Key takeaways
- Six Flags wanted to streamline cash management operations throughout its parks and finance office to perform efficiently with a smaller team
- Bertrand worked alongside J.P. Morgan Payments to consolidate to a central control model by implementing innovative technologies
- Six Flags transformed its operations by implementing and optimizing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and migrating retail point-of-sale terminals to increase productivity and improve customer experiences
About
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (Six Flags), a prominent amusement park operator, significantly enhanced its attendee payment process under the leadership of Evan Bertrand. Bertrand spearheaded a transformation to streamline payment systems, resulting in more efficient and secure transactions for guests.
Bertrand’s goals as treasurer were to centralize Six Flags’ cash management while using new payment technology to improve efficiency and productivity, and to streamline the customer experience. “This is an industry that can really benefit from innovation,” says Bertrand. “At Six Flags, we see ourselves as leaders of innovation.”
The challenge
Prior to 2020, most of the finance functions at Six Flags took place directly in the parks. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the business began to consolidate certain operations to a central control model at its headquarters.1
The transformation began with lifting and shifting workloads to a new ERP. Still, Bertrand recognized that Six Flags could do more on the banking side to make things easier for the small team managing all of its 27 U.S. theme parks.1
Any solution the company implemented had to be up and running in the short low-season window between January and March. Bertrand and the treasury team collaborated with J.P. Morgan Payments to quickly streamline operations.
“When you're looking to do what we're doing—as far as centralization and reducing head count—you need a lot of that technical expertise and technical capacity that J.P. Morgan Payments has.”
Evan Bertrand
Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation
The solution
Bertrand explained that the treasury team’s first step was to integrate the ERP with J.P. Morgan Payments services to maximize visibility and better manage cash centrally. This solution helped Six Flags process payments more efficiently and improved connectivity to the ERP when sending reports. Now, Six Flags’ shared service center can do much of the work that used to be done in the parks, even with a smaller team.
Six Flags moved toward a cashless model several years ago and enhanced point-of-sale systems at its restaurants, retail stores, ticket windows and parking areas by migrating more than 4,000 terminals across the parks.1 Not only does this reduce on-the-ground maintenance, but it also takes some finance function out of parks, making it easier to control cash centrally.2
The results
Six Flags continues to work on eliminating checks and is working with J.P. Morgan Payments on solutions such as hosted payments and Prepaid Card to help optimize payments and further enhance its guest and employee experiences. This is a win-win for the park and employees: Six Flags improves efficiency by removing paper-heavy tasks, and employees get instant access to their earnings.
In addition to enhancing its use of technology to promote efficiency, Six Flags is experimenting with more cashless solutions, including payment wristbands at its waterparks and self-serve kiosks in its parks.2,3 Bertrand’s ongoing goal is to increase flexibility and adaptability with customer-centric solutions. “There’s a lot of things we’re working on,” says Bertrand. “The last thing we want to do is slow down.”
Learn more about J.P. Morgan Embedded Solutions—the third-party ERP system to optimize your company's cash management.
References
Bertrand, E. (2024, February 28). Interview with Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer at Six Flags. J.P. Morgan Payments
Connect&GO. (n.d.). Six Flags implements Connect&GO Virtual Wallet. Retrieved July 10, 2024
Disclaimer
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