Crystal-Clear DecisionsCrystal-Clear Decisions

Fox Filmed Entertainment, which produces, distributes, and manages movies and television programs for parent company Fox Entertainment Group Inc., is adopting Crystal Decisions Inc.'s business-intelligence software to give employees access to six databases with information about Fox's inventory of TV programs and films, including Minority Report and Cast Away. The move will help the company save more than $100,000 a year.

Employees access and analyze data in the product-registry databases for a variety of purposes, such as planning promotions and tracking revenue generated by video sales. The information also is used to make decisions about licensing deals with cable and television companies.

Fox has had as many as eight reporting tools in use throughout the company, including software from Actuate, Business Objects, and MicroStrategy. But it decided to standardize on the Crystal Enterprise 8.5 query and reporting software as much as possible to reduce licensing, maintenance, and training costs.

"Ultimately, it's going to be our centralized reporting tool," says Charles Castleberry, associate director of architecture. "We're consolidating servers and data, as well as software licenses."

Fox wanted a reporting tool that could handle a broad a range of applications. Although other tools are more adept at complex tasks, they aren't as easy to use as Crystal for everyday reporting chores, such as formatting copyright reports for the government, Castleberry says.

The Crystal Decisions software is already being used for five projects, Castleberry says. About 400 employees use it, a number that will eventually reach around 1,700. Fox will continue to use MicroStrategy's data warehousing app, Castleberry says, but tools from other vendors will be phased out.