Kinepolis Theater Chain Releases a Blockbuster With WebFOCUS

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	SNAPSHOT Organization: The Kinepolis Theater Group in Brussels, Belgium. Challenge: Enable theater managers to measure audience trends, tally box-office sales, calculate profits, and generate attendance reports without resorting to laborious spreadsheet analysis. Strategy: Create a Web-based business intelligence environment that can access information from a central database and quickly deliver reports to authorized users. Results: Instant access to real-time information from any PC with an Internet connection; consistent data for spotting trends, gauging profits, and reporting royalties. Information Builders Solution: WebFOCUS, Consulting.

Business Intelligence Software Helps Managers Spot Trends and Calculate Profits at Hundreds of European Theaters

Ever since cable and satellite providers began delivering movie channels to consumers, business forecasters have been predicting the demise of the cinema industry. The growing popularity of DVD players and home entertainment systems will only accelerate the trend, analysts claimed, as consumers tune into movies at home rather than venturing out to the theater. In reality, the cinema industry has enjoyed steady business in recent years, even as video sales, satellite installations, and home entertainment systems become more popular. The reason is simple: people will always enjoy the excitement of going to the theater.

Innovative companies such as the Kinepolis Group in Brussels, Belgium are taking pains to ensure moviegoers enjoy a pleasant, exciting, and hassle-free experience. Its theaters are characterized by enhanced sound systems, upgraded seating, and new conveniences such as automated ticketing kiosks.

"Kinepolis owes its success to being able to rapidly react to market trends," says Harry Leboeuf, DBA & EIS Supervisor of the Kinepolis Group. "Our business is all about ensuring that the public can see the films they want to see, when and where they want to see them."

Through adept management of its modern, multi-screen theater complexes in Belgium and other European cities, Kinepolis has created an immensely successful entertainment empire. Having a steady supply of good films to show in its theaters is the foundation for success. But that’s not the only thing that is helping to boost Kinepolis’ revenues, as Leboeuf and his colleagues devise innovative information systems that keep Kinepolis at the forefront of its industry.

"Our business is driven by fast access to information," adds Leboeuf. "Every cinema manager in our group is expected to know attendance numbers and turnover for every film – all the time. That information is required by central managers who want a snapshot of the business as a whole, as well as by local managers who wish to nail down their program strategies. We are using software from Information Builders to ensure they can always access this information."

Driving Innovation

Back in the 1980s, when the concept of the multiplex cinema really took off, Kinepolis became a feature of the massive Brupark sports, exhibition, leisure and entertainment sites. Today, with headquarters in the prestigious Heysel/Brupark/Atomium facility on the northern outskirts of Brussels, the Kinepolis Group occupies a leadership position among European cinema operators. The theater company has grown into a chain of 26 national and international multi-screen cinema complexes, with 323 screens in seven European countries.

Whenever a Kinepolis theater shows a new film, theater managers measure audience trends to determine how long the film should be booked, what size theater is required, which viewing times are most popular, and many other variables. Once a film is running, theater managers need to instantly tally box-office sales, calculate profits, and generate audience-attendance reports in connection with royalty payments.

"As a company that deals with large numbers of fee-paying clients from the general public, our supreme challenge is to interface our back-office systems with the customer-facing environment – namely, the box-office," says Leboeuf.

To achieve this objective, Kinepolis developed a box-office ticketing interface that is used in each of its cinema complexes around Europe. Each local system gathers data about ticket sales and patron preferences, then uploads the information to a central Oracle database in Brussels.

Business managers quickly realized they were collecting a storehouse of valuable data that could yield active insight into the ongoing status of the business. What they lacked was a software tool that could summarize, analyze and report on the data. "We realized that we could harness this information to provide us with precise details very rapidly, so long as we could find reporting and business intelligence tools that were adaptable to our business environment," Leboeuf recalls.

Selecting WebFOCUS

Kinepolis needed a reporting environment that could interface with the Oracle database, making it easy for users to extract data relating to box-office sales and movie-going trends. "Because we have a progressive management training program with a significant number of mobile managers moving between the different cinema sites, we felt that a Web-based reporting tool would be ideal," recalls Leboeuf. "Previously we used a home-grown software application to extract this data and transfer it to Excel spreadsheets. The spreadsheets were then faxed to key people each evening. It worked, but it was time-consuming and required us to incur ongoing costs for paper and telephone usage."

After evaluating several reporting alternatives, Kinepolis determined that WebFOCUS was an ideal fit for their needs. "WebFOCUS applications are easy to access from any device and any location over the Internet," says Leboeuf. "Additionally, WebFOCUS has a structured access-control architecture that allows us to define access levels through user profiles, and it provides real-time analysis of the relevant data."

It didn’t take much convincing to persuade senior managers that WebFOCUS was the right technology for the job. "We presented our managers with customer testimonials and product overviews about what WebFOCUS could do," continues Leboeuf. "Our managers could clearly see the advantage of this approach over faxing spreadsheets. The most persuasive aspect of the solution was being able to instantly access real-time information from a desktop PC or a dial-up link on a laptop computer."

Deploying the BI Environment

Kinepolis asked Information Builders Consulting to assist with the installation and configuration of a new Web-based reporting system. Developers built an executive dashboard environment that features a series of canned reports that theater managers and other stakeholders can access at will, along with an ad hoc reporting environment for user-generated queries. According to Leboeuf, this process took only a few days because WebFOCUS is so easy to configure.

WebFOCUS also proved to be very easy for nontechnical managers to understand and use. "We found that all of the management personnel involved in the scrutiny of the data soon adapted to WebFOCUS," Leboeuf says. "They now have the freedom to obtain the information they need whenever they like. The reports are presented in an easy-to-read format, giving them the exact information they need for their purposes."

Kinepolis currently has about 70 authorized users throughout Europe who depend on WebFOCUS for information. Each user has different types of reporting needs. Some want alert-based reporting, meaning they only want to see a report when pre-defined conditions change. Others want to receive periodic summaries, yet have the ability to drill-down into the data when something perks their interest. Still others want to be notified when certain thresholds are reached. All of these users can get the information they need from WebFOCUS.

The innovation didn’t stop there. In a related effort, Kinepolis engineers designed a comprehensive ticket vending system called "Kineticket" that allows moviegoers to use bank debit cards to purchase tickets from kiosks in the theater lobbies. The self-service system features touch-sensitive computer screens and built-in printers, enabling patrons to purchase tickets at their leisure and avoid waiting in lines before a show. The system was later extended to allow tickets to be purchased over the Internet.

"Kineticket is directly linked to the central Oracle database," explains Leboeuf. "Eventually, patrons will be able to use the system to purchase food and beverages at the concession stands as well – giving us a new set of data to analyze with WebFOCUS."

He pauses, pondering the success of the new reporting environment and its ramifications for the business. "Wherever there is a telephone line or Internet connection, a travelling executive can retrieve current information for analysis," concludes Leboeuf. "WebFOCUS has quickly proven its worth to our management, and there is no question that it will continue to provide additional value as we extend the database to include food and beverage sales."

David Baum is a freelance business writer based in Santa Barbara, Calif.