RAM takes centre stage at Pinewood Studios

Leading film and television studios adopt Real Asset Management as part of Best-of-Breed accounting system

Pinewood Studios, Europe's leading film and television production facility, has selected Real Asset Management as part of its new best-of-breed corporate solution.

Pinewood, which is based in Buckinghamshire, has been involved in film and television production for over 60 years, hosting films such as Tomb Raider, Iris, Mission Impossible, The Hours and most of the James Bond movies. In addition, it is home to numerous television programmes, currently hosting the Weakest Link and My Family.

Early in 2001 it was announced that Pinewood Studios had successfully completed a merger with Shepperton Studios, creating one of the largest film facilities in the world. The merger prompted the finance team to undertake a comprehensive review of existing financial systems. “The objective was to introduce a corporate solution across both companies that would satisfy joint requirements,” recalled Nick Matthews, financial controller at Pinewood.

The team at Pinewood had previously used a character based general ledger system that had become outdated. “A key priority was to upgrade this to a more user friendly Windows™ solution,” explained Matthews. “Fortunately, the finance department at Shepperton already had the Exchequer Enterprise system in place which also met all of our technical criteria and proved to be a cost effective way of establishing a uniform system.”

“The evaluation of fixed asset management systems was also an important issue for us,” said Matthews. “With thousands of assets to control, we needed a solution in place that could produce detailed reports and provide us with different levels of analysis. 4S Systems Ltd, an Exchequer reseller, introduced us to its business partner, Real Asset Management, which was able to offer us a specialist fixed asset software package that linked directly to the general ledger application.”

Both Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, which employ over 250 staff, implemented RAM's system to manage a wide variety of assets, including buildings, furniture, IT equipment, and technical equipment in their Sound, Television, and Photographic & Digital Imaging businesses.

“RAM has really improved the way we manage fixed assets,” said Matthews. “Unlike our previous system, it allows us to specify user codes for various departments and categories in order to report on them in depth. For example, this could be as detailed as depreciation by individual department or, on a more general level, by fixtures and fittings, etc. As a specialist solution it has so much scope for the future. The fact that it has the flexibility to adapt to any change in our requirements is a real benefit for us.”

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