Adlabs Looks To IT For Controlled Growth

Jitendra Verma, Head, IT, Adlabs, in conversation with Biztech2.0 discusses the role IT plays in Adlabs’ growth strategy.
How does technology factor into Adlabs operations?

From a consumer view, IT is the backbone of our operations at Adlabs. All our systems, operational services and back-end operations that include ticketing and retail stalls operate on an IT backbone. Our focus is to enable consumers to book tickets easily, from the comfort of their homes. Thus from an operational services standpoint, we at Adlabs are completely IT dependent.

We currently have more that 22 multiplexes across India that run over a 100 screens, which we hope to expand to over 300 by March 2008. IT is poised to be the driving factor behind this growth.

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Has technology reached a stage where it is driving the business growth at Adlabs?

Our top priority is controlled growth and expansion throughout the nation. IT, at Adlabs is responsible for providing maximum convenience to the user and aiding penetration in tier II and tier III cities.

Two to three cinemas are opened every week. We have a solid deployment team as well as a set of standards, which as per Reliance’s own policy, need to be followed whenever we open a cinema. This solid infrastructure is also aided by project planning that starts up to a month before the deployment. This coupled with the operational dependence on IT ensures that it is the only process that can guarantee controlled growth. Thus there is strong company backing for the IT department to take the initiative and drive this business growth.

Are there any obstacles that you face on this front?

The primary challenge that we face is with connectivity in tier II and tier III cities. As we are part of Reliance ADAG, Reliance Broadband is responsible for providing us the network infrastructure, but as we are exploring new markets where they do not have a presence, connectivity is a major problem. Adding to this, localisation, in terms of language of the IVR systems is a concern.

Another problem that we face is that there are three different channels for booking tickets, namely voice, web and mobile. As of now, we have channel bifurcation and all the information is stored at a centralised location, but is not consolidated. This leads to customer service related problems. Thus we first want the platforms to be built up to the same level.

We are trying to automate all three channels. This will enable us to have a unified identity of a consumer across channels. Once all these platforms are up and running, we will try to build a CRM solution that encompasses all three channels.
Are there any IT projects in the pipeline?

We are currently in phase 2 of implementation of the IVR system, which involves automating the payment gateway. This will enable people who want to pay for tickets in advance through IVR. This is being undertaken in partnership with HDFC. Speech recognition will be the next phase of this project.

We are also in the process of launching a mobile application, which moviegoers can download off our website and start booking tickets.

As manpower forecasting and workflow management are another area of concern, we are in the process of deploying a workflow management solution to streamline processes. To this end, a feasibility study is under way and we hope to deploy the solution by February 2008.

We are also planning a SAP ERP implementation, which will be the topmost layer. We are conducting a feasibility study for two modules, Financials and HR. The Reliance Energy SAP team will support this SAP implementation.