WildBrain

“With Tavio, this was not painful at all. It was very simple.”

Daryl Chappell, Senior Vice President of Studio Operations at WildBrain Studios

About WildBrain

At WildBrain we inspire imaginations to run wild, engaging kids and families everywhere with great content and beloved brands.

At our state-of-the-art animation studio in Vancouver, we produce award-winning, fan-favourite series, such as The Snoopy Show; Snoopy in Space; Sonic Prime; Chip and Potato; Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City; Carmen Sandiego; Go, Dog. Go! and many more. Enjoyed in more than 150 countries and on over 500 streaming platforms and telecasters, our content is everywhere kids and families view entertainment.

Challenges

  • WildBrain Studios relies on a fluid workforce of animators and content producers who work on a project basis, requiring agility to adapt to changing demands in family entertainment consumption.
  • The system design/architecture of most commercial people platforms are designed for traditional employment models and cannot handle the difficulty, sophistication, and volume needed for non-traditional HR transactions.
  • WildBrain selected TalentSoft (subsequently acquired by Cegid) because of its ability to support the studio’s specific talent management business needs, understanding that a significant effort would be required to build a home-grown integration between TalentSoft/Cegid and their chosen payroll provider, UKG.
  • When this project was initiated, WildBrain’s leadership realized that the solution would be highly tailored and require a complex, custom data flow integration with its payroll.
  • WildBrain estimated that building an in-house integration would require two (2) full-time employees and a development timeline of at least a year due to its unique issues.

Problems solved

  • WildBrain was referred to Tavio  by their HR software provider. Tavio’s expertise in TalentSoft/Cegid and UKG gave all parties confidence in structuring the complex integration. Tavio’s methodology and client care helped WildBrain define the custom integration process and benefited them tremendously.
  • Tavio developed a sustainable method to define and agree on requirements between the two systems while also identifying special rules that met WildBrain’s HR business needs. Tavio’s Solutions Consultant led a tailored mapping process to align custom fields in TalentSoft/Cegid with UKG’s data dictionary. The solution supported the complex data flow requirements for WildBrain’s HR processes.
  • The project was completed in less than 3 months, and it cost significantly less than the estimated in-house approach for a high-level integration solution.
  • WildBrain now has a complete and automated data integration process, providing them with confidence in tracking comprehensive and real-time employee data required for their fluid workforce.

Key Takeaways

  • The complexity of WildBrain’s fluid workforce, which involves frequent hires, rehires, and alumni nurturing, required a sophisticated, automated, and reliable means of exchanging data between its two system-of-record platforms: TalentSoft/Cegid and UKG.
  • WildBrain now has a cost-effective, accurate, and comprehensive solution for storing a heavy volume of workforce data and records that aligns with its HR business needs.
  • Engaging Tavio allowed WildBrain to avoid reallocating significant resources (people, time, and budget) required to cover the hard costs of building the integration internally.
  • WildBrain’s HR function is now focusing on increasing the decision-making capabilities for managers as well as improving their overall user experience with the roll-out of self-service reporting. The integration designed and built by Tavio supports WildBrain’s people analytics and reporting needs for their variable workforce.

Summary

WildBrain’s engagement with Tavio successfully delivered a high ROI on two fronts: (1) quickly and cost-effectively deploying an integrated solution that enabled continuous tracking and reporting on their variable workforce, and (2) enabling the team to focus on enterprise talent processes to better support the business and change management. Leveraging Tavio’s domain expertise for a custom data integration resulted in lowering hard and soft costs compared to a lengthy, and potentially incomplete, in-house build.

WildBrain was highly satisfied with Tavio’s implementation approach because it centered on collaborative problem-solving, a principles-led methodology, and superior client care.

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