Cinepolis ties up a three year IT deal with IBM

IBM today announced a three-year IT services agreement with Cinepolis, one of the world’s largest multiplex operator, commencing operations in India. The deal, inked in August 2009, will involve IBM deploying, managing and supporting a scalable IT infrastructure essential for Cinepolis’ roll-out plans in the country.

IBM’s Store Roll Out solution will allow Cinepolis to control operating expenses as well as to swiftly develop and deploy new customer facing applications.

Cinepolis has a goal of opening 500 screens in the country by 2016. Of this, it is looking at making 130 screens go-live in eight cities over next 3 years. IBM’s IT solutions will power Cinepolis operations at each of these sites.

Commenting on the deal, Vivek Malhotra, Territory Executive - North and  East, General Business, IBM India/S Asia, said, “This is a very strategic win for IBM in the media and  entertainment space. Accelerating time to market and reducing operational complexity for Cinepolis will be the key focus areas for IBM in this engagement. Our industry experience and domestic market know-how will help a global leader like Cinepolis achieve success in the Indian market by focusing on its core business cinemas.”

Driven by innovation, Mexico-based Cinépolis was the first to introduce novel concepts to the Latin American exhibition industry, such as the first multiplexes in 1972, the first megaplexes in 1994, the first IMAX screens in 2004, the first concept of Edutainment with a six screen CinemaPark in 2006 and the first digital 3-D screens with RealD in 2008.
IBM will provide Point of Sale (PoS), kiosks, server, storage, software, networking and related services that will run Cinepolis’ core applications as well as internet-related and general business applications.

According to Ashish Shukla, Head Exhibition, Cinepolis India, “Cinepolis endeavors to look for best in class solutions across all functional and technical areas and IBM was the ideal strategic technology partner for us. Through this alliance, Cinepolis has extended its access to current and future technologies essential for establishing and expanding our business. With technology increasingly underpinning business growth, we are confident that our partnership with IBM will enable us to continue to provide differentiated services to customers.”