Dr.
D Studios
Dr. D Studios
www. drdstudios.com
Country Australia
Industry Media
Key Statistics
ƒƒ1500+ processors/6000 cores in
Dr D. Studios’ render farm
ƒƒ300TB + usable disk storage
ƒƒ500+ kW of storage power
(equivalent to 8333 x 60 watt light
bulbs)
ƒƒOver 10 million AUD in assets
across multiple facilities
ƒƒAcademy Award Winner - Best
Animated Feature Film of the Year
ƒƒTwo major new film releases
currently in production (over 100
million AUD each)
Key Challenge
ƒƒDevelop a system internally, with
low external resources required
ƒƒSupport a growing business, heavily
reliant on IT
ƒƒProve the organization’s value to
Omnilab Media Group
Key Strategy
ƒƒImplement a software solution for
control and visibility of various
businesses and their assets
Key Benefits / Results
ƒƒDecision support capabilities and
the use of assyst have resulted in
340,000 AUD saving
ƒƒ5% man-hour saving (50,000 AUD
per annum across the workforce)
ƒƒModeling and Forecasting
capabilities save 130,000 AUD per
annum
ƒƒIncreased visibility of assets and
data
ƒƒReduction in downtime yielding a
saving of 20,000 AUD per annum
CUSTOMER CASE STUDY
Happy IT leads to ‘Happy Feet’ with assyst
A dynamic, expanding film production company implements
assyst by Axios Systems during the creation of major releases
in Australia
Dr. D Studios is a new digital production studio created a cost-effective, locally administered system to allow
by Academy Award-winning producers George Miller visibility of various departments within the business.
and Doug Mitchell in conjunction with the Omnilab
Media Group in 2008. The Strategy - Implement a cost-
Dr. D Studios has created blockbuster films such as effective software solution to provide
Happy Feet and other children’s productions such as control and visibility of all assets
Erky Perky and Larry the Lawnmower. The studio is
Russ Burnett had worked with Service Desk tools
currently working on producing Happy Feet 2 and Fury
in his previous positions and found the decision to
Road, the fourth Mad Max film.
implement assyst from Axios Systems very simple,
stating “the assyst solution, coupled with Axios’
At the end of 2009, Dr. D Studios had 15 IT staff, which
is set to grow to 35 by mid 2010. The additional services, stand on their own.”
staff will be in data operations, data rendering (frame
construction for animation), as well as 2nd and 3rd line During this process of toolset selection, Mr Burnett
support. The staff will accommodate the ramp up of analyzed the products from Altiris (Symantec),
production for both Happy Feet 2 and Fury Road. Frontrange (Heat), LANDesk’s Enterprise Suite, BMC’s
Remedy product, and ManageEngine’s ServiceDesk
The group currently looks after over 10 million AUD Plus. Following a thorough analysis and rating of
worth of assets, including complex production each solution, Burnett discounted the other products
equipment and technology for animation and filming on the market for a range of reasons including
across multiple facilities. customizations not being held on upgrade, a lack
of ITSM focus (which meant the product not being
functionally rich enough to satisfy Dr. D’s requirements,
The Challenge - Demonstrate the including reporting), implementations looked to be
value of the business to Omnilab cumbersome, a lack of adequate local support and
Group, and the value which IT delivers poor, non-customizable interfaces.
Mr Russ Burnett, Director of Service Delivery for Dr. D assyst from Axios Systems was seen to be a
Studios, required a software solution to manage the fully integrated ITSM solution, which was highly
organization’s procurement, implement services and configurable, without the need to worry about difficult
maintain control of the company’s technology assets. upgrades (due to configurations flowing to the next
version seamlessly). The assyst Process Designer,
Dr. D Studios began as a joint venture between which offers graphical, drag and drop capability
Kennedy-Miller Mitchell Films and Omnilab Media with views of the processes, made mapping new
Group in March of 2008. processes simple. Reporting was extensive with the
use of Crystal Reports and the report library, and the
Kennedy-Miller Mitchell Films is an Australian film ability to track Service Levels, which was integral to
production company founded in 1973, which created Dr. D Studios requirements, was found to be easily
cinema classics such as Babe, Dead Calm and The implemented. The Axios Systems team in Australia
Witches of Eastwick. Omnilab Media Group is were very responsive to the initial enquiry, providing
Australia’s largest film services company and comprises a clear product overview and a thorough initial
of 14 media companies under one banner, all servicing demonstration. The staff were also knowledgeable of
various aspects of the industry. the solutions’ full capabilities and the local market.
Dr. D Studios did not have a software solution in
place previously to manage their incident logging
or IT assets as they were a new studio stemming
from these production companies, with the IT&E
platform for shared services being a pilot venture
at this stage. When the new organization began to
pursue an IT Service Management (ITSM) solution,
their main requirements were to have the ability
to track expensive assets and software in multiple
locations, and gain an idea of the true value of
these, plus an increased need for tighter controls
in regards to purchasing and visibility for decision-
making processes. Dr. D Studios also needed to
demonstrate the value they delivered to Omnilab
Media Group through reporting and service
management. Being a new organization, Dr. D had
to prove their worth. Rapidly expanding, it required
05 10 CS Dr D US v1.0
www.axiossystems.com

Burnett continues “I feel that Axios’ implementation
services were key – there are other “capable”
products that often fail to meet customer expectations
because they can’t get the implementation right or the
consultants constantly have to come back, draining
the ROI promises made at the outset.”
The entire implementation took the organization
only 12 weeks to complete. This included all assyst
administration training, workshops, building processes
and operator training, as well as the testing and go-
live of the system in February 2008. Dr. D Studios also
chose to implement assystNET, Axios’ web-based self-
service portal, which they considered a ‘must have’ for
an organization that was spread across many different
locations. All ITIL processes are available out-of-the-box
with assyst, giving organizations, such as Dr. D Studios,
the flexibility to implement the relevant processes as,
and when, required.
Burnett continues, “We considered implementing
Incident Management on its own initially, but then
decided to include the launch of Problem and Change
Management concurrently, due to the inherent process-
linking, and the fact that we were a small team and
a young company that was building processes and
procedures from the ground up.”
The implementation team focused on scenarios that were
based upon what they envisaged their IT department
should be capable of doing in the future. They took into
account the swift evolution of the growing organization,
including multiple film productions pending, and the
number of new employees, both in IT and within the
company in general, that would be coming on board
in early 2010.
Mr Burnett was primarily trained as the company
administrator for assyst and had full control over the
process design. The process, he says, was underpinned
by general service principles and the vision of Dr. D
Studios, while keeping in mind the production of
Happy Feet 2 and its associated infrastructure and
staffing plans. Mr Burnett also appointed a primary
assyst Administrator to help execute the build, test and
implementation plans. The system administrator was
also responsible for the hosting platform.
The 1st and 2nd line IT support staff and the systems
engineering staff were all trained as assyst operators
in line with the organization’s service principles and
overall vision.
Benefits – Dancing to a perfect tune
with assyst
Since the assyst software was implemented, Dr. D
Studios has seen some remarkable savings and a rapid
return on investment.
Mr Burnett stated that 78% of incidents are now being
logged with the Service Desk via assystNET, which
saves the team valuable time and reduces the need for
employing extra resources for incident logging. Between
the time of implementation and June 2009, a period of
18 months, the studio estimated a 5% man-hour saving
through increased efficiency and productivity, resulting
in a saving of approximately 50,000 AUD per annum.
An estimated reduction in downtime per annum,
based upon what the organization expects would
have been the result without the use of assyst, and
other supporting technologies, has also yielded a
saving of 20,000 AUD per annum. This is derived
from overall efficiency gains through utilizing the
Process Designer, which links to Changes, and the
Impact Explorer, which shows a graphical view of
item relationships within assyst. This saving is based
upon an estimated 2 hours per user saved each year,
which would have been spent manually tracking the
impact of the user, or users, being ‘out of action’. Mr
Burnett claims this is effectively “downtime control”.
Total savings stemming from the modeling and
forecasting capabilities within assyst are around
130,000 AUD per annum. These gains are primarily
related to cash flow controls, smart purchasing
decisions and limiting liabilities in other areas of the
business through rapid decision support.
The largest return on investment to date has been
yielded from single-project decision support
capabilities, utilizing assyst. This involved the
ability to make tactical and strategic decisions, with
the use of well documented reports for budgeting,
planning and progress tracking, asset tracking and
analysis, and vendor/supplier management. The
Studio pre-purchased technologies required for
production of the major films, and leased these to
the Omnilab Group for a period of 12 months, re-
purchasing the assets following this exercise at their
depreciated value, with assyst making it possible to
closely manage these expensive assets.
Why assyst from Axios Systems?
Mr Burnett says that assyst had appeal due to its
flexibility to accommodate complex business and
service relationships between Dr. D Studios and
various production and location film units, clients
and suppliers/service providers. assyst also had
the scalability to accommodate multiple facilities
and teams. It was easy to integrate assyst with
various systems including automation, deployment,
monitoring, procurement and accounting.
“The assyst product and Axios’ implementation
services allowed us to launch an ITSM platform
that we can fully manage ourselves to adapt
and grow with the business. assyst provides us
with the service management and analytical
capabilities we need to demonstrate our value to
the business.”
Russ Burnett
Director of Service Delivery
Dr. D Studios
Mr Burnett felt that assyst’s decision support
capabilities were supported by well documented DB
schema and Crystal Reports, which was essential for
budget planning, progress and asset tracking and
analysis, as well as vendor/supplier management.
Burnett concludes, “The ability to use internal
resources to continually adapt the product as
our needs change was vital for this continually
evolving business.”
Dr. D Studios
CUSTOMER CASE STUDY
The Future for Dr. D
Studios
As the Studio grows, the use of assyst
is set to expand. Looking forward,
Dr. D Studios’ use of assyst will also
encompass customizing assystNET
for end-users in various teams and
departments across the organization.
The fields and logos will change
depending upon the department or
team utilizing the system.
assyst will also be integrated with the
primary technology vendors supplying
Dr. D Studios, for the purpose of
carrying through procurement details
in regards to assets, such as model
numbers, serial numbers and warranty
details. These assets will then be asset-
tagged from purchase and assigned
the correct data, saving valuable time
inputting these details.
The Facilities team will also utilize
assyst, with all facilities requests
being logged via the internal Service
Desk at Dr. D Studios, creating a
‘one-stop shop’ for users, allowing
better co-ordination of IT and facility
resources and aiding the prioritization
for additions, moves and changes,
thus giving the organization greater
visibility of non-IT assets (such as
desks, chairs etc).
Dr. D Studios therefore foresee further
savings from the use of assyst as the
organization expands, and takes on
further large scale productions in the
future.
Axios Systems in Media
Axios has been providing ITSM
solutions to the media industry
for more than 20 years. assyst,
is a fully integrated, out-of-the-
box solution, available in on-
premise and SaaS models, which
helps organizations optimize IT
infrastructure efficiency, reduce
overheads and lower the total cost
of IT ownership. Our main focus
on helping companies deliver top
line value has been particularly
well demonstrated in the media
and communications sector with
customers including Swisscom, Gulf
News, and Verlagsgruppe Weltbild,
among others.
www.axiossystems.com