Velocity Brand Management is a licensing agency based North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that focuses primarily on sports properties.Its clients include the National Rugby League, International Rugby Board, Rugby Cup, Football Federation Australia, Cricket Australia, and Hyundai A-League, as well as non-sports properties such as Foster’s beer which they represent worldwide.

Challenge:

Five years ago, Velocity Brand Management was looking for an automated licensing-management system that was flexible and web-based to handle their distributed workforce based in many locations.

DSI’s Solution:

The enthusiasm and in-depth licensing knowledge exhibited by Dependable Solutions’ staff, along with the company’s willingness to grow with Velocity Brand Management, sold the agency on DSI and its Digital Rights Manager solution. “We use DRM in every aspect of our program,” says Athol Lumby, Velocity’s CFO, who cites the depth, speed and flexibility of the reporting system as major benefits. “It’s unbelievably fast and the up-time is extremely reliable,” he says. There are cost savings as well, due to the system’s accuracy and efficiency. “We’re not paying someone to manipulate Excel spreadsheets,” Lumby notes.

The fact that DRM is web-based is a big benefit as well, particularly since Velocity has staff based on-site at each of its licensor locations. The ability to access information from anywhere, on anyone’s machine, allows operations to run smoothly.

Added Benefits:

DRM immediately identifies unapproved products, a major plus from a management point of view. “The beauty of DRM is it’s so exacting that a minor change in typeface on a product will flag a query right on the sales report showing that the product is not approved,” Lumby says. “We know things aren’t slipping through.”

The system also allows Velocity Brand Management to show a level of professionalism that inspires confidence in licensors, licensees and even the tax department. It produces more information in a more timely and accurate manner than the Excel spreadsheets that many of Velocity’s competitors are still using.