Partnership Station
Partnership Station
A DevOps transformation across 17 business units — delivering faster releases, stronger code, and a platform built for what’s next.
NBCUniversal grew primarily through acquisition, resulting in 17 distinct business units with fragmented software delivery processes. Builds failed. Releases were locked to specific windows. QA was slow, manual, and disconnected from development — creating bottlenecks that cost time and quality at scale.
The organization needed a single, standardized software delivery lifecycle that could bridge its mix of on-premises systems, private cloud, and public cloud environments — without disrupting the distinct cultures of each unit.
17 individual companies and business units, including international operations — each with its own speed, process, tools, skills, and culture.
Releases restricted to Tuesday and Thursday evenings only. The Compass application required 6–8 weeks for regression testing alone. Project time-to-market: 20 weeks per release.
Improve code quality, accelerate delivery, lower costs — and create a shared platform that could earn trust across development, QA, run, and SDLC teams simultaneously.
IBM UrbanCode Build and IBM UrbanCode Deploy — running on IBM Cloud for Skytap Solutions — became the shared engine of DevOps for NBCUniversal, combining continuous integration, delivery, testing, feedback, and monitoring into a single automated pipeline.
Hover any pipeline step or stack layer to explore how they connect
Continuous integration via UrbanCode Build. Every commit enters the pipeline automatically.
Shift-left QA with parallelized regression testing. 50 machines, 20 tests each, simultaneously.
UrbanCode Deploy automates environment delivery with full audit trail and one-click reproducibility.
Immediate signals on code quality before QA handoff, eliminating releases that should never ship.
Unified dashboard with full visibility across every build, test, and deployment across all units.
Parallelized test environment management. Enabling 1,000-case regression suites to run in hours.
Application build automation. Every commit tracked, reproducible at the click of a button.
Application release automation. Full environment control and deployment history across all systems.
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Business units covered | 17 |
| Release time reduction | 75% |
| Regression testing time | 6–8 weeks → 3 hours |
| Regression suite size | 1,000 test cases |
| Test infrastructure | 50 machines, 20 parallel |
| Project volume growth | 10 → 60+ applications |
| Time-to-market trajectory | 20 weeks → 5 weeks → targeting 2 |
"The code quality has improved, it's going faster and we're able to meet the business requirements much more rapidly."John Comas — Manager of Platform DevOps, NBCUniversal
| Before | After IBM |
|---|---|
| Releases: Tues & Thurs only | Deploy anytime, any day |
| 20 weeks to market | 5 weeks (targeting 2) |
| 6–8 week regression cycles | As little as 3 hours |
| 10 applications managed | 60+ applications |
| Manual, siloed QA | Fully automated pipeline |
"When we had a couple of opportunities to demo our agile development capabilities we started hearing, 'Oh, so this is what DevOps is. This is what I've been wanting.'"
"Because we've shown that the capabilities are flexible and expandable and allow us to deliver on a tight timeline, we've seen a six-fold increase in project volume — from ten to more than 60 applications."
"The tools underpinned the DevOps process we envisioned — an end-to-end workflow. The tooling helped fortify what the culture was shifting towards: more agile development, more shift-left testing."
"I can reproduce any build that comes into UrbanCode at the click of a button. We have a single, unified dashboard where I can see all of the activity — what was built, tested, and deployed."
IBM’s approach to finance transformation isn’t a single capability — it’s a connected operating model. From defining the transformation vision — where IBM clients reach value up to 40% faster with a defined target operating model — to establishing the governance frameworks that deliver a 3× improvement in audit readiness, through deploying the core technology platform already proven to reduce release time by 75% in NBCUniversal’s own environment.
The Data & AI foundation IBM brings has driven over 90% cycle-time reduction in finance operations, documented in IBM’s own internal transformation. Digital automation capabilities make 60% or more of repetitive finance tasks — across R2R, P2P, and O2C — eligible for intelligent workflow automation.
And the outcomes are measurable: $240M in documented annual savings from IBM’s finance transformation alone, with a model directly transferable to NBCU’s global BPO consolidation.
Every tenet works in concert, building toward a single intelligent global Finance operating model that reduces cost, raises the user experience bar across all business units, and keeps improving over time.
The proof is already in your environment. Now it’s about taking it further.
The DevOps transformation is proof of what's possible when two organizations commit to building together. What began as a software delivery challenge became a model for enterprise-scale agility — and it's only the beginning. IBM brings a portfolio of capabilities purpose-built for the complexity of a media business like NBCUniversal: global in reach, decentralized by design, and under constant pressure to move faster, serve better, and cost less.
IBM's approach goes beyond cost reduction. We bring design-thinking, digital capability, and transformation methodology to reshape how NBCUniversal's operations run — not just incrementally, but structurally.
See the evidenceFrom record-to-report to procure-to-pay, IBM has the credentials, the tooling, and the global delivery infrastructure to modernize transactional finance operations at scale — with automation and AI at the center.
See the evidenceNBCUniversal's audiences, partners, and internal users deserve consistent, high-quality experiences. IBM places the customer at the heart of every operational model — using data, analytics, and continuous improvement to raise the bar.
See the evidenceIBM has a proven track record of managing complex transitions from incumbent providers — with minimal disruption, maximum continuity, and a clear path to the target operating model from day one.
See the evidenceThis isn't IBM learning your business. We bring deep Finance & Accounting credentials and direct media industry experience — understanding the decentralized structures, the content economics, and the global complexity that defines NBCU's world.
See the evidence“What we built together on DevOps demonstrated something important: that a large, complex enterprise can move with the speed and confidence of a cloud-native business. The next chapter is about extending that capability across every function that powers NBCUniversal’s future.”IBM Consulting
From process discovery to AI-enabled execution, IBM brings a documented track record across the capabilities that matter most to NBCUniversal’s future. Explore the evidence.
The foundation of IBM’s transformation-before-automation approach — end-to-end process visibility, bottleneck detection, and scenario-based improvement planning.
How IBM combines process mining, RPA, AI, and workflow orchestration to drive operational efficiency and workflow redesign at enterprise scale.
Frames process automation as part of end-to-end BPM: modeling, automation, and continuous monitoring.
A disciplined methodology for governance and design-thinking-led process redesign — relevant for complex, decentralized operating models.
IBM’s strongest asset for Finance TOM language: predictive insights, smart automation, continuous close, and finance operations transformation.
R2R-like automation, watsonx Orchestrate, Apptio EBM, AI models. Estimated >90% cycle-time reduction and $600K in annual savings.
Supporting content for FP&A, reporting, and operational efficiency with a clear automation-centered narrative.
Demonstrates co-creation, phased implementation, sandbox piloting, and IBM Client Engineering moving from experimentation to production.
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Virtual assistant Cleo handles thousands of daily inquiries for 4.6 million residents — improving containment rates, reducing call center load, and cutting resolution times across justice services.
Connects customer experience modernization to broader operational transformation — useful for framing UX improvement as a strategic outcome.
IBM watsonx Assistant upgraded TOBi across 14 languages — achieving 20% better containment rates, 80% fewer misunderstood utterances, and 3× faster creation of new conversational journeys.
IBM Consulting migrated a major Swiss insurer’s data centers to AWS — executing a zero-disruption handover with hypercare protocols and a defined cloud-first operating baseline across Europe.
IBM’s long-running story of large-scale change and operating model redesign — a credibility reference for complex, multi-phase transitions from incumbent providers.
How IBM is helping Heineken harmonize finance, supply chain, and commerce processes across 190+ countries — simplifying and automating end-to-end operations at global scale as part of a company-wide digital transformation program.
MUFG Bank partnered with IBM Services in 2018 to transform its global business model — automating processes, increasing staff productivity, and accelerating digital reinvention across markets using RPA, IoT, and blockchain.
How Vision Media uses IBM Aspera to deliver feature films and TV content to 200,000+ awards-season voters across 22 industry guild groups — uploading a 100GB ultra hi-def feature film in 10 minutes versus 28+ hours, supporting voting for the Oscars, Emmys, SAG Awards, and more.
How Fox Sports used IBM Aspera to broadcast all 64 FIFA World Cup matches in HD and Ultra-HD from Russia to Los Angeles — sending 2,700 live feeds over commodity internet in near-real time, cutting production cycle time by hours at a fraction of the usual cost.
How the Grammy Awards partnered with IBM to build AI-powered digital experiences for millions of fans worldwide — including GRAMMY IQ, an interactive music trivia game built with IBM watsonx using agentic workflows to drive engagement at global scale.
How BBC Studios automated IT resource management across 1,000 virtual machines using IBM Turbonomic — eliminating performance bottlenecks, reducing resource contention, and freeing a lean team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than firefighting.