Birmingham, Alabama IT Company Helps Hollywood Film Industry

Nov. 7, 2011 - PRLog -- 2B Solutions, Inc., a Birmingham IT services company specializing in customer relationship management software and mobile applications, is playing a critical role in the annual American Film Market (AFM) taking place this week in Santa Monica, CA.  For the seventh consecutive year, 2B Solutions is providing a mobile attendance management solution to help event organizers track who views each film.

The American Film Market (AFM) is the largest film industry event in North America.  Presented by the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), AFM connects film producers with distributors from around the world.   Event organizers must capture detailed attendance information for each of the screenings and make it available to sellers as quickly as possible.  Based on a film’s attendance, sellers and distributors are able to negotiate distribution rights.  In just eight days, more than $800 million in deals are sealed.

Speed is essential, according to Andrea Keldsen, Manager, AFM Operations & Exhibitor Services. “The sooner sellers have the information, the sooner they can act on it.” She explains.

Previously, exhibitors used such ad hoc methods as collecting business cards at the entrance to track who attended their screenings.  These processes were prone to human error and difficult for exhibitors to organize and use.

“We didn’t have a way of telling our exhibitors who was coming to their screenings,” Keldsen explains, “not without disrupting the smooth flow of buyers in and out of screenings.  We wanted to capture detailed information about the attendees while not slowing them down.  We also needed to be able to provide this information to our exhibitors within hours.”

2B Solutions developed a custom application that allows AFM staff to scan bar-coded attendee badges and capture attendance data using handheld scanners.  Up-to-date attendance reports are available within minutes after each screening via a password protected Web portal.

“This has been a challenging and fun project for us,” says Jeff Cross, President of 2B Solutions.  “It’s been a pleasure to work with AFM for the last seven years.  Over this time, we were able to take advantage of advancements in mobile technology as it evolved to get data in the hands of those who need it faster.”

“We’ve been privileged to work with 2B Solutions.  They not only provide the equipment and the software, but also the training and support,” says Keldsen. “They actually have a staff person who comes to the event and does the training for us.  We employ seasonal staff and maybe a quarter return each year. Those who come back a whole year later pick it up very quickly. It’s great because the solution is not overwhelming.”

About the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)
The Independent Film & Television Alliance® (IFTA®) is the global trade association of the independent motion picture and television programming industry. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization represents and provides significant entertainment industry services to more than 150 member companies from 23 countries, consisting of independent production and distribution companies, sales agents, television companies, and institutions engaged in production finance.

Collectively, IFTA’s members produce more than 400 independent films and countless hours of television programming each year and generate more than $4 billion in distribution revenues annually. The organization is also widely recognized for producing the American Film Market® (AFM®), the world’s largest motion picture trade event held each November in Santa Monica.

About 2B Solutions, Inc.
2B Solutions, Inc. provides custom technology solutions to help clients better track and manage data critical to their operations.  2B Solutions specializes in customized Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and mobile applications to improve the ability of clients to respond to their customers and critical events from anywhere.  Clients include organizations of all sizes in industries of finance, health services, education, retail, distribution, warehousing and government.  2B Solutions is a Microsoft Partner with competencies in Microsoft Mobility Solutions, Microsoft Business Solutions and independent software vendor (ISV) solutions.  For more information, please visit http://2bsolutions.net.  The company is headquartered in Birmingham’s Innovation Depot, recognized as the 2011 “Incubator of the Year” in the technology sector by the National Business Incubation Association.

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2B Solutions, Inc. provides custom technology solutions to help clients better track and manage data critical to their operations. We specialize in customer relationship management (CRM) and mobile applications.