Cinepolis Partners with IBM to Support its Operations in India

Mumbai: IBM today said that it had signed a three-year IT services deal with global multiplex operator Cinepolis, 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 plans to open 500 screens in the country by 2016. Of this, it is looking at making 130 screens go-live in eight cities over the next three years. IBM's IT solutions will power Cinepolis operations at each of these sites.

''Accelerating time to market and reducing operational complexity for Cinepolis will be the key focus areas for IBM in this engagemen, " said Vivek Malhotra, territory executive, north ans east, general business, IBM India / S Asia."

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.

Cinepolis is also credited with pioneering the concept of 'VIP cinemas ', which has been adopted by multiplexes across the world. The company plans to transform the experience of watching movies in India by screening movies in an ambience that boasts of world class facilities backed by highest levels of customer service.