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Customer Case

Chainformati on helps ICEBAR by ICEHOTEL to set the course for expansion

As a fast growing franchise acti ng in several geographies, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL was spending way too much ti me sending out e-mails and keeping franchisees updated by phone – while tangled up in a franchise manual that nobody would read.

About ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL

ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL is part of ICEHOTEL, the world’s fi rst ice hotel. Located in the village of Jukkasjärvi, Sweden about 17 km from Kiruna, and existi ng each year between December and April, the ICEHOTEL is enti rely made out of snow and ice blocks taken from the Torne River.

The fi rst ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL opened in partnership with ABSOLUT VODKA in the original Icehotel in 1994. The enti re bar is made of ice. Bar guests are served vodka in glasses made of ice oft en described as a drink “in the rocks”.

Operati ng as a franchise concept since 2002, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL can now be found at ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjarvi and in fi ve major citi es: Copenhagen, Istanbul, , London, Oslo and Stockholm. Together, these ICEBARS serve more than 600,000 customers each year.

Business Challenge

Most leaders in the franchise industry will agree that expansion and growth is a strategic imperati ve. But they will also agree that expanding while maintaining brand consistency and communicati ng eff ecti vely with franchise locati ons is enormously diffi cult.

ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL understands this challenge bett er than most, operati ng in a highly competi ti ve market space in multi ple geographies.

Recently, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL launched an aggressive growth plan designed to facilitate the roll-out of additi onal bars in a number of citi es around the world. The company is eyeing strategic locati ons in markets such as France, Spain, Germany and the United States to complement the current six locati ons in the world.

The ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL brand is built on a ti ghtly controlled brand-story and each year, the bar is rebuilt from the ground up from new ice that has shipped in from Sweden.

In fact, every year over 40 tons of ice is shipped to each locati on from Northern Sweden. Shortly aft er, ice sculpture experts travel to each locati on to sculpt the bar and ice art aligned with the brand’s global seasonal theme. More than just an ordinary bar, operati ng an ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL

BusinessEvent and experience based bar concept

Acti ve markets6

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Customer Case

requires that staff aquire specifi c knowledge in handling a bar fully made of ice. For example, unlike other bars that can call on handy men to perform basic repairs, the local staff will need to know how to repair ice that is broken or exposed to heat.

Also, the staff members at each locati on are tasked with “story-telling”, i.e.sharing the mythical brand story of ICEHOTEL andICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL with every customer. This places great emphasis on brand training and support.

The fi rst years of expansion were handled by a limited task force and boot-strapped business structure where day-to-day communicati on with franchisees took place over the phone and e-mail.

As ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL grew and signed new franchise agreements, it became clear that communicati ng with multi ple locati ons through phone and e-mail was both ti me consuming and ineff ecti ve.

It was also challenging to keep locati ons aligned with the brand concept and maintain consistency. For instance, the “storytelling”, i.e. telling the ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL story to customers, a core component of the overall brand experience, began to diff er from locati on to locati on.

Without a good communicati on platf orm, the message had started to dilute and locati ons were becoming increasingly disparate.

ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL became acutely aware of the need for a bett er way to manage day-to-day communicati ons, provide franchise manuals, ensure brand compliance, and roll out promoti ons simultaneously at multi ple locati ons in a ti mely manner.

According to Dan Hollström, Development Director at ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL, “Having operated as a small but fast growing business for a number of years, we had always relied on our entrepreneurial spirit and hands-on approach to get things done. However, as we grew, we were not equipped to eff ecti vely communicate with our franchisees on a day-to-day basis, or conveying our brand story in a consistent, disciplined manner. The ti me was right to build on the success of our legacy, but restoring our core message and doing so in a more structured manner.”

The move to consider a new route for communicati on with franchisees also provided ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL with the opportunity to revamp the way franchise manuals were handled. The content for its franchise manuals had traditi onally been managed manually in printed form. Every ti me there was a change to the manual, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL would send out a printed sheet to each franchise locati on – a ti me consuming process that limited the team’s ability to work eff ecti vely, and focus on creati ng a dynamic franchise concept.

By bringing all day-to-day communicati ons and franchise manuals into one digital platf orm, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL would be bett er equipped to manage the franchise concept in real ti me. Equally important, a digital franchise manual would provide a foundati on on which ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL could build future expansion plans for new franchisees with limited ramp up ti me.

Says Dan Hollström: “Our existi ng franchise manuals were printed on paper and inserted into binders that were handed out to each franchise. To keep them updated, sending out new sheets of updates, and keeping track of who had received what, was extremely cumbersome and ti me consuming. Oft en ti mes, the franchise manual ended up sitti ng in the back of a cabinet, soon to be forgott en and unread.”

In 2012, as part of its increased focus on brand consistency, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL launched a brand

“The ti me was right to build on the suc-cess of our legacy, but restoring our core message and doing so in a more structured manner.”Dan Hollström, Development Director

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Customer Case

identi ty strategy and new Marketi ng Communicati ons guidelines. With an increased focus on centralized marketi ng, the need for a communicati on platf orm where informati on could be stored, shared and maintained was larger than ever before.

For help in realizing an Intranet-based communicati on platf orm and revitalizing its franchise manuals, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL wanted to team with a partner that would bring not only experti se in technical environments and system integrati on, but also bringing a deep understanding of the franchise world.

Chainformati on was the logical choice. Over the past twelve years, Chainformati on had built and perfected a one-stop system that delivered know-how, enabled dialogue and speed of communicati on between head offi ce and franchise locati ons – built specifi cally for the industry and its requirements

In partnering with Chainformati on, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL would leverage a soluti on built specifi cally for their industry and based on proven technologies and processes that would help maximize the output of its locati ons - on ti me and on budget.

How Chainformati on helped

By implementi ng CCM in all of its locati ons, the enti re ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL network now had access to a high powered Intranet that would functi on as the delivery vehicle for know-how, business data and content.

But so much more than an Intranet, CCM partnered with ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL to provide a platf orm that enabled faster, role-based communicati on fl ow, encouraged collaborati on, and simplifi ed the use of its franchise manual – all while helping pave the way for ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL’s expansion plan with new locati ons.

While CCM is ready to be used out of the box and can be up and running in 2-4 weeks, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL had several additi onal customizati on requests to fi t with its business model. Over the course of four months, Chainformati on focused on customizing a scalable, responsive, best-of-breed architecture that would enable ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL to not only establish a full-fl edged communicati on platf orm, but also manage content more effi ciently and eff ecti vely, and perform Sales Reporti ng through a robust and dynamic environment.

Importantly, Chainformati on was committ ed to designing, testi ng and implementi ng CCM with minimal disrupti ons to ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL’s existi ng daily business.

Chainformati on deployed a team of professionals who were involved in all aspects of project delivery, beginning with analysing ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL’s key processes, and business drivers. Through a series of requirements-gathering workshops and functi onal design sessions, Chainformati on were able to frame a customer unique soluti on that supported ICEBAR by ICEHOTEL in each of its focus areas, including guest management, brand management and staff educati on.

Once the functi onal design was in place, the team worked quickly to complete the CCM-platf orm customized for ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL, including technical design, development and testi ng and system integrati on.

The primary soluti on components included:• Roll-out of CCM as the ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL’s single point of entry and communicati on platf orm: A customized soluti on that meets all system-, knowledge delivery- and communicati on-needs for the

“Oft en ti mes, the franchise manual ended up sitti ng in the back of a cabi-net, soon to be for-gott en and unread.”Dan Hollström,Development Director

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Customer Case

ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL network. This ensures ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL network is always informed, while maximizing brand compliance, work process compliance and promoti onal awareness• A user-interface that enabled head offi ce to reach out with role based informati on • Real-ti me access for employees of day-to-day business support such as Digital franchise manuals, Brand Guidelines, and Identi ty Standards.• A media asset manager that stores all brand-compliant visual elements such as images, logos and templates. The media asset manager also enables the design of local promoti ons.• Smart functi onaliti es to reduce diff erent administrati ve tasks and off er a disti nct experience. Such functi onaliti es include a global sales reporti ng module and vastly improved Franchise Manuals.

High Performance Delivered

As ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL matures as a franchise and expands into new geographies, its head offi ce will increasingly depend on a digital communicati on platf orm that can enable• Fast communicati on and delivery of know-how to franchise locati ons• Digital Franchise Manuals and Marketi ng Guidelines that can easily be updated, distributed and read• Sharing of global promoti ons and marketi ng programs• Full Integrati on with existi ng ERP systems

With Chainformati on’s help, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL has signifi cantly enhanced how it handles communicati on in day-to-day operati ons of a franchise network.

Every ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL locati on now has one single point of entry from which it can access the franchise manuals, a media asset management module, sales reporti ng module, while also receiving important updates and news from the ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL universe.

Because CCM is role-based, highly localized content can be made available to one specifi c locati on, for instance hiring procedures. Rather than wading through enormous amounts of content, the employees will see exactly what is relevant for them, freeing up ti me and keeping the focused.

As Franchise manuals are updated in real-ti me, CCM enables ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL to see if one locati on or staff member has missed to take part of an important training document. The system even keeps track if anything has been printed out.

“With CCM by Chainformati on, we now have a truly cross-collaborati ve environment for the ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL network. Rather than over-informing our franchise locati ons with bombardments of e-mails and phone calls, we can customize the communicati on fl ow and share relevant content on a need-to-know basis in seconds,” explains Dan Hollström.

According to Anders Hall, Sales and Marketi ng Manager at Chainformati on, “Chainformati on helped to combine franchise knowledge and their experience in franchise customized systems to create a solid technical foundati on and market-leading experience for the ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL network”.

CHAINFORMATIONWe help equip your franchise network with

ti mely, relevant and criti cal know-how.

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