In the restaurant industry there is a wealth of new technologies to help simplify, standardize, and modernize business processes. These innovative products help increase productivity, simplify information technology (IT) management, and expand and adapt systems as businesses changes and grow. Investing in these systems empowers people with the the tools and actionable data they need to make better business decisions and provide the kind of service that increases customer loyalty. But historically, the restaurant industry has been slow to adopt these new technologies.
For most food service operators, the lack of an integrated IT platform slows adoptions. As a result, systems do not talk to each other, and people cannot get a single, real-time view of information. In the 2006 Restaurant Technology 25 Study conducted by "Hospitality Technology" magazine, all large restaurant organizations surveyed indicated that they preferred to be a leader from a business perspective, yet none wanted to be a leader from an IT perspective. Organizations, the study said, view IT investments as separate from business practices, rather than a way to improve them.
In fact, an integrated infrastructure can fuel business processes and enable people to make better decisions. This article discusses infrastructure issues at food service organizations. Next, we'll show how solutions from Microsoft partners can help you optimize your infrastructure and implement new technologies that help drive business success.
Key to strategic vision
Despite the lack of emphasis placed on IT innovation today, the restaurants surveyed indicated a strong movement toward integration. By 2008, 55 percent of all firms expect to be fully integrated, and 38.7 expect to be partially integrated. According to research firm IDC, "Master Data Management: Worldwide Software and Services Forecast, 2005-2009," the market for master data management (a single view of products, customers, accounts, or locations) will reach $10.4 billion by 2009, a compound annual growth rate of 13.8 percent from 2005.
By moving from a "Basic" infrastructure, where they're continually putting out fires, to a "Rationalized" infrastructure, that is, one that's connected with a focus on security, IT becomes far more strategic to your business. Tom Litchford, retail industry solutions director for Microsoft, observes that "When organizations move from a Basic to a Rationalized infrastructure, they move from IT being more or less a cost center to IT becoming more critical to their strategic vision." Implementing a Rationalized infrastructure enables organizations to utilize the infrastructure as a business partner that helps to generate revenue." Through optimization, your infrastructure becomes key to driving business processes.
Manage from headquarters
IT departments have to manage many different computers across multiple locations. For large corporations, they might have to monitor thousands of computers across hundreds of restaurants. Given the difficulties of administering so many computers, there is a rising need to centralize the management of compliance and security updates, patches, and software deployment from headquarters to the individual restaurant sites. A Basic infrastructure cannot scale to meet the increasing demands.
While optimizing your infrastructure might appear to be a substantial investment, an integrated infrastructure can lower the cost of ownership in the long run. Recently, the Friendly Ice Cream Corporation migrated its file and print servers to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Active Directory and implemented Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server software. "Administratively, we're saving about two-to-three hours per week. That's time better spent focusing on new opportunities rather than on fixing problems," notes Stephen Manning, senior systems support programmer at Friendly's.
"Infrastructure optimization can help restaurants work smarter, innovate solutions, and provide a better guest experience. Having a solid back-end system allows for better reporting, connects franchises, and reduces IT spend," says Litchford.
Implement new technologies
IT administrators need to proactively monitor the health of workstations and equipment, raising alerts or shutting down systems when a problem first occurs to prevent that problem from escalating. Without an integrated system, the performance and health of equipment—such as point-of-sale (POS) and mobile devices, kitchen equipment, and workstations—is difficult to track. By implementing new technologies, and monitoring systems, you can help prevent shrinkage and loss and reduce costs.
Smart equipment provides managers with real-time visibility into what's going on in each store, and it can interact with the system. The equipment sends out information that can be captured by IT administrators monitoring the business solution. For example, if a temperature drops in the refrigerator or increases in the oven, an alert is sent to the main system, which in turn regulates the equipment, turns it off, or alerts someone to take care of it. Such monitoring and interacting saves the expense of having kitchen staff monitor oven and refrigerator temperatures and carry those numbers manually to the back office, where someone enters it into the system. You can also monitor sales stations in real time. At headquarters, if you notice one of the sales stations is ringing up more promos than another, you can investigate and take action.
"Implementing a Rationalized infrastructure can help eliminate the difficulty of managing distant locations," Litchford says. "With the disparate systems inherent in a Basic infrastructure, it's very apparent that devices and stores are far away. With the integration of a Rationalized infrastructure, the device seems very close—so distance is not an issue."
Track performance
Lack of integration between headquarters and restaurant sites makes it difficult to understand operations. By taking advantage of the highly productive infrastructure of Windows Server System IT administrators can implement evolving technologies, such as key performance indicators (KPI functionality) to track mobile devices and laptops, smart equipment, sales, and the performance of your employees. And you can monitor all of these technologies in real-time from a central location. Without an optimized infrastructure, you cannot take advantage of these capabilities. "Rationalized systems," explains Litchford, "enable KPI management capabilities, which help to streamline processes and increase the financial health of the business."
KPI functionality can help managers monitor workflow, including drive-through service time (sending out alerts if the service time increases) and sales per associate. KPI functionality also helps track the performance on the individual and restaurant level. You can track inventory turnover, high-profit products, meal preparation time, supplier costs and performance, shrinkage and loss, and labor as a percentage of revenue. Implementing KPI functionality provides your people with the information they need to help increase customer satisfaction and ensure the business is operating as profitably as possible.
Connection, connection, connection
By optimizing your infrastructure to connect the servers with the kitchen, the financial systems with operations, and the restaurants with headquarters, you can take advantage of the newest technologies to reduce operations and cut costs, create innovative products and services, and tie your operations more closely with your vendors and suppliers—all of which can help you provide the service and innovation that keep your customers coming back.
At Microsoft, we can optimize your infrastructure to help you achieve the implementation of new technologies that can help you drive business process optimization and throughput, offering integrated systems that can deliver value to the business segments they support.
