The Hindu Business Line : Show within SHOW

This company, which manages theatre complexes across several cities, is using software to centralise its operations. So every time you buy a film ticket, a chain of action is set in motion...

CALL it the show within the show. Inox Leisure Ltd manages multiplexes across several Indian cities. Even as the company screens films for the public, it is deploying technology to streamline its day-to-day operations.

The need for such a deployment is obvious for a company whose footprint extends across six multiplexes with nearly 30 screens spread across diverse locations from Mumbai to Goa to Pune, Baroda and Kolkata, and soon Bangalore.

And so, Inox has gone in for a customised cinema management and financial accounting and reconciliation software.

What benefits strike the eye obviously, with this deployment?

The company says its staff at the headquarters in Mumbai get to know of the previous day's sales data by seven in the morning.

Distributors, too, have access to such data and this facilitates the building of transparent relationships between distributors and owners of multiplexes.

For Inox, this is a very important task, considering each of its locations offers 1,200 seats per show at an average of 200-300 seats per screen.

Says Vijay Basrur, Head of Systems, Inox Leisure: "To begin with, we had to invest in computerised ticketing. Besides facilitating processes, this helped us comply with laws better.

Ours being a cash-intensive business, it is imperative to ensure every morning that the cash generated the previous day goes to the bank. As such, the reconciliation process, and the speed at which it is done, is very important".

Any savings on this score lead to savings in terms of time as well as manpower costs. Any human error is practically ruled out.

Deployment of the customised cinema management software and financial accounting system has helped reduce by 50 per cent the time taken to do the job, he says.

The entire accounting process is no longer disconnected and the entire management information system is there for the asking at the click of a button.

A single platform provides for seamless integration and, thereby, ensures efficiency, he says.

The focus now is on driving business by leveraging technology further, including booking cinema tickets through SMS and via the Internet. Basrur says tie-ups have been forged with service providers in this regard, including one with Rediff.com for Internet bookings.

"Besides reducing the time-to-market, there is practically no incremental cost as the Rediff platform is ready", he says.

Soon, Inox plans to embark on mobile ticketing whereby cinema tickets will be dispensed through hand-held systems that would have a fixed inventory of seats. This will facilitate an increase in the reach of points-of-sale of tickets.

The focus now is on putting in place a more robust technology-delivery platform and devising other mediums of delivering tickets, other than sales through the box office.

Says Basrur: "We have already put in place an SMS-based MIS data sharing system whereby we share relevant data not just within the management but also with our distributors.

And we wish to extend it to government officials as well".

Picture by Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

ambar_singhroy@rediffmail.com

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
When the parts don't add up

Setting Temporary Internet Files

Tuning in to the customer

`Spend management spells big savings'

Quiz

Learn to think like the computer thinks