This case study discusses how ICEBAR by ICEHOTEL implemented franchise software and a franchise intranet to take control of the franchise and reduce admin work by 80%.

1. www.chainformation.com
Customer Case
Chainformation helps
ICEBAR by ICEHOTEL to set the
course for expansion
As a fast growing franchise acting in several geographies, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL was
spending way too much time 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 first ice hotel. Located in the village of Jukkasjärvi,
Sweden about 17 km from Kiruna, and existing each year between December and April, the ICEHOTEL
is entirely made out of snow and ice blocks taken from the Torne River.
The first ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL opened in partnership with ABSOLUT VODKA in the original Icehotel in
1994. The entire bar is made of ice. Bar guests are served vodka in glasses made of ice often described
as a drink “in the rocks”.
Operating as a franchise concept since 2002, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL can now be found at ICEHOTEL in
Jukkasjarvi and in five major cities: 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 imperative.
But they will also agree that expanding while maintaining brand consistency and communicating
effectively with franchise locations is enormously difficult.
ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL understands this challenge better than
most, operating in a highly competitive market space in multiple
geographies.
Recently, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL launched an aggressive growth
plan designed to facilitate the roll-out of additional bars in
a number of cities around the world. The company is eyeing
strategic locations in markets such as France, Spain, Germany
and the United States to complement the current six locations
in the world.
The ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL brand is built on a tightly 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 location
from Northern Sweden. Shortly after, ice sculpture experts
travel to each location to sculpt the bar and ice art aligned with
the brand’s global seasonal theme.
Morethanjustanordinarybar,operatinganICEBARBYICEHOTEL
Business
Event and experience
based bar concept
Active markets
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Customer Case
requires that staff aquire specific 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 location 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 first years of expansion were handled by a limited task force and boot-strapped business structure
where day-to-day communication with franchisees took place over the phone and e-mail.
AsICEBARBYICEHOTELgrewandsignednewfranchiseagreements,itbecameclearthatcommunicating
with multiple locations through phone and e-mail was both time consuming and ineffective.
It was also challenging to keep locations 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 differ from location to location.
Without a good communication platform, the message had started to dilute and locations were
becoming increasingly disparate.
ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL became acutely aware of the need for a better way to manage day-to-day
communications, provide franchise manuals, ensure brand compliance, and roll out promotions
simultaneously at multiple locations in a timely 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
effectively communicate with our franchisees on a day-to-day basis, or conveying our brand story in a
consistent, disciplined manner. The time 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 communication 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 traditionally
been managed manually in printed form. Every time there was
a change to the manual, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL would send out
a printed sheet to each franchise location – a time consuming
process that limited the team’s ability to work effectively, and
focus on creating a dynamic franchise concept.
By bringing all day-to-day communications and franchise
manuals into one digital platform, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL would
be better equipped to manage the franchise concept in real
time. Equally important, a digital franchise manual would
provide a foundation on which ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL could build
future expansion plans for new franchisees with limited ramp
up time.
Says Dan Hollström: “Our existing 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 time consuming. Often times, the franchise manual ended up sitting in
the back of a cabinet, soon to be forgotten and unread.”
In 2012, as part of its increased focus on brand consistency, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL launched a brand
“The time 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
identity strategy and new Marketing Communications guidelines. With an increased focus on
centralized marketing, the need for a communication platform where information could be stored,
shared and maintained was larger than ever before.
For help in realizing an Intranet-based communication platform and revitalizing its franchise manuals,
ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL wanted to team with a partner that would bring not only expertise in technical
environments and system integration, but also bringing a deep understanding of the franchise world.
Chainformation was the logical choice. Over the past twelve years, Chainformation had built and
perfected a one-stop system that delivered know-how, enabled dialogue and speed of communication
between head office and franchise locations – built specifically for the industry and its requirements
In partnering with Chainformation, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL would leverage a solution built specifically
for their industry and based on proven technologies and processes that would help maximize the
output of its locations - on time and on budget.
How Chainformation helped
By implementing CCM in all of its locations, the entire ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL network now had access
to a high powered Intranet that would function 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 platform
that enabled faster, role-based communication flow, encouraged collaboration, and simplified the
use of its franchise manual – all while helping pave the way for ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL’s expansion plan
with new locations.
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
additional customization requests to fit with its business model.
Over the course of four months, Chainformation focused on
customizing a scalable, responsive, best-of-breed architecture
that would enable ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL to not only establish a
full-fledged communication platform, but also manage content
more efficiently and effectively, and perform Sales Reporting
through a robust and dynamic environment.
Importantly, Chainformation was committed to designing,
testing and implementing CCM with minimal disruptions to
ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL’s existing daily business.
Chainformation 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 functional design sessions, Chainformation were able
to frame a customer unique solution that supported ICEBAR
by ICEHOTEL in each of its focus areas, including guest
management, brand management and staff education.
Once the functional design was in place, the team worked quickly to complete the CCM-platform
customized for ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL, including technical design, development and testing and system
integration.
The primary solution components included:
• Roll-out of CCM as the ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL’s single point of entry and communication platform: A
customized solution that meets all system-, knowledge delivery- and communication-needs for the
“Often times, the
franchise manual
ended up sitting in
the back of a cabi-
net, soon to be for-
gotten and unread.”
Dan Hollström,
Development Director
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4. www.chainformation.com
Customer Case
ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL network. This ensures ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL network is always informed, while
maximizing brand compliance, work process compliance and promotional awareness
• A user-interface that enabled head office to reach out with role based information
• Real-time access for employees of day-to-day business support such as Digital franchise manuals,
Brand Guidelines, and Identity 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 promotions.
• Smart functionalities to reduce different administrative tasks and offer a distinct experience. Such
functionalities include a global sales reporting module and vastly improved Franchise Manuals.
High Performance Delivered
As ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL matures as a franchise and expands into new geographies, its head office will
increasingly depend on a digital communication platform that can enable
• Fast communication and delivery of know-how to franchise locations
• Digital Franchise Manuals and Marketing Guidelines that can easily be updated, distributed and
read
• Sharing of global promotions and marketing programs
• Full Integration with existing ERP systems
With Chainformation’s help, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL has significantly enhanced how it handles
communication in day-to-day operations of a franchise network.
Every ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL location now has one single point of entry from which it can access the
franchise manuals, a media asset management module, sales reporting 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 specific location, for instance hiring
procedures. Rather than wading through enormous amounts
of content, the employees will see exactly what is relevant for
them, freeing up time and keeping the focused.
As Franchise manuals are updated in real-time, CCM enables
ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL to see if one location 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 Chainformation, we now have a truly cross-
collaborative environment for the ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL
network. Rather than over-informing our franchise locations
with bombardments of e-mails and phone calls, we can
customize the communication flow and share relevant content
on a need-to-know basis in seconds,” explains Dan Hollström.
According to Anders Hall, Sales and Marketing Manager at
Chainformation, “Chainformation helped to combine franchise
knowledge and their experience in franchise customized
systems to create a solid technical foundation and market-
leading experience for the ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL network”.
CHAINFORMATION
We help equip your franchise network with
timely, relevant and critical know-how.
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