Case Studies

Mediaco provides class leading audio visual staging and technical event solutions around the world, with innovative and ground breaking multimedia approaches to technically challenging special events, AGMs, sales meetings, media events and conferences.

Having gone through some dramatic growth and expansion to five large offices across Canada, all over the past few years, Mediaco wanted to transition from their current software system to a more developed out package that would eliminate a number of challenges they were encountering. Having always invested the finest in equipment, Mediaco has always acknowledged that the operational side of the business also requires world-class infrastructure for the effective, efficient and mission critical service to the entire organization. They also wanted to ascertain that the next system they selected would be stable, scalable, easy to use.

Mediaco’s search process was extremely exhaustive and after a considerable testing and assessment period of over a year, they were very deliberate in making the decision to go with R2.

Here are some of the reasons Mediaco selected R2:

• It would provide the company flexibility so that end users can easily and quickly create extensive customized reports.
• It would allow users across departments to collaborate when executing large staging orders.
• The sales persons and project managers can easily see the gross margin on an order at every stage of the quoting and executing process. This way, proactive modifications can be made in respective operational and production processes if gross margins goals are not being met.
• Detailed inventory status, location and availability information will be clear and will help Mediaco pro-actively manage any shortages, sub rentals or exchanges.

The Mediaco sales team will also take advantage of the R2 – CRM software that allows the company to have one Customer Master for all of prospects and clients. So now the sales staff from within the CRM module can look at who is a prospect or a customer and if a customer, how valuable this customer and view customer’s orders, invoices and other pertinent business information right from within the CRM.

Mediaco assessed that R2’s Labor planning could be intuitive and streamlined and that it provides for multiple methods of communications with technicians. Freelance technicians working with Mediaco could now have the ability to manage calendars and time-sheets via a web enabled service for R2.

Mediaco realized the critical importance of choosing the best possible solution to continue to help the company grow. “We wanted to make sure that the next software product we selected was the last one we would need, a solution that can keep up with our growth”, remarked James Brett, co-founder of Mediaco.

As such Mediaco looked at many software solutions in the market and found that while R2 is the system of choice of most companies in the industry today, it is because UBS understands the business of Audio Visual Staging Rentals and Production and has built a software system that evidently effectively and efficiently manages it.

Purchase date April 6, 2011. Full LIVE implementation date is currently on schedule for September 1, 2011.

LMG is one of the top audio visual companies in the United States. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida its operations include Staging, Rentals and System Integration of audio visual equipment to businesses nationwide. LMG has additional locations in Las Vegas, Nevada and Tempe, Arizona and the Orange Convention Center, Orlando. They have over 140 employees and revenues of approximately $30 million.

LMG had been using Rentrace a DOS based system to track its inventory for over 15 years. The management of LMG understood that they would need to move over to a new system that could deliver better efficiencies to their operations. Les M. Goldberg, the founder and president was a strong believer that technology could dramatically improve efficiency and profits. Making a wrong decision on business software was not an option - not only was there a large cost component involved but that it was strategically critical for the driving profitability and growth of the company.

FIRST STEPS: Developing the "Must Have" Criteria A True Multi-Site Capability with one database for all locations. This was essential to be able to leverage the inventory and assets of the company. A long term sustainable solution in terms of technology, direction and vendor’s track record. A system that addressed all aspects of the business

THE SELECTION PROCESS: Detailed evaluation of every solution that met the initial criteria. Executives spent several days over multiple trips evaluating different offerings.

WHY LMG SELECTED R2 OVER OTHERS: The only system that demonstrated a deep understanding of the industry with best practices. Clearly a company that had invested time and resources in understanding the business... A Fully Integrated Solution that covered all aspects of the business: Shows Rentals Labor Accounting Integration Technology - Oracle Database And Unique abilities that LMG saw having a great impact on their business: Conflict Management to deal with operational issues as well as manage costs Ability to manage and control Sub-Rentals Utilization and ROI analyses to make informed capital decisions. Labor Planning and Scheduling

Creative Technology is one of the leading organizations in the US providing staging, entertainment production and audio-visual rentals. After an extensive worldwide search CTUS chose to run their North American operations on R2 from Unique Business System (UBS).

R2 is the leading software for Inventory Management, Rentals, Labor Management and Staging for the Audio Visual, Staging and Rental industries. R2 is the #1 software amongst the largest AV companies in North America and also has as a strong presence in U.K, Europe and Australia.

The system integrates operations across all the 4 locations of CTUS in the United States. The operations now leverage over 40,000 assets in the inventory across all locations to service the needs of their prestigious client events. With R2, CTUS has now integrated several disparate and stand-alone activities. R2 provides a seamless, end-to-end process for quotations for labor and equipment, reservations, scheduling, dispatch, invoicing and finally posting to a financial system.

“The visibility of our inventory has shot up. We have reduced the unknowns by at least 15%. Additionally, the level of detail gives us confidence”, said Jeff Humphrey, Business Analyst, who was the Project Manager overseeing the implementation of R2. “R2 handles multiple versions and changes at a single source. This not only increases the control and accuracy, but also prevents data leakage to competitors” added Humphrey.

Amongst its comprehensive feature set, the ability of the system to automate the workflow has added controls and reliability to the entire operations. From the automatic creation of Tasks and Schedule to the final tie up with accounting that enables accurate look-backs. “Our biggest challenge was keeping the data accurate and up to date – R2 has taken care of that”, said Jeff Humphrey.
Based on the success of this implementation of R2 at CTUS, the parent company, AVESCO, headquartered in UK, intends to implement R2 across the other organizations in the group internationally. This involves an addition of 440 users in six different organizations of the group.

Said Ari Orenstein, Sr. Project Manager at UBS and in-charge of R2 roll-out at CTUS: “Key to any large implementation is understanding the specific needs of the company and their unique processes. The experience of our professional services is what makes this possible every time.”

“Based on our experience, we are confident that UBS is the right partner for a long term relationship”, said Stephen Gray, COO of CTUS. “The investment we made upfront in professional implementation is paying off as we are rapidly adopting the system.”

Mr. Gray added, “From a strategic point it was essential that we took a view that covered a minimum of the next 10 years with any software we chose. Since we wanted company that would stand behind and evolve the product over the next decade, UBS was the automatic choice”.

Scharff Weisberg Inc. is a provider of signature entertainment services to the highest profile events for clients that include the likes of Emeril Live, MTV, Ferrari and several Broadway shows. “Our reputation is our biggest asset”, says the company’s President, Josh Weisberg. “It has been built painstakingly over the years and thousands of events.”

Looking to replace its aging HITS system, the company evaluated R2 in 2001- and decided not to go with it. “At that time we felt that R2 had not come of age.” However, the system selected by Scharff-Weisberg did not perform as expected. After trying to make it work for two years, the company decided that they could no longer afford to risk their operational efficiency. Taking another look at R2, the company was pleasantly surprised to see how much R2 had come along and matured. R2 was implemented in the lighting division and was installed and operational in six weeks. According to Ben Saltzman, General Manager, “The contrast was remarkable. We were up and running without even the anticipated teething pains.”

One year down the road, Scharff-Weisberg decided to take R2 company-wide across all its divisions. Adds Ben, “We have seen a significant improvement in utilization already.”

Says Josh Weisberg, “It’s not just the software, but the company and people associated with R2 that made the difference. The system, as well as the people, brings a deep and well-thought understanding of the industry – and that makes a big difference.”