Regal Entertainment Group and ZAP Data Hub

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Background

Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC) operates one of the largest and most geographically diverse theatre circuits in the United States. Consisting of 7,329 screens in 567 theatres in 42 states along with Guam, Saipan, American Samoa and the District of Columbia as of March 31, 2016. The Company operates theatres in 46 of the top 50 U.S. designated market areas. Regal believes that the size, reach and quality of their theatre circuit not only provides its patrons with a convenient and enjoyable movie-going experience, but is also an exceptional platform to realize economies of scale in theatre operations.

Challenges

In 2012, Regal recognized the limitations of their existing financial reporting software, which could only provide limited general ledger information. They required the ability to leverage their general ledger reporting in conjunction with reporting on their theatre level amenities and statistical information. They also needed to be able to analyze their inventory and purchasing data by item, buyer, site, and item group at a district, region and consolidated company level. Additionally, they wanted reporting that was easily reproduced each month with minimal maintenance requirements, that provided both rapid integration to Dynamics AX and a governed data intelligence solution.

Regal’s Accounting department had been manually maintaining financial reports in Excel for each area of the business. Theatre attributes such as: projector system types, screen counts, square footage, lease end dates, district assignments, expanded menu locations, theatres with recliner seats, etc. would change their reports each month and have to be manually adjusted. This process was very time and labor intensive and required manual manipulation of data.

Solution

ZAP provided Regal the ability to develop a fully governed, data intelligence solution, as well as self-maintaining reports with efficient distribution to all areas of the business. Regal was able to integrate their theatre business unit attribute reporting in conjunction with both their financial data and item-level reporting in a way that they had never been able to do previously. ZAP Data Hub allowed users the flexibility to filter and summarize required information for each of their areas. What had historically been manually produced as many individual reports are now combined into a single Business Intelligence solution that meets the needs of the various Regal users.

Benefits

Regal’s accounting department was able to virtually eliminate manually maintained Excel-based reporting for key areas of the business. Deploying ZAP Data Hub to all levels of the organization allowed their theatre managers and decision-makers access to daily information with centralized control of the underlying data layer. Instead of waiting on monthly financial reports published weeks after month-end, business users can now access key performance metrics, relevant revenue, and spend data throughout the accounting period. Managers are now able to react to trends and run-rates much faster and make adjustments accordingly which directly improved the bottom line. In addition, Regal’s Purchasing department now has instant access to inventory, supplier, and item procurement history at their fingertips without relying on Finance or I.T. to publish monthly reports.