TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Intellectual Property Management
License Business
TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd.
TMS Entertainment is a well-known animation production company found in Japan. They produced many famous anime including "Lupin the Third", "Detective Conan", "Anpanman" and "SAKAMOTO DAYS".
TMS operates 3 business segments:
Animation Production: including planning, producing and selling animations
Licensing: License import or export of domestic/overseas animations
Merchandising: Selling animation related goods
Managing vast archive data of animations and Using materials effectively
-Refactoring Database System: Improve the searchability and Enable the Secondary Use of the Materials-
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Challenges, Solutions and Outcomes ①
【Challenges】
Maintenance of old material database system: Great Workload Occurrence
A long-term maintenance is required for TMS, they have to perform the backups to LTO every week. And physically the system required severs, hard disks, enclosures and UPSs. They had issues like too frequent maintenance, bulky hardware, and the job is too inconvenient.
【Solutions and Outcomes】
Reduction on workload of maintenance and labour cost
After using CIERTO, problems of frequent maintenance and bulky hardware has been resolved. Besides, excellent functionality and UI design resolved the issue of inconvenience. What’s more, VPJ provides regular system diagnostic service, users can clearly understand the status of use/operations, clarify any issues and the necessity of operational expansion.
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Challenges, Solutions and Outcomes ②
【Challenges】
Inconvenience compulsory data checking in Adobe apps
In TMS old system, files were stored in compressed format. As a result, users had to use Adobe apps (or other apps) when they needed to check the data. Extra workloads including preview, download file in specified format or size caused trouble to the users.
【Solutions and Outcomes】
Quick data preview and format conversion without using extra apps
No need to use Photoshop or any other Adobe apps, users can preview the visual files on CIERTO. When users have to export and use the data, for instance, using the image for sales promotion, they can also convert the size and format what they want on CIERTO directly and flexibly.
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Challenges, Solutions and Outcomes ③
【Challenge】
Low Searchability and High Server Load
In the past, system got crashed if TMS uploaded a large amount of data at once, so they have to set upload restriction. Besides, the items which can be used for data search are fixed, i.e. sometimes they may not be able to get exactly what they want, and modify the search requirements.
【Solutions and Outcomes】
Increased methods of data search; Expedited the time of search
Database items are now divided by target data being managed, only necessary data will be displayed which contributed to an easy-to-use environment. Moreover, users can now apply metadata for data search. It is also possible to use AI search functions including similar image search and natural language search. Finding data is no longer a trouble for TMS.
Reason why we chose CIERTO ｜ Interview with the customers
CIERTO is an essential item for business reform.
The reasons why we implemented CIERTO are: the system provides direct connection to stored files via File Explorer, along with application access, and we can move and rename the files flexibly.
We have a tremendous amount of data, it was a big issue for us to seek the best way of data management and data storage. CIERTO really helped us to resolved the issue. And it is thankful that VPJ provides regular diagnostic service, helping us to understand the number of users and their behaviour, and the issues we have to solve.
Panda! Go, Panda!
LUPIN THE IIIRD
How we use CIERTO
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Flexible Accessibility and Functional Controls
Departments and users for materials registration/management are different, so we set a volume-level access control on CIERTO. Only the department managing the materials possesses the upload permission. As there is only one source for uploading, all the data can be scrutinized and users can collect the information quickly. We have planned to set viewing permission on metadata (in title-level and user-level), only the user satisfied with the requirement can access the data. I hope it will increase the usability of the system.
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Accurate Data Collection from Vast Archive Data
We are now managing 470 anime titles, each title has 16 folders (by manuscripts), and maximum 40,000 image files. Up to now, we are managing 4 million files, including animation title logos, promotional images, scene photos, pamphlet, etc. It is difficult to search in an ordinary way within the vast data. Thus, we are using database and AI to do a search with high accuracy, searchability and efficiency. The file management style also has a breakthrough after implementing CIERTO.
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Smooth search and sharing of promotional materials
We have promotional events throughout the year: monthly recommend titles, producing anime goods, exhibitions, and sometimes the anniversary events for an animation. We use "Collection" function on CIERTO to classify the assets and put them together. In addition, the AI search functions of CIERTO is really useful that we greatly reduced the time for data collection. Especially when we are preparing a seasonal event, we can do an AI natural language search or similar image search, inserting "Christmas" or "Halloween", and get what we want promptly.
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Verification of Media Content and Goods
We have to regularly do the verification of media content and goods to prohibit pirated copies or counterfeit goods. CIERTO AI function can help us to do so. We will first register the goods images on online shops on CIERTO. Then, we will use the AI similar image search to compare the promotional images or still images stored in our database. Now we can do the classification simply, which also reduced our workload. Last but not least, even though it is a long-running programme, we can still use the AI function to check the images based on a vast amount of past information.
System We Provide
Digital Asset Management System