The Challenge: Redefining Ad Sales Across Digital and Broadcast

In 2006, Clear Channel Communications (CCC)—now known as iHeartMedia—entered a groundbreaking partnership with one of the world’s leading search engine providers. The agreement required CCC to allocate over 10% of its radio ad inventory to online-sourced content. This strategic shift created a massive challenge: how to manage and distribute digital ad requests efficiently across its 800 radio stations and 200 million monthly listeners, without compromising on speed or operational integrity.

Traditional back-office processes weren’t built to handle the volume and complexity of these internet-fueled transactions. CCC needed a radically new, agile approach to ad sales—one that crossed organizational lines and supported real-time digital broadcasting.

The Solution: Building Process Maturity with BPM and SOA

To meet the demands of this digital transformation, CCC partnered with Interfacing to integrate Business Process Management (BPM) with a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach. While upgrading technology was straightforward, rethinking the company’s processes was not.

With Interfacing’s support, CCC adopted the Enterprise Process Center® (EPC) as its enterprise-wide process repository. This platform provided centralized visibility and governance while supporting localized Visio-based mapping for business and IT workflows. CCC created process models that spanned multiple departments, aligning sales and back-office operations under a unified framework.

This process maturity allowed CCC to standardize how online ad requests were managed, monitor sales cycle performance, and optimize hand-offs across teams.

Results That Drove Revenue and Innovation

With its BPM and SOA initiative in full swing, CCC achieved measurable improvements across multiple business dimensions:

• Sales teams gained visibility into average processing and waiting times, enabling faster and more balanced work distribution.

• Managers could now pinpoint inefficiencies, allocate resources more strategically, and enhance time-to-market for new ad placements.

• A standardized sales framework enabled CCC to process high volumes of audio ad uploads for radio broadcast with speed and reliability.

• The initiative laid the foundation for ongoing innovation in digital broadcasting and solution development.

By combining Interfacing’s EPC platform with a commitment to strong process culture, CCC didn’t just manage change—it used it to gain a competitive edge.

Process Discipline Fuels Digital Transformation

What CCC discovered is that sustainable digital transformation doesn’t begin with new tools—it begins with clarity. The BPM + SOA model empowered their teams to think in terms of services and customer-centric delivery. The EPC became more than a process map; it became the blueprint for cross-functional coordination, rapid implementation, and scalable innovation.

This strategic pivot transformed CCC’s operational DNA, preparing the company for the digital age while maintaining its leadership in traditional broadcast.

How Interfacing Can Help

Interfacing’s Enterprise Process Center® helps organizations bridge digital transformation and operational discipline. Whether managing a complex media network, deploying SOA, or digitizing service delivery, our platform enables the governance, agility, and process insight needed to accelerate change and drive results.