI Media’s operations and the best ISVs for their needs and Business Central, TMC recommended an EDI company that suited MPI’s support requirements.

MPI Media’s Results

The biggest complexity MPI Media faced with NAV support was that their remote team members, including key personnel, were not part of the support process for their system. Logging into a desktop system remotely was cumbersome and made support challenging.

Key Benefits Experienced by MPI Media

“Our support system for accounting immediately went from weeks to get a solution to Two days.  Time is money to some extent, but there’s a stress level that people have when they aren’t able to get their job done. Now, they’re able to bring the problems to the surface quicker than before.”  

Randy Burgess | MPI Media’s VP of Technology