Kinopolis
All-star cast for contract management, accouting and human resources management
The big screen, Dolby surround sound, popcorn, nachos and soft drinks make every visit to the movies a great occasion. Whether it’s Hollywood blockbusters or independent films: No home cinema can keep up with the atmosphere of a movie theater. Only operators such as the Kinopolis Group and its partner EASY SOFTWARE know about the sophisticated behind-the-scenes processes that make this possible in the first place.
Kinopolis Management Multiplex places its trust in solutions from EASY SOFTWARE
EASY provides excellent software solutions. In the course of our research, we failed to find any other supplier whose portfolio included products for all of our requirements.”
Thorsten Schwab, personnel officer, Kinopolis Group
With a history dating back to 1905, the Kinopolis Group is one of the longest-standing movie companies in Germany. It manages some 17 movie theaters in southern and central Germany with a total of 137 projection halls and 26,300 seats. This includes the award-winning Darmstadt-based Rex art house movie theater as well as the Mathäser Filmpalast in Munich, which attracts more customers than any other movie theater in Germany.
The special thing about the Kinopolis Group: Every movie theater is run as an independent company, while Kinopolis Management Multiplex GmbH in Darmstadt takes the burden off the directors of the individual movie theaters with its responsibility for key areas such as accounting, contract management and payroll accounting. This is a very sensible approach, as without such support a modern movie theater company is very difficult to manage. „This is especially clear if you take a closer look at contract management, for example,“ explains Torsten Schwab, personnel officer at Kinopolis Management Multiplex GmbH.
„To run smoothly, a movie theater depends on suppliers and service providers and enters into many contracts. This starts with the rental, lease or purchase contract for the building, but also includes contracts which relate to the purchasing of snacks, drinks as well as bags of popcorn and drinking cups that are made especially for the movie theater. Then there are leasing and maintenance agreements for technical equipment, presentation, theater and building technology, as well as contracts with the building’s cleaners, and last but not least, the film distributors.“ With so much to do, it’s pretty much impossible for the on-site staff to keep track of the agreed deadlines and conditions.
Project information
Effective software support required
For a long time, managing all of the contracts also proved to be a challenge to the Management GmbH. The reason is clear. „Most of the contracts are individual contracts. For example, we don‘t manage just one service contract for the maintenance of our air conditioning systems throughout Germany, we have a separate contract for each location,“ explains Schwab.
It quickly became clear: Keeping track of everything on paper is like a herculean task – especially since the large filing cabinet that was used in Darmstadt to store contracts was bursting at the seams and the flood of documentation was increasing rather than decreasing.
„The contracts trigger processes which then lead to confirmations of orders, delivery notes, vendor invoices or maintenance logs. Many of these documents are still sent to us on paper, but increasingly arrive in digital form. Either way, it is necessary for us to assign them to the locations and contracts, check them on an individual basis if necessary according to the conditions agreed in the respective contract and file them in a legally secure way. Working with paper documents takes up a huge amount of time.“ A digital system of contract management was therefore necessary – ideally from a partner who was able to cover the further requirements. Kinopolis Management Multiplex GmbH was also interested in having a digital invoice management system and a solution for the payroll accounting and management of job applications.