As the digital content market evolved, Gallo Images found itself constrained by a legacy technology landscape:

• A Patchwork of Bespoke Systems: Over several years, the company had built and accumulated a range of custom software solutions covering the entire value chain—content ingestion, digital asset management, billing, accounting, and reporting. These systems had become outdated, increasingly difficult to maintain, and poorly integrated with each other.
• Fragmented Business Functions: The lack of integration across these platforms limited efficiency and slowed down operations, creating barriers to innovation and preventing seamless collaboration between departments and partners.
• Market Disruption and Industry Shifts: The rapid transition from print to digital media, combined with the surge of global content contributors and the growing demand for real-time delivery, placed significant strain on Gallo Images’ ability to remain agile.
• Global Complexity, Local Visibility: As an internationally distributed organisation, Gallo Images needed centralised oversight and visibility across multiple territories while still meeting the unique needs of each local market.
• Innovation Demands: To continue providing exceptional service, the company required a platform capable of embracing cutting-edge web and mobile technologies, supporting new contributor models, and enabling advanced client offerings such as automated image analysis and smarter search capabilities.

The need was clear: Gallo Images required a trusted technology partner that could stabilise their existing systems, modernise their architecture, and help them pivot towards continuous innovation in a dynamic and highly competitive market.

Gallo Images partnered with CBOS to design and implement a complete transformation of their technology ecosystem. This partnership was built around three key pillars:

1. Technology Modernisation and Cloud Migration

   • Conducted a deep analysis of the existing architecture and legacy source code.
   • Re-developed and migrated the entire solution to a modern web and cloud-based platform hosted on Microsoft Azure.
   • Leveraged both South African and international hosting environments to balance local resilience with global scalability.

2. Strategic Innovation and Co-Creation

   • Joint strategy workshops were held with Gallo Images leadership to align technology roadmaps with business goals.
   • Innovative features were prioritised, including mobile contributor tools, automated image analysis, and enhanced digital delivery channels for clients.
   • Risk management and operational continuity were carefully maintained throughout the transition from the previous provider.

3. Global Integration and Expansion

   • Developed seamless integrations with leading local and international media agencies, enabling Gallo Images to distribute globalised content at scale.
   • Supported rapid expansion into multiple territories including Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria through a cost-effective, cloud-based delivery model.

The partnership between Gallo Images and CBOS has delivered measurable business transformation by unifying previously fragmented systems into a cohesive digital platform that significantly improved efficiency across the value chain. 

With a cloud-enabled architecture, Gallo Images gained the ability to operate seamlessly across international markets while retaining visibility and control from its headquarters. New contributor and client technologies further enhanced the customer experience, providing a competitive edge in an industry defined by rapid change. 

The deployment of the solution on Microsoft Azure ensured scalability, resilience, and high performance, giving Gallo Images the confidence to expand its global reach without being limited by infrastructure. Most importantly, the collaboration with CBOS created a future-ready foundation that enables the company to continuously evolve with industry shifts, embrace emerging technologies, and solidify its position as a market leader in the digital media landscape.