Showfax, Inc.: The Professional Actor’s Essential Resource

Industry: Entertainment Site: http://www.showfax.com Description: Showfax, Inc. is a 30+ year old business who is the industry leader in distributing script and related materials between casting directors, actors and talent agents.

Project Overview

Home Page: Official launch date is August 18, 2003

Showfax, Inc. is a 30+ year old business who is the industry leader in distributing script and related materials between casting directors, actors and talent agents. Their primary medium for delivery is the Internet, but their system was not database driven. Instead, it was handled through a time consuming, manual process requiring their technicians to store thousands of files, including duplicates, in dozens of different directories across three websites. An automated process that occurred every 15 minutes parsed all the directories and updated the external website, preventing a true real-time delivery of the product. This process was also prone to intermittent failure. The website also used an outdated e-commerce methodology that required a redirection of the customer outside of the Showfax website to conduct the transaction, then redirect the customer back to Showfax at the conclusion of the transaction. This process added steps for the customer as well as prevented Showfax from generated accounting reports directly from their sites.

Their secondary medium for delivery is a customer service center whose function is to field telephone calls from customers, manually search the aforementioned directory structure for the appropriate materials, take credit card information and fax the materials to the customer. The Customer Service Center (CSC) process required no less than four computer applications and 13 windows in order to complete one transaction.

Challenge

CIS One was hired to create an information database, a revamped external website, a robust on-line e-commerce component and a streamlined customer service interface. Due to the nature of their business, Showfax, Inc. required an accelerated delivery window, requiring the application to be developed, tested (including data migration) and deployed in 60 calendar days. The solution is a database driven document management system that handles the storage and retrieval of all the information and documents, as well as dynamically updates the external web site for immediate delivery to the customer. It also included a simple, single application solution for their CSC and a robust e-commerce component. To this end, CIS One used a combination of Microsoft SQL, Macromedia ColdFusion, HTML, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Java Script to deliver the product.

Solution

Working with the client’s objectives and expectations, CIS One delivered the database and the online e-commerce component on time and within budget. All components and features are tied into an easy-to-navigate and dynamic website created by CIS One’s Web design team.