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Restaurant Management ERP

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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The Importance of Omni Channel Management in Restaurant and Foodservice.

Ensure a seamless journey to your customers and let them place orders from the channel of their choice. Integrate every channel and manage them centrally with an ERP for Hospitality, such as LS Retail: one of the best Hospitality ERP Software. Omnichannel was once believed to be used by only retailers focusing on consistent customer experience throughout various channels: Brick and mortar, direct and wholesale. However, many people overlook its importance in the restaurant industry since it operates quite differently than retail. Nevertheless, restaurants and other foodservice providers operate on different channels and can tremendously benefit from it.   Why an Omni Channel Restaurant Strategy?  The Restaurant industry is transforming, and so are their needs, a good Restaurant Management Software can help keeping-up with the transformation. Today’s consumers want to order their fast food from anywhere and at any time. It is imperative, and not optional that the customer experience is seamless and connected. Those consumer needs are driving the omnichannel trend. For restaurants, that means providing their customers with multiple ways to order, pay, and receive their meals.  Restaurant operators are now recognizing its importance in their industry. They are acknowledging the importance of being visible to new customers while embracing multiple channels and hence adopt a wise multi-channel management system i.e., Omni Channel. This is the same reason an eCommerce retailer decides to have a concrete shop to reach more customers. Be it via enhanced delivery options, a non-traditional and pop-up unit, food trucks, or any other medium, restaurants are reaching more customers through different channels.   How does Omni Channel Management Help the Restaurant and Foodservice Business?  Customers demand more convenience as soon as they get in touch with your restaurant. It is up to you to offer a continuous brand image and customer experience both online and offline for pick-ups, dine-in, takeout throughout devices. With such efforts, the customer feels looked after and gets a consistent experience. Given below are the few benefits of proper Omni-channel management for your restaurant business:  Central Control for Multiple Locations  With LS Retail Hospitality’s Omni Channel Management, control all your food channels centrally from the head office. Set up menu items, recipes, meal deals, and modifiers. The system replicates data and transmits it throughout the Restaurants, automatically allowing you to manage POS (point of sale) terminals and staff from headquarters. Being one of the Best Software for Restaurant, it offers multiple tools within the same platform which many of the other Restaurant Management Software fail to offer.   A Greater Reach   The more channels your restaurant has, the bigger the audience you can reach. Consider how many additional consumers you could reach if you started offering delivery, takeout, or a drive through.   In the delivery space, you can choose to collaborate with a third-party service provider, already having a large customer base such as Uber Eats, Takeaway.com, Deliveroo, etc. Restaurant Management Software such as LS Retail itself can manage your delivery and online ordering operation more efficiently.  Free Flow of Information   Integrate omnichannel the correct way among all the tech platforms you have: POS or food delivery apps. As soon as you are onboard new customers on your POS, you can simply collect their data and optimize it to generate loyalty programs.   As you integrate more channels you start collecting new data from new sources. If used correctly, you can understand your customers’ behavior and identify new methods to serve them better.   Improving data flow also enhances your efficiency from the front office to the back office. When you have efficient technology and clean data, you might as well take care of your staff better. Hence, encouraging them to become more efficient.   Improved Customer Experience   Providing a consistent Brand Image and streamlining customer experience is what Omnichannel experience is all about. The main objective of this approach is to create a seamless customer experience throughout all the channels and touchpoints, treating them the same irrespective of the location they placed an order. This fosters brand loyalty and repeated business.   Aligning all your channels not only streamlines the user experience but is also an asset to customer service and support. Your support team can extract your customer’s records on interactions, issues, and orders in real-time. Hence, turning the buyer’s journey a lot easier and satisfactory.   CRM Data Optimization   You can use CRM to gather direct feedback from your customers. Similarly, you may respond swiftly to all reviews and build a personal connection with them. The best way to get repeat business is to nurture your customers. You can optimize omnichannel strategies such as email and SMS campaigns to maintain and strengthen customer relationships.   Through the right targeting and segmentation, you can access the right set of customers. Adding personalized messages such as greeting cards on their birthday, offering exclusive rewards for being a valued customer, or offering their preferred dish as an incentive. Use automated workflows to ensure you deliver these campaigns at a precise time.   Greater Flexibility   Omnichannel management helps maintain and keep track of everything throughout multiple platforms. A customer should be able to order food from any chain available near him as well as return it if not satisfied. These flexible options boost customer satisfaction and sales.   Studies show a customer is most likely to purchase from a business if their omnichannel works seamlessly and empowers them to make flexible choices.   With LS Retail – the Best ERP for Restaurant, you can simplify your omnichannel management and provide better flexibility to your customers.   Why Trident?  After winning multiple awards, Trident Information Systems has been recognized as a Gold Microsoft Dynamics 365 and LS retail partner since 2004 and services many restaurants and foodservice businesses so far. With our ERP for Hospitality services, 150+ resources, and technical tools, many successful restaurants have been our clients. For further queries contact us.  

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How To Boost Revenue and Goodwill with Cloud-Based Restaurant Management Software?

An ideal restaurant experiences a good customer in-flow, filled tables, orders rushing in, and so on. Restaurant businesses face a neck to neck-to-neck competition, and usually, the ones with the latest Restaurant Management Software thrive on it. It is rewarding to see happy customers’ faces, and genuine appreciation becomes a great motivation to level up. This generally happens during regular days. However, as soon as weekdays hit, the business catches at a slower pace. Restaurants need to use their technology optimally and smartly to avoid slow-paced business, boost profit and brand name.   We will share some strategies to optimize your Cloud-based ERP For Restaurant Industry to increase your business revenue and goodwill, through this blog’s medium.  Strategies to Grow Revenue and Goodwill Hand in Hand with Restaurant Management Technology  Adopting suitable Restaurant Management Software can be a game-changer. Having smart technology compiled with suitable strategies will not only help you cut costs and boost profit but contribute to your brand growth also.  Utilize Smart POS Systems Old fashioned POS systems running on their internal system can no longer benefit your business. Since cloud-based restaurant POS systems are replacing the old ones, they can easily help in boosting sales with quick data access on everything from the menu to inventory. Therefore, you always have your profitability insights.  Launch Meal Deals and Discounts    Loyalty programs are a great way to boost sales and goodwill. Your cloud-based Restaurant Management Software uses the current market data to strategize deals, offers, discounts, meal plans, and so on. It is an ideal measure to track customer behavior and how they respond to your services.   Use Automation to Provide High-Quality Services   Use your restaurant management software will help you create KOTs, prepare bills and serve orders. Automating these tasks will free up your staff to attend to customers. Having everything automated also minimizes the scope of errors. Ideal software will also provide every day, weekly and monthly data on the most preferred dishes so you can plan out your inventory accordingly.   Formulate Targeted Campaigns   Make sure the ERP for Hospitality Industry you use provides real-time data and helps you strategize formulated targeted campaigns during the slow business. You can launch incentive programs and promotional campaigns for your restaurant to boost sales. One such example is ‘No-Cook Wednesdays’ by Pizza Hut.  Look For the Need for Remodeling   Your business must evolve according to the dynamics of the restaurant industry. Studies have shown that remodeling your business can boost sales by 10-30%. Check if your restaurant needs technological or non-technological remodeling. It is suggested to execute this operation during slow business days since it won’t impact your customer business as such.   Choose an Integrated Cloud service   Selecting a Unified Commerce solution that provides all the necessities under the same platform as Microsoft Azure Cloud. It is one of the Best ERP for Restaurant Management for restaurants. It provides analytics, database, computing, networking, and mobile integration under the same platform. This not only saves time but also eliminates unnecessary expenses and complications. Therefore, you end up increasing your profit margin and make better decisions to level up your brand name.   Conclusion  A good Restaurant Management Software is a must-have to survive the neck-to-neck competition in the restaurant industry. We suggest picking up the latest cloud-based ERP software such as LS Central, it is a unified restaurant solution that provides all the necessities under the same platform. Trident Information system is a Gold Partner of Microsoft and has served various restaurants and food chains such as Biryani Blues, Haldirams, Bikanerwala, Chocola, and so on. Contact us for further inquiries or a demo.  

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6 Ways to Revolutionize the Restaurant Experience with LS Central

 If you are thinking of switching to LS Central, we will mention how it can revolutionize the restaurant experience. LS Central as Best Restaurant Management Software is a unified software solution for cafes, restaurants, and other food service businesses with a bigger perspective in real-time. LS Central is an extension to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, letting you process POS, financials, supply chain management, operations, online channels, inventory, and customer loyalty within the same platform. However, many businesses tend to rely on using multiple software but they can end up causing complexities instead, such as:   Issues with integration and implementation.   Large restaurants have many vendors making management tough.   Establishing coordination with the software service providers.   Getting support and services of the software.   As the restaurant business expands or acquires new buildings the service provider might not upgrade its services for scaling.   Difficulty with providing on-premise and cloud solutions together.     You can replace all the multiple software solutions you are using now with one software. Get ready for more effective business operations and minimum waste. Get a spot-on view of your business and make sensible decisions with LS Central.   LS Central as a Revolutionary Measure   LS Central can-do tremendous benefits to your business, with a centralized solution like this one, you can manage the kitchen centrally, handle tables and optimize mobile POS. LS Central integrates your headquarters and restaurant operations with ERP.   Better Table Management   Use LS Central’s intuitive visuals and graphics display on every dining table depicted with different colors table availability, making guest management and tables a straightforward and error-free process. It can depict the number of guests registered for each table and the staff they are currently serving. It ends up saving time and enhances the overall dining experience.  Transfer orders or parts of orders throughout different tables or different sections of the restaurant quickly and easily. For instance, you can easily allow the dining table to be ordered from both dining sections or bars, easily with no risk of errors. The orders can easily be transferred between multiple restaurants.   Loyalty Programs   You can uniquely connect with your customers, identify them and understand their likings and preferences. This way it will be easier for you to create personalized services and products based on their earlier preferences. Your business sales swear by it. Additionally, the product’s upselling and cross-selling. Let your customers earn points on purchases throughout your channels. This will allow them to use these points as a part of their transactions or access special deals designed for them. You can launch special meal deals or hold happy hours accordingly.   Data Visibility   With LS Central you can manage prices, ingredients, menus, the campaign offers, and manage all the data up-to-date on touch points such as websites and apps. Get real-time data on your operations, stock, guests at hand and optimize it on your analytics and insight. Create data-driven strategies to minimize waste and cut costs wherever possible, increase profit as well as customer loyalty.   Centralized Control   You can oversee and manage your locations from the headquarters, control prices, recipes, menus, and campaigns. also, trace staff performance and communicate with your employees. Analyze current costs and revenues and identify trends and potent opportunities. Access detailed reports and data in real-time and make more logical decisions. Configure your system to each region’s fiscal and region requirements.   Minimum Waste   Use real-time data to minimize waste and inefficiencies, with LS Central you can price your dishes accurately and extract maximum profit. Smartly order the accurate quantities and distribute them. You can ensure your customers received exactly what they ordered. Speedup table turns and upsells growth. Optimize floor space with table bookings. You can also plan your meals and rationalize your ingredient ordering. Minimize manual work and scope of errors with automation. One of the best benefits of LS Central is using single software throughout the business.   Repeated Business   LS Central allows exceptional customer service and repeated business. You can make contactless payments and orders with a mobile POS or self-ordering device on the table. Your guest can customize their orders like adding or removing something according to their preferences. There will be an accurate display of allergens and ingredient data at the POS and self-ordering devices. Also, you can align menus and pricing to real demand. Your customers can order food either online or on their preferred services. Lastly, you can generate loyalty programs for you and your customers.   Conclusion   LS Central is being used as a revolutionary measure for a business. Trident Information Systems, Gold partners of LS Retail have been serving many successful businesses so far. Being armed with 150+ technical resources, they have won multiple awards. For further queries or a demo contact us.  

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Why Hospitality Industry Needs a Future Ready Technology

This Pandemic has brought a massive shift in the Hospitality industry. The tough working parameters have made it quite difficult for restaurants to sustain their services. The juggle between survival and keeping up with government regulations demand a future-ready Restaurant Management Software to be a must-have for all the restaurants.   Such software embraces sophisticated technology which are pushing their limits to evolve into their best vision. One such software includes LS Central for Restaurants; it broadens up to ERP for Restaurant management, and facilities complete business management in the same platform. It is an excellent Restaurant management software, especially when today’s scenarios have shaken the industry from within.   Current Challenges Faced by Restaurants Covid-19 pandemic has constrained this industry to operate differently and adopt suitable solutions in order to survive. Certainly, there are a few things that no one saw coming: Meeting the Break-Even Point: your break-even point can be defined as the sales covering your operating costs. Like all the businesses, where the CEOs wish for huge profits, restaurants are struggling to meet their break-even point. Keeping up with the sanitation and health regulations: covid 19 pandemic has made customers and staff even more aware of their sanitation and health Off-Premise Dining: the enforced lockdown has labored the dine-in restaurants to swear by delivery sales and take always to meet the necessary returns. Good Restaurant management software can be a huge help. A recent techno mic conducted study has revealed, over 80% of restaurants were prevented from shutting down because of take always and food deliveries. This is believed to be the forthcoming scenario for the next few years. Limited offers and innovative menus: to last throughout the forthcoming years, there is an incredible need to adopt more creativity. Offering certain menus, new offers, and out-of-the-world experiences can draw a great deal of draw diners, especially those cutting on their dining out budget. Advance online ordering system: Restaurants are subjected to strict sanitary guidelines and lockdowns and are expected to remain the same way for quite a while. There is a growing need for contactless home deliveries and online food orders. Overcoming the slow pace in 2021 will have restaurants to have examined all business prospects and aspects again. Restaurants need suitable Restaurant Management Software such as LS Retail for food services to cope with the upcoming challenges. How Can LS Central For Restaurants Help You Combat The Challenges In Hospitality?  There are many technological and non-technological challenges in the hospitality industry, such as the need of using multiple restaurant management software to get different features, back office and front office integration issues, lack of real time data tracking, difficulty in retaining customers and so on. LS Central for Restaurant can help you get rid of them. It is an all-in-one Restaurant Management Software that generates a real-time data report and exhibits the bigger picture of cafes, restaurants, and other food services, integrating activities from the back office to the final customer serving, therefore, leading to excellent coordination. Additionally, you can get the following benefits:   Gives The Ultimate Control Over Your Restaurant Since you can monitor each business activity and access real-time data within the same environment, You can eliminate the excessive expenses on multiple software. It carries out the following tasks: This Restaurant Management Software supervises and administers your franchise and location from the headquarters. Controls recipes, prices, offers, menus, and campaigns centrally. Navigate the performances of your staff and carry out effective communication. Computes real-time costs and revenues, and picks up the latest trends and opportunities. Check up on the real-time reports. Uses Artificial Intelligence to read and predict your customer’s or prospects’ behavior. Scales up your business and helps it grow. Centrally Manage Your Restaurant   Since you can monitor each business activity and access real-time data within the same environment, you can eliminate the excessive expenses on multiple software. It carries out the following tasks:    This Restaurant Management Software supervises and administers your franchise and location from the headquarters.   Navigate the performances of your staff and carry out effective communication.   Computes real-time costs and revenues, and picks up the latest trends and opportunities.  Check up on the real-time reports.   Uses Artificial Intelligence to read and predict your customer’s or prospects’ behavior.   Scales up your business and helps it grow.   Cut Costs and Boost Revenue   With proper assist management measures, you can minimize waste and use your resources optimally with this Restaurant Management Software. LS Central does the following jobs for you:      Accurately price your menu and ensure good returns.  Orders and distributes the appropriate quantity of ingredients. .   Plan out your meals and streamline your ingredient orders.   Automates everything and eliminates mistakes.   Allow Customers to Serve Themselves   Get ready to deliver excellent customer services and draw a broad set of customers repeatedly. This is how it helps your business get a customer boost:      Uses mobile POS on the table and takes contactless orders and payments.   Gives your customers a free hand to customize their meal by removing or adding ingredients of their choice.   Exhibits the exact ingredients and information on allergens at the POS on online platforms and also on self-ordering devices.   Adjusts the price and the menu as per the demand.   This Restaurant Management Software allows your customers to order food online or as per their preferred services.    Loyalty Programs     A loyalty program is a great measure to retain your current customers and also to increase the customer base. A customer loyalty program includes the following:      Prepares a personalized promotion and each guest can get an attractive meal deal  Smartly generates loyalty programs to benefit you and your guests in the shape of returns.   Creates happy hours strategy to attract maximum customers.   Launches various deals and offers according to customer preferences and spending behavior data.    Our Final Words LS Central is one of the best Restaurant Management Software which integrates services like Point Of Sale, Supply Chain Management, Operations, Online Channels, Inventory, and customer loyalty within the same environment. Trident is one of the most renowned LS Central Information Partner. For the best support, feel free to contact us. We will be more than happy to serve.

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Why your restaurant needs intelligent analytics according to a CIO

What opportunities is your restaurant missing out on just because you are afraid of change? The past few months have shown us that businesses cannot continue operating with their old models. During times of disruption and uncertainty, speed and agility become necessary for survival. Restaurants have discovered that they need to be able to adopt new models of food delivery, quickly. They must be able to make staffing changes at the last minute. To substitute ingredients and dishes depending on what’s available. To calculate costs and optimize purchasing, factoring in limited seating, reduced opening hours, and shifting consumer habits. Traditional technology can’t support these levels of agility. Restaurants need to start their digital transformation, quickly, and they need to focus on building intelligence into the business. According to a study by IDC, companies that center their digital transformation on intelligent technology improve their productivity, drive cost efficiencies, and have 8 times the revenue and twice the profitability as non-digitally transformed enterprises. 6 practical benefits of analytics in your restaurant business With the new generation of intelligent analytics, businesses don’t need a team of data scientists to gain insights and wade through data. Cloud-based intelligence-powered analytics is accessible to most restaurant businesses, and can provide tangible benefits. An Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered analytics and reporting software can enable businesses to: – Find meaningful patterns across vast amounts of data. Perhaps you’ll see that your mall location gets more customers when it rains, or that your downtown location sells more wine glasses, but fewer beers, when the main of the day is steak. – Optimize ingredient ordering. Historical consumption patterns can help you predict how much you’ll sell next week. The system can also help you calculate what you need to order. – Decrease waste. Once you figure out that your portions of sauce are too big and mostly end up in the can, or that selling wines by the glass on weeknights ends up in a lot of waste, you can take steps to cut your losses. – Optimize stock usage and distribution. At some point, it might make business sense to move the content of your freezers from a location in a mall that is seeing low foot traffic to one that is still doing good business. – Engineer the right menu. Are there any unpopular dishes on your menu that are costly, or complex to produce? Are your most popular dishes providing you with healthy margins? Could you do more to sell your highest-revenue dishes? An analytics software can help you make design a menu that is better aligned to your guests’ tastes while also giving you more in return. – Simplify staffing. An analytics software can help you see whether you have too many or too few staff members working in a location at a specific time, making better use of their time and of your resources. “There’s a value in being prepared for the future. Even if a technology may not drive clear returns today, if it puts you in a position to be able to respond to changes, then it’s worth it.” Leon DeWet Former restaurant CIO 4 tips from a restaurant CIO Leon DeWet is a former restaurant CIO, and a strong believer in the power of analytics. DeWet was a CIO in restaurant chains the likes of Cracker Barrel and O’Charley’s for 28 years. During his time in the industry, he saw technology transform both the restaurant business and consumer behavior. He saw trends, short-lived fads, and at times, truly revolutionary technology. Analytics, in his opinion, belongs to the last category. DeWet shared with us four tips for restaurant executives who want to make the most out of intelligent analytics and reporting. 1. Find the small drivers of benefits “Analytics can be a powerful tool to find the small changes in behavior, or in processes, that can drive huge benefits. While you still need to keep your eye on traditional big drivers, like the number of labor hours you’re spending or the number of guests, if you can, dig deeper to find out what is driving those numbers. Why those small changes can you see taking place? How do you influence them? How do you shift them? Looking at these details can have a big impact on the bottom line.” 2. Adjust your metrics to a changed reality “Don’t be blinded by what have historically been deemed ‘key metrics’ within the organization. Take, for ex, table turns. How fast you can turn a table only matters if you have guests to fill that table. Perhaps, if there are few customers you should rather focus on selling more to who’s already at the table. Look at what’s happening in your business before you decide which metrics to focus on, keeping in mind some metrics might make sense in some parts of the day, but not at other times.” 3. Use analytics to predict, not just describe “Too many restaurants are still too focused on using analytics in a reactive way. They look at the historical data to try and understand what has happened. Instead, I think that the true value of analytics lies in their ability to help prepare for the future. Where is the business going to go? How do I intersect it ahead of time? It’s important to also include external data, to intercept external behaviors that may have an impact on your business down the line. For example, if you see that the average miles driven by guests is going down, you need to stop, and understand what that is going to do to your customer base, what may have caused it, and how you can mitigate against it. Or if you are heading into hot and muggy weather, you should look how your sales and presences were affected in the past, and prepare. The AI can help you notice these kinds of trends and link them to other factors, so you can plan ahead.” 4. Think of technology as an investment in core infrastructure “I think we need to change our mindsets. An investment in technology is no different than investing in the latest

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3 ways to lower food costs using your restaurant management system

In the low-margin restaurant industry, it is essential to consistently monitor food costs. As restaurants struggle with rising price of ingredients, bottlenecks in the food supply, and limited seating availability, it’s more important than ever for businesses to optimize ingredient buying and usage, and minimize waste. A good restaurant management system will help you keep track of raw ingredients, menu prices, and spillage and food waste, enabling you to determine where you can make improvements without decreasing quality. Here are three steps you can take. 1. Automate inventory monitoring In the food and beverage industry, food costs represent on average almost one third of total business expenses. A unified restaurant management system that connects sales, kitchen and inventory in real time within a single  platform will give you total visibility over usage of ingredients. And if it’s a truly unified platform like LS Central for restaurants, it will also enable you to link your purchasing to recipe management and to actual sales. Stock can then be automatically added to as new inventory is received from distributors, while preset amounts for each ingredient are automatically subtracted from the inventory count when dishes are prepared. Some software systems also enable you to adjust inventory on the fly, using mobile devices to remove from stock the jars that fell on the floor and broke, or the spoiled meat. All this data can then be organized and analyzed in your back office tools, giving you valuable insight into what might be affecting your bottom line and allowing you to take action. 2. Identify waste patterns and adjust The US restaurant industry alone wastes over $25 billion worth of food annually, according to a report by waste reduction group ReFED. This is a staggering amount of money being thrown into the garbage. The first step to managing food waste is to keep track of what you’re throwing away, in what quantities, and why. Use your restaurant management system to keep a regularly updated food waste log. Locate problem dishes, and establish achievable wastage goals for your staff. Your employees deal with food waste in both the dining room and the kitchen, so it is important that both kitchen and front-of-house staff are trained to minimize common mistakes and correctly report wastage. Implementing a culture of waste monitoring with your employees will encourage staff members to report more detailed waste data. It will also discourage employee theft by clarifying that all inventory, both raw and prepared, is regularly being accounted for. Once you track your food waste, it’s time to start looking for trends. Perhaps you’ve noticed a dish that consistently returns to the kitchen partially uneaten. Whether it’s the half-eaten pancake or the piles of untouched fries which you end up throwing out, your customers are telling you something about portion size. With a good restaurant management solution, you can easily adjust your recipes and optimize ingredients and quantities. If your dessert portions are too generous, you could consider getting twelve slices instead of ten from each cake, reducing the amount of whipped cream, or making your cupcakes slightly smaller. The difference might seem tiny at first, but by the end of the month those ounces will add up to savings. By keeping an eye on your waste and adjusting portions accordingly, you’ll produce profit-making dishes, and will have satisfied customers cleaning their plates.   3. Engineer your menu to perfection Menu engineering is the process of finding the perfect balance of popular low- and high-cost food items. It’s an ongoing practice that uses key performance indicators (KPIs) to help you make data-driven decisions that ensure meals are popular and profit-making. If you are using a restaurant management system that gives you real-time business information, you can keep track of your KPIs and see how well your business is performing relative to established targets at all times. Use the system to break down the data and see how many times a dish has been ordered, what it costs to produce, and what kind of profit it brings in. By tracking KPIs such as average contribution margins and food cost percentages, you can see how a dish compares to the average profit margin of similar menu items. Once you have this information, you need to decide which dishes should be kept in your menu, and which ones you should rather replace or discard. Do you have a menu item that is significantly below the average margin and sells poorly? That should probably go. Is there a popular dish that is slightly below the average margin? Check if it will stay popular even with slightly higher prices. Do you have a low-selling but high-profit dish? Promote it by giving it top center placement on the menu, and remind your servers to suggest it to guests when applicable. As you calibrate your menu for maximum profitability and customer satisfaction, you will also be adjusting your inventory. Why order bags of live clams when they require careful handling, have a short shelf life, and aren’t frequently ordered? Save yourself both time and money: remove them from your menu and your inventory.  Controlling food costs while providing consistently great meals is essential to your restaurant’s long-term profitability. While it used to require a time-consuming process of manual reporting and calculating, today technology can help you refine your processes and cut costs. Do you need more information on how a modern restaurant management solution can help you transform your business? Contact us

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