Interview With EPAM’s Head of North America M&E Consulting

Interview With EPAM’s Head of North America M&E Consulting

Pulse 2.0 interviewed EPAM’s Head of M&E Consulting in North America, Dave Liu, to gain a deeper understanding of the Company.

Dave Liu’s Background

Could you tell me more about your background? Liu said:

“While I’ve only been with EPAM for three years, my career in the Media and Entertainment (M&E) space spans almost two decades. I began my journey at NBCUniversal (when it was owned by GE), where I participated in GE’s Information Management Leadership Program. This two-year rotational program allowed me to explore and contribute to various parts of NBCU’s business.”

“During my time at NBCU, I launched a startup focused on digital advertisement spot distribution, from defining the business case through to product development and go-to-market activities. Additionally, during the program, I had purview across NBCU’s broadcast and studio media supply chain operations and tools from content planning and production to distribution and end user experiences. I also helped lead various digital transformation initiatives across News, Advanced Media Platforms, Content Operations, and even a Lean Six Sigma program for their entire IT organization.”

“I eventually transitioned into consulting to broaden my horizons beyond NBCU. Through my time in consulting, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with major content providers like Disney, Univision, Warner Bro Discovery, Fox and others. My consulting work also extended into gaming, sports, music and even other industries like automotive and retail/CPG.”

“I lead our Media and Entertainment consulting practice in North America. Essentially, I work with clients in the M&E space, whether they’re content providers, live entertainment, sports or the hardware and software vendors that support the industry. We partner with them and work on leading-edge projects to help them innovate in their respective space. Specifically, we focus on four main pillars: cost optimization, revenue optimization, media supply chain and data intelligence.”

Favorite Memory

What has been your favorite memory working for EPAM so far? Liu reflected:

“One of my favorite memories from working here at EPAM was just recently presenting a proposal to a prospective client in the sports industry.” 

“During our conversation, we referenced a past project with a major airline, and to our surprise, the VP shared he had been with the company at the time. He had a fantastic reaction, saying, “I didn’t realize you were the team behind Continuum.” He took several minutes to enthusiastically share with his colleagues, including the Chief Strategy Development Officer, just how impactful and enduring our work with the airline had been. He described it as some of the most meaningful work he’s been part of in his career, emphasizing how our approach to bringing ideas to life not only delivered strong outcomes but also ‘made it easy for leadership to know what to say yes to.’”

“His sentiment aligned perfectly with the project’s objectives, and the VP also pointed out several parallels between the transformation his current organization is aiming to achieve and the change we had helped drive at the airline.  To top it off, when we brought up the option of providing client references, he offered to serve as one himself, sharing that he had firsthand experience working with us and could personally speak to the caliber of our work.”

“I’ve never seen that level of enthusiasm towards the work a consulting firm has done before. This endorsement was incredibly validating and energizing, and a remarkable testament to the impact EPAM has had across multiple industries.”

Core Services

What are the core services of your department? Liu explained:

“We offer end-to-end solutions for the M&E industry, covering everything from upfront strategy and solution evaluation to implementation and ongoing support. We try to simplify things for our clients, rather than having these giant, overwhelming up-sell menus of “Here’s all the different things that we do!” As I mentioned earlier, our M&E work focuses on our clients’ typical challenges: cost optimization, revenue optimization, media supply chain and data intelligence.

• Revenue Optimization: Also known as revenue operations, this solution includes everything from intelligent churn prediction, customer retention, and driving sustainable revenue growth, to building next-gen experiences – whether that includes augmented reality, virtual reality, hyper-accurate microlocation, blockchain, or more.
• Data Intelligence: Today, every system is chugging out massive volumes of data, with artificial intelligence (AI) increasing that output enormously. Making smart, automated business decisions depends on a strong data foundation. As such, our customers need to understand their data sources, establish sources of truth, ensure data quality, and then leverage that data foundation for advanced use cases like predictive and generative AI (GenAI). Ultimately, we help our clients build both the infrastructure and the roadmap for scalable data products.
• Media Supply Chain: This is at the heart of what we do for M&E. It spans the full content lifecycle, from content creation and management to distribution, powered by the right people, processes, and tools. Our expertise and strategic acquisitions serve as accelerators that empower our clients to get their quality content to market faster.
• Cost Reduction: Reducing spend, avoiding unnecessary expenses, and driving long-term efficiency. While many clients start the year with ambitious cost-saving initiatives, those goals often fall short. The root issue is typically a lack of broader change management and cultural adoption, paired with a siloed project approach. We focus on breaking barriers between groups and embedding cost-conscious thinking across people, processes, and tools, starting with small wins and building a roadmap for long-term impact.”

Read the full article to discover how EPAM’s M&E Consulting team is transforming the industry with innovative solutions.

Explore EPAM’s cutting-edge solutions for media and entertainment, from GenAI accelerators to data intelligence tools, at epam.com/industries/telecom-media-and-entertainment.