With one IMAX theatre, 33 properties, 106 screens and counting, Adlabs Cinemas is arguably the largest cinema chain in India. With plans to expand to over 300 screens by March 2008, Adlabs was looking to IT to be the driving factor behind this growth.

According to Jitendra Verma, head, Technology, Adlabs, "IT, at Adlabs is responsible for providing maximum convenience to the user and aiding penetration in tier II and tier III cities."

To achieve maximum consumer convenience and allow Adlabs to support its growth plans, they needed a highly scalable Integrated Voice Recognition (IVR) system. To meet these requirements, Adlabs Cinemas has implemented an IVR system from a Pune based company, 197 Communications.

Out With The Old

Adlabs first introduced a telebooking system in 2005, using a solution from Sequs Systems. The high growth rate experienced by Adlabs, coupled with the need for increasingly sophisticated systems to aid customer convenience, forced Adlabs to look for ways to enhance the existing ticket booking channels, in addition to exploring newer options.

"We discovered that this system was not able to scale as fast as our growth demanded, in addition, we were also exploring the option of adding IVR facilities to our telebooking system," explains Verma, when asked about the switch to a 197 Communications solution.

Phase Wise Deployment

Thus to solve this problem, Adlabs Cinemas decided to deploy an IVR solution from 197 Communications. After extensive project planning, a three-phase implementation was decided upon. The first phase, which was completed in June this year, involved deploying the IVR solution sans the pre-payment option. "This was for customers who used the telebooking facility, but did not want to make a financial commitment," Verma said. These customers will be given an identity number during booking and have to collect the ticket from the respective cinema an hour before the scheduled show time.

The recently concluded second phase involved automating the payment gateway. This was achieved through a tie-up with HDFC bank. This will allow people to pay for tickets in advance through the IVR, cutting out the need to come an hour early to collect tickets.

The third phase, expected to conclude in the next few weeks, will involve implementation of speech recognition in the IVR system. Consumers will then be able to book tickets by mentioning the name of the movie, day and show time. This will allow customers to cut down call timings by avoiding listening to the entire list of movies and timings available.

Two Fold Benefits

This IVR implementation has reaped multiple benefits to both Adlabs Cinemas and moviegoers around India. It has allowed Adlabs to streamline operations by cutting down on call turn around times. In addition to this, the IVR has aided in cutting costs reducing the load on contact centres, at the same time quadrupling the number of calls that can be handled simultaneously.

Responding to a question regarding RoI, Verma adds,"Our IT investments in consumer-facing technology at Adlabs are not evaluated on the basis of RoI. These are purely to enhance the user experience, thus encouraging the consumers to come back for more."

Value additions to the customer include reduced call times, multiple payment options and most importantly, reduced chances of encountering the annoying busy tone.

Future plans

To utilise the next major channel after voice and the web, Adlabs is also in the process of launching a mobile application, which moviegoers can download off their website and use to book tickets. Adding to this, they also plan to set up a secured SMS payment facility by December.