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How does an Intelligent Machine Vision System Help Combat Quality Loss While Manufacturing?

Every aspect of manufacturing centers producing the best quality products. The production process comprises multiple steps and each step needs to be monitored carefully. Traditionally, manufacturers needed to assign quality inspections to multiple people hence, making it a labor-intensive task. However, manufacturers are now switching to technology for quality inspection. There are certain machine vision systems available like Trident’s Vision Intelligence System that offer automatic quality inspection during production while enabling manufacturers to discard defective pieces right away.  Switching to automation is the first step towards revolution; traditional quality inspection would come up with various drawbacks such as:   Some defects might slip from the human eye if production is massive.   Sometimes it gets tough to differentiate between slightly assorted color spectrums.   Separate locations need different employees to inspect quality, hence making it a labor-intensive task.   Traditional labor is prone to errors, subjectivity, and burnouts.   It is a bit harder to scale up manual quality inspections than automatic ones.   Conventional machines might not detect unanticipated errors.   In contrast to the traditional quality inspection, where the machine works according to the programming embedded within, an AI-based inspection is different. It follows a self-learning algorithm that can distinguish anomalies from defects. They can easily modify themselves to inspect productions with added complexities or changed floor plans. AI is basically a technology that can be as flexible as a human inspection followed by extra speed and reliability.   Analysis Data from Distinct Sources  Artificial Intelligence-based technology can be trained with multiple touchpoints so it could acknowledge deviations between defects and accepted variations. It can also capture new data points in order to gain high identification rates. You can eat in defect detection as-well-as parts positioning. It is capable of self-learning and classification of data for providing more accurate inspection results.  Automates Data Capturing and Reporting   AI-based machine vision systems can extract relevant information from massive datasets and minimal initial parameters for data processing. It can modify data to improve maintenance and inspection algorithmic rules. They can accumulate massive structure and unstructured data, then classify and tag it then. The metadata received provides essential insights into the manufacturing equipment enabling companies to for repair, maintenance, and replacement decisions. They can generate comprehensive defect reports and graphs on pixel-level nuances.  Why does Your Manufacturing Business Need This Technology?  Where human inspection is best for qualitative interpretation of complicated and distorted scenes, machine vision systems are best for quantitative measures of structured scenes. Credited to its speed, accuracy, and reliability, it can inspect thousands of parts in a minute. This system comes with various other benefits to your business such as:   Combats Labor Shortage   During the current times: where labor shortage is among the topmost crises, a machine vision system can help combat this issue. The machine is more reliable, accurate, quick, needs no human labor, and can deal perfectly with a labor shortage. The manufacturer can optimally utilize its workforce into different sections where human efforts can do a better job.   Cuts Cost  Assigning one vision system is more cost-effective than multiple people to the same work. Machines alone can detect defects in minutes more effectively. As soon as a defect is caught, an alert flash on the system screen monitored by the inspector. If human inspection is in place, the time consumed to report the relevant person can cost the manufacturer production quality.   Higher Accuracy  This AI-based system promises greater accuracy and reliability as it can detect defects more accurately. Having high-quality cameras in place can easily capture minute scratches on the automobile parts that human eyes might pass. It can even defect small insects or even dust particles while FMCG products are produced.   Boosted Quality   Having a system that can accurately detect even the minute defects, guarantees a lesser scope of defective pieces to pass through the conveyor belt. Programmed to follow a specific quality standard and variation acceptability, the system can even identify the variation in the spectrum of the product. If the cement color is much darker than grey, it can recognize the issue right away and notify the concerned person.   Flexibility and Scalability  AI-based systems are designed to be flexible enough to identify the variation even on different floor spaces. It can accumulate data from distinct datasets while turning it into a comprehensive report. These reports are necessary to make small and huge decisions on manufacturing. Businesses can scale with the right judgments.   Reduced Floor Space   One machine vision system against multiple labors reduces floor space and complies with social distancing. Having floor space freed causes less or no fuss around. Employees can be assigned different tasks while optimizing their potential. Employees can roam in the area more freely without bumping into one another.   Trident offers an AI-based Vision Intelligence System, that has a record of accomplishment of benefitting various manufacturing businesses. The manufacturer can implement this innovation for FMCG, automotive, glass, laminates, pharmaceuticals, and PPE detection. Being handled by a team of experts, the inspection process is continuous and can be modified as per the client’s requirements. Contact us for further information.  

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Your Retail System Might Ruin Your Holiday Season

Festive season all over the world brings excitement as it marks family gatherings, vacations, home-cooked food, and lots of shopping! Despite distinct geographies, customer preferences, and socioeconomic factors, India stands united in its cohesive obsession with binge shopping. First is Diwali sales, and then comes the Christmas offers. Customers shop like crazy during this time. Credits to Amazon Great Indian Festival sales, Myntra’s end of the reason sales, and Flipkart’s festive dhamaka days sales that give enough and even more reasons for shoppers to splurge.   For retailers, this period brings both excitement and anxiety together. On one side, this is a golden time to fetch the biggest catch, and on the other side, it puts their retail system, strategies, customer services, supply chain, technology platforms to a test. They must use a ERP Software for Retail to ease the situation.  This time becomes the most difficult for the retailers still working in silos. Since several retailers in India are not used to a mindset of investing in a unified platform to ease their burden but spend more on the on-premise infrastructure till it wears out, retailers have to go through tremendous pain during this time. Often it has been observed in shops without an integrated platform that fails to accurately forecast demands, they end up suffering losses they could have prevented.  Given below are some of the most common issues with soloed systems followed by their way-outs.   #1 Inability of Your Current Technology to Handle High Transactional Values  This is a nightmare-ish issue a company could face. However, retailers are not unfamiliar with it. Some research has shown that 96% of retailers have faced this disruption over ten times across the previous three years. Reasons may include network disruptions, third-party outrages, human errors, etc. However, the most common reason is disconnected legacy software systems. The patchwork of different technologies and functions added over time causes downtime of the system.   The Solution: As a solution, retailers should look forward to replacing their complex and hard-to-maintain siloed system with a unified software solution such as LS Retail. A unified system covers the entire business under a single platform leaving no space for communication-based disruptions caused by a lack of communication among different systems. To add up, a single provider is delivering this technology while ensuring complete support, quicker and simpler management.   #2 Inability to Figure Out the Exact Part of Your System that Goes Down  This issue can again arise due to aging and disconnected systems failing to communicate with one another. These systems are often so old they refuse to coordinate with any new system but with the now broken / unsupported hardware, such technologies are most likely to put a strain on your current system while hampering your day-to-day operations. On top of that, a system fails, it becomes extremely hard to identify which IT stack it was. How are you supposed to identify which part needs repairing?   Solution: Retailers do not have to invest in unreliable distinct system integration that hampers their smooth business functioning. Instead, it is time to spend on future technology that will not fail them. Sticking and repairing their old system and hoping for it to not fail them when they need it the most is irrelevant.   Retailers have spent years not investing in the modern technology but fixing the old one until it “works.” However, the good news for retailers is that the modern, unified commerce technology platforms are not as costly as they might guess, and they deliver a faster ROI. There are businesses like Gallo Clothing that use LS Retail and have not faced issues since.  #3 Inability to React Quickly to Customer Demands  One of the major causes of this issue might include the unavailability of stock. They are hugely damaging their bottom line. A study by IHL Group – global research and the advisory firm found that retailers miss out on about USD 1 trillion in sales only because of unavailable items. While almost one-third of shoppers turn to Amazon and other eCommerce platforms. Many retailers admitted that the reason behind these out-of-stock scenarios is their outdated technology and the reasons majorly contributing are:   Limited view on their inventory  Unreliable data  Shortage of data analysis tools and accurate forecasts.   Solution: Weekly or daily reports are not relevant in today’s scenario, especially during the festive season. You need a real-time view of your data so you can track your stock, sales, and customers throughout your retail chain.   You can get real-time data availability with a single software environment consisting of your financials, warehouse, admin, inventory, CRM (Customer Relationship Manager), POS (point of sale) system, and so on. You can track sales, productivity, and stock in real-time and bring those hour-consuming replenishments to a few minutes.   Keeping the above-mentioned points in mind we can conclude that working in silos is not the best idea. It might not handle the festive pressure well. System disruptions hamper business operations and might even cause losses. The situation gets even trickier when you cannot even figure out where the issue lies. Additionally, the system is most likely to bun inefficient for handling rapid customer transactions. The best possible way out is to get a unified software solution like LS Retail a Retail management software India. It offers a set of tools required to manage a retail business. Trident Information Systems is a Gold LS Retail Implementation Partner. Contact us for a demo. 

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5 Retail Strategies to Gratify Customers in 2022

After such a crazy year where new challenges sprung and never spared a single industry, we are finally on the verge of 2021. With a new year comes new challenges, and businesses need to adapt to stay prepared already. With a unified technology like LS Central Software Solution, retailers can get a smooth pass-through challenging time.   In today’s scenarios where you can expect anything uncertain happening suddenly, retailers may bump into various Obstacles in 2022, such as:   Keeping up with rising customers, where customers expect smoother and customized services.   Difficulty in finding the right technology for your business.   Losing loyal customers to the competition.   Keeping up with labor shortage and optimizing existing staff’s efficiency.   Difficult internal communication among different departments for e.g., difficulty in communicating the inventory requirement to the warehouse management.   Poor decision-making due to lack of demand forecasting which later leads to overstocking and understocking.   There is a motto in any business “Customer is the king” while keeping them on a pedestal. The customer must be satisfied with a service, or else they may jump to the other brand in a heartbeat. With customers being so moody and becoming high maintenance, retailers need similar technology to keep up with the same.   Keep Customers Satisfied in 2022   The year 2022 brings new challenges as well as new opportunities: a fresh chance to satisfy customers. We have compiled five strategies to keep your customers intact with contentment.   Contactless Payment   Omnichannel experience  Personalized promotions, deals, and offers.   Self-Checkouts  Staff Efficiency Optimization   Allow Contactless Payments  These days, hygiene has become an even bigger requirement. Contactless payment options not only deliver more convenience but also help comply with the social distancing norms. Contactless payment includes anything other than cash, be it debit, credit, UPI, etc. Allowing mobile payments and Wireless payment options adds to customer ease.   Deliver an Omnichannel Experience   Customers these days have become highly unpredictable and moody, demanding smoother ordering and payment options. They incline more towards the brands that can offer enough flexibility to place orders and make payments anytime, anywhere. Let the customer connect your business through various touchpoints like apps, websites, third-party applications, and so on. This way, you can reach more customers who have limited access to either of those platforms. Additionally, unifying all channels also cuts complexities and streamlines the entire journey for the retailer as well.   Offer Personalized Promotions, Deals, and Offers   Different customers feel differently about a product. You have to understand this algorithm and offer personalized promotions, deals, and offers. Seek a powerful AI-based technology for this i.e., a technology that keeps tabs on every customer transaction and understands their habits, spending patterns, likes, dislikes, and other relevant data to make customized deals and offers.   Everyone loves surprises: you can also offer a surprise basket consisting of your new launches or a basket full of a combination of products at an attractive price. This strategy is helpful in reaching your customer’s heart since you make them feel special and belonged, they connect emotionally to your brand, and may even refer your store to others.   Bust Long Queues and Allow Self-Checkouts   With technology advancing rapidly, customers’ patience is dropping at a significant rate. Making them stand in long queues can be a risky affair. Thus, retailers have no choice but to deal with it smartly. Allowing self-check-out options ensures speedy transactions and free floor space. This feature is especially important during the festive season, where retailers are packed with a massive crowd. Some customers would rather drop everything as it is at the store, and leave as soon as their patience runs out. It is a risky situation where the only person benefiting is your competitor.   Optimize your Staff Efficiency  Reinforcing your staff with the efficiency of optimizing equipment like a Cloud POS solution can help provide greater customer satisfaction. If a customer has a tough time finding a product, one of your staff members can quickly locate it via his mobile device. With a POS, your staff can communicate with different departments more efficiently while cutting the computing time. Inventory can be stocked at the store already before running out. Moreover, maximizing your staff efficiency can bridge the gap between labor shortage and your business.   A unified software solution like LS Retail Software Solutions can work like magic. Being backed with an AI-Based technology, you can track customer behavior, create personalized deals, and offers, forecast demand, and manage inventory better. A cloud-based POS enables a 360-degree inventory view. If you are looking for LS Retail implementation, contact Trident Information Systems, we are a LS Retail Gold Partner, backed up with more than 150 technical resources. 

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How does Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management Ensure Supply Chain Resiliency?

Various organizations have to go through supply chain issues that can easily be addressed by technical advancements. However, due to certain industrial limitations and challenges, some businesses are unable to adopt technical advancements entirely.   Some businesses might fail to get real-time end-to-end stock visibility in the supply chain. Whereas outdated technology can create a shortage of business continuity when there is a disruption or any other issue. There can be an inability to adapt to the rapidly changing dynamics without a suitable supply chain management system.   Any latest technology that enables data-driven decision-making should center the strategy designing while coping with these challenges. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is a modern and nimble, open platform that promotes businesses to do the exact thing.   Microsoft Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is a robust feature that comes with an incredible fulfillment optimization engine that seamlessly manages order complexities, while also ensuring end-to-end real-time visibility into each inventory and order stream.   A survey has found out that the companies that ship products directly to the customers such as retailers, manufacturers, and distributors, face certain challenges in this area and believe in the need for digital transformation in their supply chain. An Intelligent Order Management ensures Supply Chain Resiliency, given below are some points delivering the same.   Incredible Fulfillment Optimization  There is a combination of factors causing these issues to arise such as e-commerce, marketplaces, call centers, and physical stores. Apart from this, there are a lot of fulfilling options such as distribution centers, supplier dropshipping, and logistics providers. And ultimately any location possessing inventory that allows them to pull from there to complete customer orders.    The best part of this rule-oriented and event-driven infused technology is that it allows you to connect to any of these enterprise apps via straightforward API interfaces. As a result, the companies can seamlessly connect to their current order management system such as WMS and ERP hence allowing the client to experience a better flow while keeping up with their comfort.   Robust Connectors   One of the most interesting things about the Intelligent Order Management system is that it is a standalone SaaS solution without any other D365 application dependencies. It contains an open, interoperable and modular technical construction, so your business could benefit from an expansive ecosystem of order source management systems such as online mobile applications, online e-commerce, social platform as well as brick and mortar channels.   One of the most significant uses of this program is that it allows its users to configure order intakes visually from one of the most common sources by influencing already built connectors in a no-code application while making quick integration and implementation a real thing.   ShipStation Integration   This ShipStation is a cloud-based e-commerce shipping platform specially designed to generate shipping labels. Users can automatically create labels with discounts, import e-commerce orders, send out shipping notifications, and resend shipping details to the order source. With the integration of ShipStation and Order Management, users can combine all of their orders and order sources within the same platform.   When the user receives an order while selecting Shipstation for use, they can catch real-time delivery timeline and carrier service from the ShipStation with intelligent Order Management to provide users with visibility of shipment details.   Tax Compliance  Another great feature of Intelligent Order Management is its robust tax determination and compliance. This system enables you to connect to the third-party tax engines and automate tax calculation based on the product classifications, location’s regulations, files, and remit tax payments to jurisdictions. It can automatically omit tax from exempt sales while taking care of the exception documentation. You can pick from various pre-built partner connectors, Intelligent order Management allows your organization the medium to effortlessly scale tax order compliance globally for value-added tax, sales tax, lodging and occupancy tax, seller’s use tax and consumption tax, etc.   Bottom Line   Companies that ship direct-to-customer can heighten their supply chain resiliency with end-to-end visibility into their supply chain. In an order management solution, the digital transformation part comprises a fulfillment optimization engine. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management comes up with a robust Fulfillment system. Trident Information Systems is a Gold Microsoft Partner who has served multiple business ventures so far. Contact us for further information.  

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How to Cut Costs Using Unified Restaurant Management Software?

In an industry that is dynamic as well as low margin, it is important to track your food costs. Various restaurants suffer food wastage because of a lack of proper technology and proper cost-cutting techniques.   As the restaurants get struck by the massive competition, limited seating, and rising price of the ingredients, they need to optimize ingredient usage, buying, and cutting wastage.   An ideal Restaurant Management Software helps manage raw ingredients, spillage, menu prices, and food wastage while assisting the ways to minimize wastage. LS Retail is one such software that delivers a comprehensive set of tools and functionalities to help entrepreneurs run their business optimally while minimizing waste.   In the food and beverages industry, food costs are a major expense. An excellent restaurant management software like LS Retail helps you connect sales, inventory, and kitchen within the same platform while delivering everything you need in a unified manner.   Such a platform delivers complete transparency over your inventory and synchronizes inventory to recipe management. You will automatically receive notifications when you need to add a new inventory while subtracting the items already exhausted. Some software offers enough flexibility to adjust inventory on phones to remove some items that fall from the jar, spoiled meat, rotten vegetables, and so on.   Manage warehouse inventory like a piece of cake with automatic inventory tracking. Track where your inventory is headed. Check if the space is properly optimized so you can adjust more of it in there. Keep the environment favorable to increase the durability of your items. Apart from this, other ways help you cut food costs.   Manage Your Yield   An ideal yield management software enables you to know the actual yield of an ingredient; how much of the total ingredient is being used. For Instance, if you need 5 kg of meat to cook a dish, not the whole 5 kg is going to be used, the bones might get discarded in the process. Yield management computes the exact quantity of the stock that will be used and based on the same, it updates the inventory. It further eliminates the risk of over-ordering or under-ordering while reducing restaurant costs.   Keep Tabs on the Variations  Variance is another essential aspect that plays a massive role in cost-cutting. An ideal restaurant management system can make it easier for you. The variance is the difference between the actual ingredients consumers versus the ideal food costs. A variation of 3-5% is acceptable. However, any variation above that is a matter of concern. To cut food costs, regular variance monitoring is necessary. You can identify the source of high food costs while bringing down the overall restaurant costs.   Standardize Recipe and Cut Waste    Having a restaurant management system that standardizes your recipes can help you manage costs. How? The recipe management system records every ingredient and the right amount to prepare a dish. While preparing a meal, the chef already has the recipe available with the right amount of each ingredient. Hence, it reduces the chances of errors.   It is one of the most key features because several times your chef might mix up a few wrong ingredients, now the dish cannot be served, resulting in discarding the whole dish and adding to the restaurant costs.   Reduce Pressure While Cutting Labor Cost  Labor costs are one of the major costs in a restaurant. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor them. Of Course, hiring them is a time-consuming process. However, retaining them is not something restaurants have mastered so far. Managing labor is a costly and time-consuming affair. The enormous industrial pressure drives them to switch jobs. One of the easiest methods to retain your staff is to adopt robust restaurant management software that automates manual tasks and reduces pressure while letting your staff work with greater efficiency.   Hand-over Monotonous to Automation  Billing has always been a labor-intensive and monotonous task. However, now the time has changed since a restaurant management system can automate the billing process. Not just this, it also integrates the back office to the front under the same platform while streamlining complex tasks. You no longer must look for someone who is trained to manage these tasks.   Apart from billing, a KDS reduces your dependency on manual labor. It ensures that when a server receives an order, it is displayed on the right kitchen screen. Apart from this, when there are changes in the order, it also flashes on the screen right away. Therefore, ensuring low dependency on manual labor.   LS Retail is a unified Restaurant Management Software that delivers a comprehensive set of restaurant management tools under one umbrella. Trident Information Systems is a Gold LS Retail and Microsoft Partner and has served various business ventures of distinct levels. For further information, contact us.  

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How Does the Right POS Design Boost Your Restaurant’s Productivity?

Did you know you can even engineer your POS so it replicates your menu? This is the commencement of your restaurant’s advancements. Numerous restaurants are deprived of this facility.   If your restaurant management system allows you to modify your POS, there are high chances that efficiency will increase by at least 20%. Having tasks automated that were done manually earlier, boosts your staff efficiency, allowing them to serve your guests better.   A traditional POS is nothing more than a billing software that can accept payments online and offline separately. However, an advanced and integrated POS is more than that; it can record customer transactions, streamline order taking, integrate back office to the front, and much more. A restaurant can reap tremendous benefits by optimizing this system alone.   Engineer Your POS to Imitate Your Menu   A POS should enable you to organize and display each food item from your inventory the way it is on your menu. It should be able to handle the conventional ordering. For instance, if a customer wants extra ketchup with fries and extra cheese on the burger, your employee can instantly record it and transfer the details to the accurate food counter. Order recording becomes a very convenient task for the employees without having to ask the customer twice.   You can also set different menus according to a specific shift. For example, in the morning you can display breakfast options so that the customers arriving at your restaurant at that time only get to see the breakfast items first. This way, you can easily increase upselling while increasing the efficiency of your staff. Thus, your staff can serve the guests with more enthusiasm since the POS is now handling extras on their behalf.   Break Down Menu Items  A typical breakfast menu can add up to dozens of dishes such as boiled eggs, omelet and toast, baked beans, and so on. If you list every menu item separately on the POS, it will end up building an extensive list while making everything a lot more complicated than it already is. For example, if a customer and his friend order the same dish but the friend orders extra cheese, there will be transactions twice. This makes the entire process a lot longer, and there are always chances of filling the order. This sort of POS has serious drawbacks:   Slower ordering: your front office staff has to go through a thorough list of items while ensuring they tap on the correct ones. It is a lot more time-consuming and fuels the risk of errors.   Difficult reconciliation: when you have to record multiple dishes separately, their reconciliation becomes tedious. It may even end up taking hours just to get this job done.   Complicated menu: you cannot optimize the menu if you do not know the best dish and the right mix-match distinct items to create an alluring menu.   With LS Retail, you can set a few dishes in your menu and optimize the modifiers to add or remove ingredients. In addition, you can catch more accurate food costs, streamline inventory management while aligning replenishment to the actual use.   Use Colors to Differentiate Different Items  As soon as you successfully set your POS replicating your menu, this is where the fun part begins. Play with assorted colors to differentiate dishes. For instance, you can set starters as blue, the main course as purple, and desserts as pink. Pick colors for different food sections like green for salad, yellow for chicken, white for fish, and so on. With this sort of color setting, your staff can easily differentiate between dishes and make the order-taking process quicker.   Allow Self Service and Contactless Ordering  You can increase both staff efficiency and customer satisfaction simultaneously, as self-service is becoming increasingly popular among guests especially in quick and fast restaurants. Customers love the convenience of the technology. Many restaurants have noticed a hike of 15%-20% of checkouts after allowing self-service and self-ordering facilities.   According to some research, customers order more add-ons and are willing to pay more when they have the facility to add whatever they want on their own, instead of asking someone to do it for them. Self-service devices also speed up the table and ordering turnover as the guests are free to order whenever they are ready.   LS Retail is one of the unified software service providers that delivers a set of tools and features required to run a restaurant business. Integrated POS is one of its services. Trident Information Systems is a Gold Microsoft Partner. Since 1999, they have served various business ventures and failed none. Contact us for further information.  

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Why Does Your Restaurant Business Need Intelligent Analytics?

Have you ever imagined the number of opportunities you are probably losing to your resistance to change? The past few months have proven that no business can stand longer in the competition while sticking to the old conventional ways. Especially during this time where changes, speed and agility became a survival need.   It did not take too long for restaurants to figure out the need to adopt new models of quick and efficient food delivery. The need for staffing changes, last-minute customizations, ingredient substitution, etc. needs quick processing. Traditional technology cannot support this agility. Therefore, restaurants need to start investing in the right technology that guarantees a greater level of agility.   According to the studies by IDC, companies who focus on building business intelligence improve their productivity, drive cost efficiency, and have 8 times the revenue and twice the profitability as non-digitally transformed enterprises.   How Analytics Benefits Your Restaurant Business   With the new Artificial Intelligence technology, businesses no longer rely on their data scientists to dig out insights and wade through data. There is cloud-based business-powered analytics available to most restaurants while providing tangible benefits.  Effective AI-powered analytics can provide tremendous benefits to a business such as:   Finds the meaningful patterns: Such analytics extracts even the trickiest data that a business person might not catch at first. For instance, you might note that your restaurant gets more customers as it rains. Or that your downtown location sells more wine glasses and fewer beers when you serve steak as the main.   Drives effective Ingredient Ordering: It tracks your historical consumption patterns and helps you forecast the probability of next week’s sales. The system also displays a report containing the necessary details you need to make in the next orders.   Minimizes waste: With the right information at hand, you can figure out why there is an extra can of sauce left, or how much content your freezer already has. Having accurate data on your current inventory helps you adjust just the right amount and while minimizing waste.   Optimize stock usage and distribution: You can also identify if the content in your freezer will be okay if shifted to a different location. You can relocate inventories accordingly and find the most appropriate alternatives that ensure maximum utilization of the spaces you have.   Creates a more logical menu: Intelligent Analytics can provide insights to design a perfect menu that compliments your guest’s taste while giving you more in return. Identify the dish that doesn’t return enough profit. Check if you can work with other dishes that can offer a better return. Check if your most popular dishes are even providing the revenue you expect.   Simplified Staffing: check if your restaurant is overstaffed or understaffed, how many workers are useful, and how many of them won’t make a difference if removed. Check if you have too many or too few staff working in a location at a specific time. Identify how you can make better use of their time and resources.   3 Tips for a Restaurant CIO  We have accumulated a few tips for CIOs to optimize intelligent business analytics for the maximum benefit of their restaurants.   Find the Subtle Drivers of Benefits  Optimize analytics to find the smaller driver of benefits. As it is important to concentrate on the KPIs like the number of laborers and the number of hours you are spending on your guests, you need to find the smaller sections that play a massive role in providing a good return. Figure out the factors that are driving your customers into your business. Identify why small changes are happening among your customers, the factors driving them, and how you can shift them.   Use Analytics to Predict   Many restaurants use historical analysis to understand what has happened. However, the real power of such analysis is to prepare you for the future, where the business is going, and how it can do better. It is essential to involve external data to determine external behavior. For instance, if you notice that the miles your customers travel have dropped, what could be the reasons behind it, and how you can mitigate against it.   Adjust Your Matrix   Take your previous table turns, for instance, how fast you can turn the tables only matters if you have enough guests to fill those tables. As the matrix changes, businesses must focus on serving more to the customers who already exist. Always pay attention to what is happening to your business before choosing the matrix you want to focus on.   To take full advantage of intelligent analytics, the first step is to discard the old disjointed applications and upgrade to a unified software solution like LS Retail. Trident Information Systems is one of the Gold Partners of LS Retail and Microsoft. Backed up with more than 150 technical resources, we have served several businesses. Contact us for further information. 

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Revolutionize Your Restaurant Experience with Technology

Everything in the kitchen has revolutionized in the past two decades; from smart appliances to the boom of the curbside kitchen, everything is influenced by technology. The hike in technology has also helped to cope with the moody customers. A comprehensively designed technology like LS Retail, it is a unified solution that offers a set of essentials every restaurant owner needs to streamline their operations.   The hospitality industry is one of the toughest industries to survive because it directly deals with customers. People from diverse backgrounds, mindsets, and preferences might demand different services. Keeping each of them happy sounds like a tough affair, doesn’t it?   Before the arrival of technology, every restaurant was in a compact shape, worked back office in silos, and allowed enough flaws in to slow down overall operations. The POS was just billing software capable of collecting bills offline and online separately.   The decision-making process was rather slower than it is today due to the lack of real-time and accurate data. As soon as technology signed in, restaurants started evolving in many ways:   Restaurant Expansion Beyond the Four Walls   Many customers these days prefer the comfort of their homes over any dining experience. Especially after covid-19, the demand for taking away has taken a hike. Allow your customers to order food from wherever they want and however they want. Integrate different channels and ensure enough flexibility with food ordering and payments. According to the National Restaurant Association, three out of five buyers in the US alone, order delivery or takeout. Apart from this, two out of five consumers claim that they would rather buy meal kits if their preferred restaurants offered them.   The time has passed when the customers had no other choice but to walk to their favorite restaurants just to have their favorite meals. However, the same is not the case with today’s guests. They demand their favorite delicacies the way they want, be it at their homes or in a restaurant. With the right technology, any restaurant can expand itself beyond the four walls, collect customer data from all interactions enabling both loyalty and personalization of their customer’s preferred touchpoints.   Unfold the New Eat-in Experience   In-store designs and layouts that present restaurant spaces popularized on social media, plates that look like a sheer piece of art, and an impressive essence of a brand. In the past few years, restaurants have focused on delivering an unforgettable experience to their guests.   Privacy and intimacy coupled with an excellent dine-in experience boost satisfaction to the next level. For example, in the Netherlands, a restaurant has set up a temporary greenhouse structure for two, so that couples could enjoy a luxurious time with privacy and intimacy. These innovations are not uncommon today.   For fast and quick casual establishments, self-serve kiosks or self-ordering devices can level up guests’ convenience. Self-ordering devices on the table can provide a hassle-free and contactless way of ordering, while also allowing guests to make it as quick or slow as they want.   Overall, the key to reading your customers is to understand what draws them in. To collect such data, restaurants need suitable technology that unifies all your key data (loyalty, sales, interactions) into a unified view. With this unified data you can see both the individual preferences and the big picture.   Empower Your Employees   In the restaurant industry, the employee turnover rate is notoriously high. According to some research, it can reach up to 75%. Many factors are causing it: such as a stressful environment, working in silos while having more customers in, fewer growth opportunities, etc. Technology can help tremendously to cope with situations like these. For example, by empowering your employees with a mobile POS (Point of Sale) device, the servers can help their customers more conveniently and make the work environment enticing overall. For instance, they can provide readily available information on whether the catch of the day is still available, or a particular chicken dish is gluten-free.   When you have all the information a click away, customer service becomes smoother and less stressful. Apart from this, when tech-savvy workers start joining the industry and arm themselves with the technology, it can take you ahead of the competition in one jump.   Optimize Artificial Intelligence  You can optimize Artificial Intelligence to improve efficiency and prevent waste. For instance, if there are new tariffs or droughts, and there is a specific ingredient that is hard to find, you can use AI and find more affordable ingredients or substitutes of the same. It displays all the options available to you and picks the best option.   No matter what your goal is, AI takes the responsibility to simplify the decision-making process by providing a full-fledged report containing every essential detail on the topic of your choice. However, to run through BI and analytics services, restaurants need to install a software solution that integrates data from different platforms and turns it into a unified actionable report.   Trident Information Systems offers a set of every tool you need to run your business and stay ahead of the competition. We are the Gold Microsoft and LS Retail Partners and have served multiple businesses so far. Armed with 150+ technical resources, we provide services in India and Beyond. For further information, contact us.  

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5 Restaurant Technology You Need to Know.

The time is evolving, and so are the expectations of customers with the restaurants. Times are gone when customers are liable to commute to the restaurant in order to get their favorite meals. They want to eat wherever and however they want. In addition, with technological advancements, they expect faster services and complete attention from the staff at the same time.   Research has shown during the pandemic that the food home delivery ratio increased to a certain level, and this was the factor through which restaurants could manage to survive. Usage of third-party food delivery applications like Swiggy, Zomato, and so on grew significantly. Technology played a vital role in restaurant survival.   Now, the customer can enjoy food wherever and however they want. They can now make changes to their order without having to ask a staff member. For instance, they can tell them to add more cheese to the pizza or ask for extra ketchup right there and then without a server. In some reports, we discovered that people would pay more to add Ons when they have a self-service facility available.   As technology has evolved so much, there is still room for growth. To meet customer preferences and not to mention to evolve, restaurants need to invest more in further technological advancements. This way, they can focus more on what they love: creating delicious meals and delicacies and unforgettable experiences. We have compiled a list of restaurant technologies that restaurants must be aware of.   Online POS  An Online POS system or a Cloud-based POS system is more than billing software. It is more advanced and delivers more features than the traditional one. Older POS were merely used to collect bills online and offline separately. However, the scenarios have changed, and modern POS can collect bills, take orders, track inventory, and integrate the front office with the back. Everything is saved on the cloud so there is no risk of data loss. Even if there is no internet, the transactions are recorded offline and saved on the cloud as soon as they are connected to the net.   Apart from this, a cloud-based POS records customer transactions from different channels which can later be utilized to create deals and plans for the customers. According to some reports, about 61% of businesses want their next POS to be cloud-based. Some of the reasons include its cost-effectiveness and scalability. Online POS can be availed of a monthly subscription. Therefore, ditching the need to invest in high upfront costs. It does not even need hardware and is quick to deploy.   Artificial Intelligence (AI)  Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human processes by machines, specifically computer systems. This technology can process even the natural language, collect data, and make sense from a vast amount of data. In the case of restaurants, there are many applications powered by AI such as:   Chatbots: chatbots are designed to understand speech patterns and have relevant conversations through which customers can book a table or order food online. Platforms like- official websites and social media platforms can be used.   Predictive Ordering: this feature analyses your restaurant’s previous orders and revenue and forecasts future needs while helping you avoid over-stocking or under-stocking.   Staff Scheduling: scheduling and staffing solutions help you schedule staff optimally.   AI is the heart of businesses which helps them grow and evolve exponentially. Therefore, allowing restaurants to elevate their service standards.   Kitchen Display System (KDI)   A Kitchen Display System (KDI) is designed to replace your traditional paper ticket and kitchen printers. The job is not done here, there are a lot more things it offers. As soon as a customer place an order, it flashes straight on the accurate kitchen counter. If guests want to make changes or wish to have add Ons they may address them straight away while notifying the chef.   There is a function called recipe viewer, which enables chefs to follow a specific recipe and avoid wastage. A recipe viewer will also cut costs on training and call attention to nutrition and allergy information.   Business Intelligence (BI)  Business Intelligence optimized AI to compile, integrate and analyze business data, turning it into a single vision truth while driving more logical decisions. Business Intelligence and analytics solutions have been used to increase business efficiency, and their effectiveness is not new to restaurants.   With this technology, restaurants can place suitable lunch meals in the relevant areas or provide reports on the breakfast items making the most profit each week. Restaurant owners can also identify if the crowd in a location would like to see stand-up comedy during dinner. Having these kinds of data at hand helps make more logical decisions and    Contactless Payments and Self Ordering Devices  Restaurants need forms of payments that require little or no contact with shared surfaces. For instance, mobile wallets, biometric authentication payments, credit cards, debit cards. Contactless payments are much safer, especially in this era where social distancing has become one of the necessities.   Similarly, self-ordering devices vitally helped cope with the pandemic. They enable customers to make their orders without a server in the restaurant kitchen. Customers can either use self-serving kiosks, tablets on the table side, or even their mobile phones.   Internet of Things (IoT)  Internet of things refers to all the items and devices that are designed to connect to the internet and each other to transmit data. For instance, connected kitchen appliances like ovens, freezers, and deep fryers upload their status automatically to the cloud ensuring seamless operational flow and regulatory compliance.   With IoT, managers do not have to go through each device and check their condition. Instead, they can simply go through the reports and see the presence of an issue and think of a resolution.    As time flies, the restaurant industry is rapidly changing. It needs to adopt technological advancements to fulfill customer demands and embrace better efficiency. LS Retail provides a suite of tools that ensure customer satisfaction as well as better business efficiency. Trident Information Systems is a Gold LS Retail Partner who has served multiple business ventures. Backed with a team of 150+ experts and two decades of experience, we deliver excellent software services. Contact us for further information.  

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Drive Customers Back to Your Business in a Post-COVID Era

There has been a massive shift in the way customers approach brands. They have now become even more quality and cost-conscious. Businesses have also modified the way they operate; they have now understood their customer’s sentiments better while the world is fighting a battle against this never-ending virus.   In order to gain your customer’s trust, you have to be true to your brand and serve its purpose. Now how can you do it better? By understanding your customers, their needs, and sentiments. Keep your customers first. Ask for feedback, use appropriate technology to track their spending patterns and habits. What changed, and how can you keep up with it? It is all you need to understand. Given below are a few things that COVID-19 changed;   Brand Switching: As several brands dwindled and shuttered, consumers were forced to try new brands. With the limited opportunity to purchase products in person, they had to rely more on online mediums. As the pandemic started fading, more people began to realize that it was not a bad idea to give other brands a chance.   Expecting channels: As customers explored online shopping increasingly, they became further accustomed to Omnichannel research and transactions. Customers are now expecting physical stores to offer online transactions that complement their overall shopping experience even before entering the store.   Price and Value Consciousness: After job declines and shortage of income, people started becoming even more quality conscious and began to question further if their brand is equating the value or not. Also, they are concerned about environmental sustainability and what these brands are doing in the favor of the planet.   Loyalty V/s Retention: Many people confuse loyalty with retention. However, little do they acknowledge their difference. Customer loyalty is what fuels customer retention. Loyalty is a keen sense of support and obligation to choose a brand which later fuels retention.    Tips to Keep Customers Loyal to Your Band Post-COVID  There are a number of ways through which you can retain customers. If accompanied by suitable technology like LS Retail, even better. You have to make sure the quality of your product is up to the mark while keeping customers first at all times.   Keep Online Communication Consistent  Online communications involve updated social media posts and emails. However, at the onset of COVID, various small businesses paused their online communication. If you are one of them as well, this is the best time to begin again.   You do not have to aggressively promote your brand (which can later become annoying for the customer) and understand that the situation is now different from pre-COVID times. All you have to do is inform your customers about product availability. Since this is a tough time for everyone, sympathize with them, tell your stories, and let them know how much you care for them. This is the best time to connect emotionally with the consumer.   Omnichannel Customer Service  Imagine how frustrating it would be for a customer to fill in their name, contact, and other details again and again at every step, especially when his requirement is urgent.  For instance, a customer purchased a product last weekend from your store, who raised a fund request explaining his issues. After a while, a customer executive calls him asking for issues further, and other details again. After a few days, now the marketing manager wants to have a word with the buyer and asks for the same details again.   Businesses need to introduce a robust omnichannel mechanism that allows every member to stay on the same page while taking care of the customer’s concerns. It not only saves time but also lets the customer feel important.   To set up an effective omnichannel, you need to bring sales, marketing, and customer services together and connect them with all touchpoints via a common dashboard.   Offer Gift cards to Customers  Pandemic or not- everyone loves gifts. To increase customer engagement, offer them e-gift cards. This way, you are maintaining communication while avoiding human contact. Offer them interesting offers while keeping your business in mind and how it runs. For example, if you have a store at Amazon, you can offer X% cashback on your next purchase. Such offers thrill customers and boost sales while maintaining safety.   Resolve Queries of Unsatisfied Customers first  It is more important to train your customer service team to treat unsatisfied customers first than you think. It is a massive risk to let them remain dissatisfied. Everyone has access to social media platforms where they can freely share their opinions. There is always a risk of negative promotion if they are discontented. The best practice is to resolve their queries as soon as possible. Another factor that may come into influence is their negative remarks on social media impacting your website search engine.   Reward Loyal Customers   Using a unified software solution like LS Retail can help you identify your loyal customers. With a robust visionary dashboard, you can calculate each customer’s behavior and pick the loyal ones. Offer attractive deals and offers exclusively tailored for them. It makes the consumer feel important and belonged. You can classify different customers and segment them into diverse groups and prepare exclusive deals for each. Offer gifts that none of your competitors offer. There is no better time than their birthdays, anniversaries, festivals, and other notable events to offer your personalized gifts.   It is essential to think out-of-the-box to keep ahead of your competition in the post-COVID era. Letting the right technology assist you is a clever idea. LS Retail is a unified software solution specifically designed to take care of your every business need. Trident Information Systems is a Gold Partner of LS Retail. Armed with 150+ technical resources, we have served various business ventures. Contact us for further information.  

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