Product Specialist at MultiChoice

Job description

The Video Entertainment segment of Naspers is a broad-based multinational media group headquartered in South Africa and Dubai with principal operations in pay television and video entertainment. The group operates in almost 50 countries in Africa. Its holding company, Naspers, is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and has an ADR listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). International investors account for around 50% of its shareholder base.

An African platform operator, Video Entertainment’s expertise lies distributing media products, creating media content and selling advertising. Its key areas of operations are:

Pay Television: direct-to-home satellite and digital terrestrial television services; and
SVOD: subscription video on demand services across multiple online platforms with a focus on library and local content in developing markets

Operating in the majority of African countries, Video Entertainment is the leading Pay TV provider in most of the key African markets. Its strategy is to offer the best local and international content across multiple platforms to customers wherever they are.

The group’s strength lies in its focus on local language and culture, its entrepreneurial spirit and the quality of its workforce. Over the years Video Entertainment has built a successful track record of identifying trends early, adapting them for the markets in which it operates and leveraging them to maximum advantage. The group generates revenues mainly by collecting subscription fees, with a moderate contribution from advertising revenue. Its key objectives are to:

• Build its Pay TV and SVOD subscriber base
• Focus on investment and technology
• Maintain a local approach
• Provide quality service
• Attract innovative and motivated employees

Key Customers:

All Divisions - South Africa and the rest of Africa; Sub Saharan Africa Executive Team; 3rd Party Customers (SA & Africa Agencies etc.)

Purpose of the Position:

To provide operational support for DDM products (specifically DStv Now) by working closely with the Product Managers, other Product Specialists and technical teams who build the Digital products and ensure a good customer experience on all our platforms.

Key Performance Objectives:

• Ensure service availability to customers and eliminate any problems that negatively impact customer experience in the short and long term:
• Problem analysis: Analyse, evaluate and, document problems experienced and contribute towards root cause analysis
• Solution definition: Propose solutions workarounds based on detailed analysis of problems and implementation of workarounds. Coordinate and collaborate with relevant partners (ITD, BT, business) involved in the value chain of DDM products to identify solutions to production issues impacting customer experience.
• Solution delivery: Collaborate with the relevant teams (Planning and Product Management) to ensure prioritisation of solutions identified. Ensure short term problem solving, if no software change is needed
• Stakeholder management: Provide proactive, regular and timely reporting to stakeholders on production issues impacting the business and/or customers.
• Country engagement: Ensure regular engagement with in-country operational staff to pick up issues, and keep them updated on resolution.
• Monitoring: proactively identify actions to increase system stability and avoidance incidents. Define and implement continual service improvements to enhance customer experience.
• Customer experience: Coordinate with in-country teams and customer experience teams to identify opportunities for improvements and define critical success factors for identified improvements
• Engage in-country customer facing staff to understand customer and business needs based on analysis of customer queries and calls to the centres.
• Constantly engage with product managers to make them aware of feedback and requests from the countries and ensure prioritisation of concepts. Provide subject matter expertise (business & customer) during solution deliver
• Identity impact of new changes on business processes, SOPs & practices. Ensure countries are adequately prepared for new products, product changes and enhancements through collaboration with the business stakeholders (training department, corporate comms, marketing etc.).
• Implement operational elements of the go to market strategies as defined by the project. Ensure the relevant training departments are aware of the changes and are prepared to train the impacted staff. Prepare supporting documentation for product changes. Ensure communication reaches all relevant stakeholders.

Qualifications:

• Degree level or equivalent
• At least 5 years’ hands-on product experience in an online environment
• Knowledge of the product lifecycle
• Experience with digital products
• Experience in operational support of digital products
• Understanding of the digital television market

Skills / Experience:

• Core Skills
• Problem Solving
• Communication
• Reporting
• Client Service Management
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite
• Contributing Skills
• Understanding of SDLC methodologies - Agile
• Service level management
• Change management
• Business process improvement

Experience /Knowledge

• Has strong leadership potential in a team environment or within a matrix management structure
• Technically astute in all areas of IT in a generic sense
• Familiar with system software which controls activities such as input, output, dynamic resource allocation and error reporting