Who would have imagined IT would play a role in activities such as booking and scheduling films, auditing, consolidating or analysing box-office data? Yet it does. At Fame Adlabs, Maharashtra’s first fully computerised multiplex, where IT forms the core of all operations. In fact, the company’s customer-centric approach has gained ground only through the judicious use of IT, says Chitra Padmanabhan

Arshad Kazi says that IT is the nerve centre, which controls the whole theatre

The way Information Tech-nology has pervaded all sections of our society is truly amazing. For instance, few people would have thought that IT could play a critical role in managing a theatre. But at Fame Adlabs, a brand new multiplex theatre in Mumbai, IT is used in almost every operation. Fame Adlabs is the flagship brand of Shringar Cinemas—jointly promoted by Adlabs—and holds the distinction of being the first fully-computerised multiplex theatre in Maharashtra.

If the box-office is the money-churning engine for the company, then IT is what fuels its growth. IT today manages the entire operations of 15 shows per day on five different screens within the premises. The multiplex was inaugurated in April 2002—with the systems in place right from day one.

Says Arshad Kazi, manager for technology at Shringar Cinemas, “Our priority was to have a fully-functional IT system in place simply because we realised that the volume of data, resulting from such a large organisation, can be quite daunting. Today, we can confidently say that IT is the nerve centre which controls the whole theatre.”

The way it started
In an attempt to identify the kind of service levels it desired, the company set up a two-member team before it commenced operations. Then, it laid down the objectives and expectations from an IT implementation. But unlike typical IT systems in other organisations, the system in a multiplex is quite different.

For instance, there are different systems from different vendors for ticketing and financial operations. The need therefore was to have a system that could seamlessly interact with any ticketing, financial or operating system.
But before the company could zero in on a package, it realised that there was no ticketing software available in India. After scouting high and low, the company finally managed to get a product called ‘Vista’ offered by a New Zealand-based company.

The software proved to be the ideal choice for Fame Adlabs as it could centrally manage all key elements of a multiplex theatre, including booking and scheduling films, auditing, consolidating and analysing box-office revenues and concessions (food & beverages) data, recording financial information and negotiating and paying film earnings to distributors.

Considering the nature of the business, the company also identified specific areas to introduce state-of-the-art CRM solutions. “We wanted to make it a corporate policy to work on a skeletal staff, so we preferred a system that required minimal manual intervention,” says Kazi. After a thorough evaluation of the package it was time to chalk out a meticulous plan to ensure smooth implementation. Big Tree Entertainment, being the exclusive agent for Vista Solutions, was appointed to customise the solution for the Indian environment. The company went in for a full-fledged implementation that lasted for 20-25 days and another month for mock training of staff.

From box office to back office
Vista’s ticketing software covers the gamut of Fame Adlab’s operations—right from box-office to the MIS reports—and forms the core of the company’s operations. All the other IT requirements and installations have been built around this package. Vista can be broadly categorised into five functional areas—Back office module, box-office module, concessions module, signages module and IVR call centre module.

The back office module is a fully-integrated planning and scheduling system that controls all operations, and in fact represents the starting point of the operation cycle. “In the world of cinema, the week begins on Friday and ends on Thursday. So every Thursday evening, the schedule and pricing for the subsequent week is fed into the system,” says Kazi. The data includes time- and film-based programming, as rates vary for various shows and from one movie to the other. Any alterations in the schedule can be done at the click of the mouse.

Once scheduling is over, this data can be accessed in real-time at the box-office counter. This system forms the core of cinema operations because it is at the box-office where the actual collection takes place. “Once a ticket is sold at the box-office, each transaction is locked in the system, and is accompanied by the price card and the taxes levied on that movie,” Kazi explains. The person manning the box-office counter has a single screenshot view of the current and advance booking status, along with the seating arrangements for the same.

The box-office module is integrated with the accounting system as well. Real-time availability of data makes it possible for the accounts department to tally the cash collections. Information on the break-up of cash and credit card collections is also available. Additionally the system itself generates a Daily Collection Report that provides information on the collections made by a particular movie. Apart from monetary details the report provides details on the rush hour and its progress at the later part of the week—for instance, movies that have been received well.

CRM initiatives
For the convenience of the customer, a television set perched right above the ticket counter gives real-time information on the status of tickets in the advance and current booking counters. “This system is particularly useful when a movie is running house-full, or if there are only a few tickets left in current bookings,” says Kazi.
Integrated in this module is the IVR call centre module that enables moviegoers to check the availability of tickets on an automated voice response system. The call centre module enables operators to provide the caller with information about show timings, pricing and home delivery of tickets in select areas.

An extension to this service is the television screen in the lobby of the cinema hall that provides information on movies running in the five movie halls. All this is taken care of by the signage module which is integrated with the box-office module.

IT in the F&B counter
The Concessions module ensures that details of the total stock is fed into the system and then distributed to the five refreshment counters. Every transaction is locked at the point of sale. The basic advantage of the system is that it can determine the stock left in the cinema stores at any given point of time, and is therefore the ideal tool to monitor stock inventory.

“The online stock updates us with real-time inventory balances,” says Kazi. The concessions area has five touch screen monitors known as ‘touch screen concession dispensers’ that speed up the process of entry into the system. “We wanted to use touch screens on the lines of the hotel industry to keep crowds from gathering around the concessions area all at a time,” says Kazi.

Its integration with the box-office module enables the staff to do a comparative analysis of the earnings on F&B in relation to the number of tickets sold. Along with the status of the tickets sold, the system provides information on the concessions area, detailing customer likes or dislikes.

Security systems
With a seating capacity of 1,430 per show, plans were made to put stringent security systems in place. This prompted the company to implement Zicom’s embedded electronic security. “These systems can track a person right from the time he enters the premises till the time he exits,” says Kazi.

The company also has special devices for monitoring staff. Every employee is given a ‘proximity card’, which regulates their access over the premises of the theatre. For instance, the multiplex has designated people for designated areas, and the log of every person entering official premises is entered into the system. An employee’s access to these premises is decided on a hierarchical basis.

“The software tracks the employee, clock on and off and this information is integrated with the backoffice, which monitor attendance, entry and exit time of the employees,” explains Kazi.

MIS reports
The box-office module has an in-built system to produce MIS reports for evaluation by the top management. “The performance analysis reports play a vital role in the strategic decisions of the top management,” says Kazi. The performance reports can be procured in any sphere of activity within the theatre premises. For instance, if a particular movie has an extremely good level of occupancy, then the management may decide to screen it in two theatres simultaneously. Such decisions are made after taking into consideration the number of tickets sold and the time of the shows that report a maximum crowd.

MIS reports obtained through the concession module helps to decide the menu. The reports are particularly useful when the theatre introduces a new menu or is experimenting with a snack.

Future plans
With the fundamental infrastructure and systems already in place, the company’s IT policy is focused on stabilising the system and building more applications around it, in order to optimise its full strengths and further its scope of operations.

With CRM as the focus area, the company plans to introduce online booking of tickets through its website and also booking of tickets through SMS. Also on the anvil are plans to construct three more multiplexes in Mumbai, which will be completely integrated with each other. “Though these plans are in a nascent stage, we want to build a system which enables booking of tickets from any of our multiplexes,” says Kazi.

All IT decisions are made by the top management, keeping the core philosophy of customer-service in mind. And it is this attitude towards IT that has motivated the company to walk new ground—to the extent that IT has become the integral part of the company’s business vision.