NEW DELHI, INDIA: IT major, IBM today announced a three-year IT services agreement with Cinepolis, a multiplex operator, commencing operations in India.

The deal would involve IBM deploying, managing and supporting a scalable IT infrastructure essential for Cinepolis’ roll-out plans in the country.

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

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.

Vivek Malhotra, Territory Executive - North & 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.

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.

IBM would provide Point of Sale (PoS), kiosks, server, storage, software, networking and related services that would run Cinepolis’ core applications as well as Internet-related and general business applications.

Ashish Shukla, head exhibition, Cinepolis India, said, “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.”

He added that with technology increasingly underpinning business growth, they are confident that their partnership with IBM would enable them to continue to provide differentiated services to customers.