In-Depth
TelcoSolutions
The pay-per-view movie industry is big business, almost every cable system offers some type of pay-per-view service to its viewers. Providing this service to the regional and local cable companies are large pay-per-view outlets that operate nationwide.
One such national supplier was having difficulty generating reports for its affiliates in a timely fashion. The unnamed company turned to TelcoSolutions, a five-person consultancy based in Ramsey, N.J., to create an Internet based system that would allow affiliates to generate their own reports more quickly. Affiliates use the reports to spot trends in viewer preferences and alter their pay-per-view schedules and offerings accordingly.
TelcoSolutions turned to the Prolifics development environment from Prolifics Corp., New York City, said George Brandes, president of TelcoSolutions. "We chose Prolifics because it allowed to create both client/server and Web front ends," Brandes said.
TelcoSolutions’ client uses a client/server system for its internal reporting needs, while affiliates use the Web to generate reports.
Prior to implementing the Prolifics-based system, it took upwards of 24 hours to turn around pay-per-view reports. Now, the same reports can be run remotely by the affiliates in roughly 35 minutes, Brandes said.