"FileMaker gave us everything we needed in a rapid timeframe and at a fraction of the cost of the original bespoke system. I don't believe we could have achieved such an efficient operation for the time and the money without FileMaker. Ten years on and FileMaker keeps delivering the flexibility to support our business in whichever direction we decide to go."

Dubbs

Dubbs Duplicates Business Success With FileMaker

Dubbs, one of the UK's leading video and DVD duplication houses, is using FileMaker to handle virtually every aspect of its logistics and order processing systems, ensuring that tough deadlines are met and customers get the very best service in one of the most competitive parts of the media industry.

Over 300 video and DVD duplication requests a week are dealt with by the FileMaker system. In addition, its recently launched 'Eyeframe' business division is now managing an increasingly complex schedule of work, offering a complete 'project' sell, following the footage through from transfer to replication, including: encoding; graphic design of CD/DVD menus and covers; audio and video restoration; and authoring.

"While managing over 300 jobs per week is no simple task, once we had transferred the video to another format, that was the end of the job," explains Clive D'Urban, Director of Dubbs. "But with the launch of Eyeframe this was no longer the case. All Eyeframe projects are multiple jobs so the information management and business administration challenges rose sharply. We needed a solution and thanks to the flexible and scalable nature of FileMaker, we were able to extend its use outside of Dubbs to solve the data demands of this new brand."

According to Clive, the great thing about FileMaker is: "The ability to modify the system to cope with changing times and changing business. This is a massive plus. As our business grew, and EyeFrame became reality, FileMaker was able to grow with us."

Even before the launch of Eyeframe, Dubbs already had some information management issues and had attempted to automate its order processing and dispatch systems using an external specialist to develop a bespoke system on Microsoft Access. The results proved unsatisfactory and Dubbs turned to FileMaker and took development of the system in-house. According to Clive: "It gave us everything we needed in a rapid timeframe and at a fraction of the cost of the original bespoke system."

Dubbs needed to ensure that its duplication and conversion facilities could handle the volume of orders and still meet the deadlines requested by the clients. Before using FileMaker to monitor the progress of orders, two people with clipboards worked to keep track of different jobs. Now, the progress of each job and/or project can be monitored electronically at any time by any person.

When a call comes in, a customer service representative identifies the client and logs the job in the FileMaker database. When the tape or disk arrives for duplication, the job is then flagged as 'live' within FileMaker. It is then sent to the technical department where the requisite copies can be made as requested by the client.

Once duplication has taken place, the media must be labelled. As D'Urban explains: "Before FileMaker, we would spend considerable time generating the right labels for the right formats from a selection of over 30 different types – creating an unacceptable margin for error. The labels can now be generated automatically because the correct label templates are held within FileMaker and the text is automatically downloaded from the bookings system. Labels can now be produced concurrently rather than waiting for the duplication process to be completed, helping us to improve our turnaround time for customers."

This transparent, through-life information management process is also duplicated within Eyeframe.

Another benefit of FileMaker is that all job sheets automatically gain a barcode. When the job moves from one department to the next, staff simply use a barcode scanner to log the movement. This not only saves time but also ensures that an accurate and up to date record of the job progress is available to anyone accessing the system.

D'Urban again: "We have also used FileMaker to build in an automatic email alert system that will send a message to managers informing them of delays in the process chain. Overall, FileMaker is crucial to the smooth running of our business. I don't believe we could have achieved such an efficient operation for the time and the money without FileMaker."

Several customers have invited Dubbs to install a custom FileMaker system for their own use as a result of seeing the Dubbs operation. The in-house development team, who created the system, is now working on a consultancy basis, assisting companies to make the move to FileMaker. So successful has this area been that Dubbs has created another company – Dubbs Database Solutions www.dubbs-database.co.uk – using its FileMaker supported platform and its expertise to sell throughout the film, video and new media sectors.

Based in London's Soho, Dubbs employs around 40 people. Its customers are primarily advertising agencies, television producers, distributors and corporate end user companies who require fast duplication and conversion of video formats for use in broadcast, communications and the Internet.