Enterprise Video Content Management: How to Choose the Right System
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An enterprise video content management system, or video CMS, is the platform an organization uses to store, organize, secure, and distribute its video. It does what a general-purpose file share or a public video site cannot: permissions that follow the directory groups you already maintain, search that reaches inside the video itself, and delivery that does not flatten the corporate network when several thousand people open the same all-hands at once.
Most organizations arrive at one for the same reason. Video stops being a marketing asset and becomes an operational one: town halls, executive updates, compliance training, onboarding, internal communications, and recorded knowledge that someone needs to find again six months later. At that point the question changes from how do we produce video to where it lives, who is allowed to see it, and whether the network can carry it.
From a business perspective, 91% of businesses used videos as part of their marketing strategy in 2023. 70% of those who haven’t used it yet plan to start with online video marketing.
Once enterprises start creating and sharing video content, video content management becomes an essential part of their business operations.
If you are not as familiar with video content management, you have come to the right place. Keep on reading for a full breakdown of what video content management constitutes for enterprise businesses. In addition, we will take a deep dive into the benefits of having an enterprise video content management solution, as well as how to pick the right one.
What is a Video Content Management System (Video CMS)?
In simple terms, a video CMS platform is a type of software that aims to streamline the process of organizing all of your video content. This way, everything from video hosting to a specialized content management system is centralized.
It sounds quite simple on the surface. Yet, managing video content has unique attributes that are different from managing other types of data, like images and text.
Video CMS software is specifically designed to optimize video hosting, ensuring a seamless user experience for content owners. Apart from features dedicated to video conferencing or social media, some video CMS software is equipped with tools to enhance video streaming capabilities, enabling businesses to deliver high-quality, buffer-free live video to employees and customers. Moreover, a video CMS plays a pivotal role in maintaining consistent video branding, aligning every piece of content with your brand’s identity for enhanced recognition.
The Benefits of an Enterprise Video Content Management System
Once you have assets that go beyond the bare minimum required for today’s best practices, video management becomes quite complex. Let’s look at what a solid video content management system can provide to your business.
Better Video Player Experience
Hosting is only a single part of video management. Another essential part of enterprise video management is optimizing video delivery to your audience.
Using an enterprise content delivery network (eCDN) will ensure that your enterprise video experience is seamless, whether you’re delivering a live stream to an employee on a mobile device or a tutorial to a customer. While many enterprise video platforms (EVPs) boast available integrations with third-party solutions, the Vbrick EVP offers video distribution solutions natively integrated.
As an example, you can still leverage your existing tools, such as Microsoft Teams, as a source while delivering your live event as a Vbrick webcast. This gives you access to Vbrick’s infrastructure and adaptive bitrate streaming while keeping the user experience within the Microsoft stream intact.
If you want to leverage the full value of the video assets you create, you are going to need a Video CMS that will ensure that your videos can reach your audience quickly, efficiently, and with high quality.
Video File Metadata and Search for Digital Asset Management
Metadata and categorization continue to be an integral part of ensuring your management systems are well-organized and user-friendly. There are common approaches to categorizing a video file by content type, key topic, department, and publish date. Regardless of the knowledge management approach you choose, be sure to keep your categories future-proof and intuitive for your end users.
An enterprise-class video CMS will not only allow you to search across the metadata of your video library but also within the content of the actual videos.
One element that separates Vbrick from other platforms has been the integration of enhanced and generative artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities for enriching your video library. Vbrick’s powerful AI can automatically tag users, transcribe and translate subtitles, and generate descriptions for your videos. Our interactive AI video assistant provides instant answers to video-related questions and intelligent search identifies concepts, and keywords to help users surface the most relevant content — redefining what video content management can do for the enterprise.
Role-Based Access Control and Video Governance
In the enterprise environment, video content is a key knowledge asset that needs to be managed and governed like any other intellectual property.
Compliance teams need capabilities around video approval workflows and legal holds to ensure that videos have been properly vetted before sharing. User roles and governance features will prevent sensitive information from being shared with the wrong parties and will be required by enterprise risk management leaders.
Evaluating a Video CMS: A Requirements Checklist
Enterprise buyers tend to run the same set of checks. These are the ones that separate platforms once the demo is over.
Identity and access control. Does it integrate with your identity provider, and can role-based access control follow the groups you already maintain? Managing permissions by hand does not survive a library of any real size.
Search. Does search reach transcripts and spoken content, or only titles, tags, and descriptions? In large video libraries, metadata alone leaves most of the content unfindable.
Delivery. Is eCDN capability native to the platform, or a separate integration you procure and support yourself? Live all-hands is where video either works or visibly fails.
Governance. Are approval workflows, retention rules, and legal hold supported natively? Compliance teams will ask, and retrofitting governance is expensive.
Analytics. Can you see engagement per viewer and per site, or only aggregate view counts? Aggregate counts do not tell you whether an event actually reached anyone.
Integrations. Does it connect to the tools where video is already created and shared? Adoption follows the tools people already have open.
Scale. What happens at your realistic peak concurrent-viewer number, rather than the number on the data sheet? Peak concurrency, not library size, is what breaks platforms.
Security, Scale, and Asset Management
Enterprise-level considerations for a video CMS go beyond the technical aspects and delve into the diverse requirements of video production, marketing strategies leveraging AI, and comprehensive asset management.
Here are three crucial considerations for aligning your system with these multifaceted needs:
Enhanced security for video content
In today’s digital age, securing video content has become paramount for enterprises. An effective video CMS must provide robust security features to protect your assets against unauthorized access and data breaches. This includes encryption of video files both at rest and in transit, secure access controls, and comprehensive audit trails. Security measures like these ensure that sensitive video content remains confidential and is accessible only to authorized personnel, thus safeguarding your intellectual property and maintaining compliance with data protection regulations.
Scalability and infinite cloud storage
As video content production and consumption grow, so does the need for scalable storage solutions. Your chosen video CMS should offer the flexibility to scale storage solutions, without compromising on performance or security. Infinite cloud storage options provide a viable solution for managing large volumes of video content, ensuring that your organization can handle growing demands without the constraints of physical hardware limitations. This scalability is essential for supporting a wide range of video production workflows, from high-definition video projects to extensive video archives, facilitating efficient management and accessibility of video assets across your organization.
Comprehensive asset management capabilities
Managing an array of video assets demands a robust system that goes beyond basic storage. A competent video CMS should offer sophisticated asset management functionality, enabling easy categorization, metadata tagging, and intelligent retrieval of video files. This ensures efficient utilization of resources and maximizes the lifespan of video content.
Where to Go From Here
If you are early in the process, the requirements checklist above is the fastest way to turn a long vendor list into a short one. If you already know what you need, the quickest test is a live one: run a real all-hands on a shortlisted platform and watch what happens to the network.
To see how Vbrick handles video management, delivery, and analytics in one platform, schedule a demo with our team.