First Look Studios is in the fast-paced and challenging business of video distribution.

The popularity of content is ephemeral as popular interest moves titles into and out of demand quickly, and First Look Studios must be ready to track the demand of titles, manufacture DVDs and tapes quickly, and keep retailers’ shelves stocked.

First Look Studios relies on iQ4bis to provide the visibility into sales trends and data that it needs to accomplish this.

Two hours is too long
“Our prior system was just too slow for me to respond to changing market conditions,” says Marlys Clay, vice president of vendor managed inventory for First Look Studios.

“Waiting around for even minutes or an hour to get information can be very expensive for us, says Clay.

“Each hour that goes by without visibility into our sales information is an hour that I can’t get my manufacturing group started on what they need to build. iQ4bis lets me quickly analyse my data and make a decision about what and how I manufacture through the day.”

First Look Studios is in Los Angeles, the seat of the video entertainment industry, but the studio’s main manufacturing contractor is in Detroit, three time zones later.

Delays in making manufacturing decisions mean getting new products to retailers might be delayed until the next day, which means shelves may go unstocked when customers are clamouring to buy.

Proof of concept
iQ4bis is an independent software vendor (ISV) with a history of developing intuitive business intelligence (BI) solutions for companies across all industries. The company’s expertise in data management stems from more than 25 years of services experience in building data warehousing solutions for multi-national organisations across the globe.

iQ4bis’s software is sold, implemented, and supported by partners and the company’s own offices in Europe, the United States, and Australasia.

iQ4bis’s BI product suite encompasses a complete end-to-end solution for mid-market enterprises by offering a data warehousing solution on the back end (DataServer) to build a centralised repository and a webbased analytics application on the front end (Analysis Web) to “slice and dice” clients’ data. ERP-specific solutions with connectors to various data sources are offered to accelerate the implementation process.

The iQ4bis BI product suite is targeted at managers in mid-market organisations who typically do not have the resources to deploy expensive and complex BI solutions which invariably come with a requirement for dedicated IT staff to maintain the application.

iQ4bis’s belief is that all Managers should have daily access to a simple BI application to manage their portion of the business by running “ad hoc reports” and looking at the current data from multiple facets.

The product suite leverages the power of the Microsoft SQL platform and provides a rapid deployment layer on top of it.

iQ4bis performed a proof of concept with First Look Studios’ data that showed the studio how iQ4bis would work for the business. Several views were built in just a few hours.

Affordability and ease of use were important factors to First Look Studios when considering its BI deployment, and following on from the proof of concept, the studio was convinced iQ4bis was a suitable solution to meet its requirements and business objectives.

Fast response
A recent scenario provides an example of why fast turn-around times are so crucial in First Look Studios’ business, and how iQ4bis plays a vital role in helping the company meet targets.

“We just had a major title that launched three weeks ago and based upon the title’s performance in the marketplace we had to quickly turn around 50,000 units that day,” says Clay.

“With iQ4bis, I was able to recap the sales first thing in the morning, have a quick meeting internally, let everybody know how well the title had sold, develop an action plan, and respond to the opportunity.”

It didn’t always go so smoothly. Before iQ4bis, delayed or questionable sales information could mean missing manufacturing deadlines, and other problems too.

“We calculate some compensation based on performance in the marketplace,” says Tim Hennessey, senior vice president of IT.

“In the past we have sometimes overpaid or underpaid because the data was incorrect. We didn’t know it for quite a while until somebody did additional analysis,” he says.

“That problem has pretty much been eliminated with iQ4bis. Analysts can double check the numbers right away and see that they can make accurate statements for the vendors.”

Honouring contracts
“We have a mandate from our major retailers to always keep them in stock with products,” says Clay. “At the chain level we have to react immediately, to get that product restocked for our mass merchants like Target, Wal-Mart, or Best Buy. iQ4bis allows us to analyse how products are selling right down to the individual store level, and plays a key role in meeeting our obligations.”

Smarter business people
At First Look Studios, iQ4bis is now used by senior staff, the company’s vendor managed inventory group, the marketing group, sales group and manufacturing managers.

As well as enabling the business to keep sufficient stock in stores, and generating accurate sales account statements and compensation payments, iQ4bis provides First Look Studios’ sales people with more complete account history information to empower them as better account managers.

“Using iQ4bis, we’re now able to give our account managers a profile of their account and make them smarter business people when they go in and make that sales call,” says Clay.

“The buyers have more respect for you if you know what is going on in their business with your titles.”

For more information

Asj Smith            
General Manager- APAC
iQ4bis Management Software Limited
+64 9 366 2635
Visit our website www.iQ4bis.com











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