“Seamless integration with WideOrbit’s world-class media operations platforms, WO Traffic and WO Network, allows clients to efficiently go from order-to-invoice-to-payment-to-reconciliation, all within the WideOrbit workflow with which they are already familiar.”
Today, the major challenges facing the media industry in the arena of payments include the variety of deal types, payment term types, and client types. From direct deals with advertisers and agencies to automated transactions through demand-side platforms, media companies need the ability to expedite their collections processes by securely processing credit card and ACH payments, as well as prepayment and cash-in-advance. WideOrbit is the industry leader in premium broadcast and network technology and the largest sell-side processor of premium advertising in the world. As the only solution purpose-built for the media industry, WO Payments Suite supports all of the above.
Founded in 1999, WideOrbit has since become the industry-standard in media operations and ad trafficking software. In response to the needs of clients, they developed WO Payments Suite to address the unique challenges media companies face regarding Accounts Receivable (A/R) automation and payment processing. Seamless integration with their world-class media operations platforms, WO Traffic and WO Network, allows clients to efficiently go from order-to-invoice-to-payment-to-reconciliation, all within the WideOrbit workflow with which they are already familiar. WO Payments Suite streamlines and automates A/R and payment processes throughout the lifecycle of a media order, so clients can go from order-to-cash effortlessly and securely.
WideOrbit’s biggest competitive advantage in the payment processing arena is the fact that WO Payments Suite is the only A/R automation and payment solution purpose-built to meet the unique needs of the media industry, including cash-in-advance payment handling and an intuitive, easy-to-use buyer portal that encourages client adoption. Their solution also offers Level 3 card pricing, PCI-DSS compliance, and dunning functionality. One important feature that is a highlight of WO Payments Suite is the unique ability to support pre-payments on cash-in-advance (CIA) orders. This accelerated CIA workflow allows broadcaster partners the ability to quickly accept new “high-risk” business by facilitating payments against orders that are scheduled to be aired in the future.
The company’s high fidelity, real-time integration that connects their ERP solutions with WO Payments Suite, provides broadcast partners a rich platform to manage their collections and automate their business processes.
Bonneville International, a top-tier broadcast media leader, identified that their need to automate and centralize billing and payment procedures could not be addressed with an industry-agnostic solution. Bonneville wanted a media-specific solution to streamline A/R processes and payments, including cash-in-advance transactions. In addition, their advertiser clients found the payment portal in their previous solution to be excessively complicated, which led to virtual full abandonment and extended payment delays. As a result, Bonneville was forced to revert to processing all payments manually. A long-time satisfied user of WO Traffic, Bonneville turned to WO Payments Suite. Three of the features that proved critical in Bonneville’s decision were the very simple and intuitive payment portal, the ability to accurately handle cash-in-advance transactions, and 24/7 access to the application with automatic software updates via the cloud. In addition, because WO Payments Suite synchronizes the master data in near real-time with the system of record (WO Traffic), Bonneville benefits from drastically reduced manual entry and human error.
Addressing the present pandemic, WideOrbit has always maintained a generous work-from-home policy, so they were able to transition to remote work with minimal impact on their business operations. For the days to come, the company is working towards real-time integrations between WideOrbit’s ERP platforms, WO Traffic and WO Network, to further accelerate collections. Alongside, they are working on implementing rules-based AI tools allowing broadcasters to do more collections with less effort, and PCI-DSS and SOC readiness providing the compliance all enterprises, large and small, require. The company will also be offering a buyer portal that allows broadcaster partners (sellers) to onboard agencies and advertisers, giving them access to view and pay orders and invoices via self-service.
