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6 Strategies to Boost Restaurant Profit in the Current Scenario

Being hit by COVID 19, we all have been on different levels. Our financial, mental, and physical health have been tested. Everything shut down for months during the lockdown including restaurants. However, as everything unlocks, everything is getting back on track slowly but steadily. Restaurants have become more cautious of their health and put safety as their priority by wearing masks, maintaining social distance, and so on. With the help of Hospitality Software like LS Retail ERP, many restaurants can successfully cope with the agonizing unpredictability in society.  These practices have affected industries like hospitality which is centered around human-to-human contact. Through this blog’s medium let us discuss various methods to boost your restaurant business in the current scenarios.   #1 Upgrade Your Business to Cloud Hospitality Software and Pay Per Use   Upgrading your business to the cloud and paying just for the services you use can save you a ton of money. Just get a reliable Hospitality Software like LS Retail Hospitality Software itself and get the services you need. It is hosted on and by Microsoft Azure which ensures bank-level security. Get custom-made services as per your business requirements and pay only for what services your restaurant requires such as Mobile POS, Real-time data reports, and Customer Behavior analysis via Power BI. If you wish to centrally manage your restaurant business, you can do that too. Backed up by a reliable Implementation Partner, you can easily train your staff to use these services and let them handle any technical issues you might end up crossing paths with.  You no longer have to take up services your business doesn’t need just because they are ‘included’ in the package. For instance, if you wish to adopt the LS Retail POS but want to manage accounts in Silos, you are free to make customizations like that.   #2 Hold Events and Workshops  Events and workshops are one of the most underrated ways to boost your restaurant business. You can either tie up with different workshops or organize your own. It entirely depends upon your strategy and budget. You can boost your reach in both cases. Some examples are the bacon festival in California and the pizza fest in Italy. You can also organize something like this. Such events offer a golden opportunity to flaunt your delicacies and draw more customers. Make sure you have the relevant Hospitality Software to successfully handle the situation.  #3 Enlist yourself with different Food Delivery Platforms  Online food ordering is a boom these days, you might find yourself falling aback if you do not use online platforms to boost your customer reach. Being integrated into multiple channels can make communication with the customer more complex. It is advisable to implement Online Food Ordering Software for simplifying convenience, developing connections, and handling customer grievances.  #4 Promote your Business Using Virtual Media   Customers are attracted to what they see. Use this psychological fact to draw more of them. All you have to do is click some nice pictures of your food, enhance them a bit more and post them online. Apart from this, there are plenty of food bloggers who are monitoring socially active restaurants. They might either click pictures or use your clicked pickers for their food blogging. This will do a free promotion for you. Another technique is to create videos, having pandemics in effect, people have become even more health-conscious. You can post a video on your social media platform showing step-by-step how your cooking is complying with all the safety measures.   #5 Strategize your Loyalty Programs  Loyalty programs draw customers as honey draws bees to itself. Hit a home run with smarter loyalty programs. You can analyze your customer behavior and spending pattern, especially with cloud Hospitality Software. Ask them to enroll in your loyalty programs such as providing a 10% discount to customers who take up to 3 years of their membership. Or you can offer free beverages to customers who take up to 1 year of membership. Provide them coupons, rewards, and discounts when they revisit your restaurant.  Apart from this, you can also offer gift vouchers to your customers during the festive season. In this case, restaurants that run a buffet system get the maximum profit. They can offer a second meal free, a free buffet dinner for a couple, and so on. These strategies not only boost sales but also retain customers.   We recommend avoiding physical loyalty cards and going cashless with electronic loyalty membership cards. And managing your loyalty programs cannot even get on your nerves if you have been involved in this service in your Pay Per Use Model. Use CRM Software for Hospitality Industry to get your work done most efficiently.  #6 Adopt Cloud Kitchen   Cloud kitchens or ghost kitchens are in trend. This pandemic has boosted the trend to another level. Since it is a licensed cooking structure without a dine-in option available to prepare delivery-based food.   It is the best cost-saving strategy as you do not have maintenance and operational costs. Additionally, you can create a cloud kitchen by collaborating with other restaurants. It is recommended to get a unified Cloud Kitchen Management Solution designed for the cloud kitchen to make your management even easier. LS Retail has been voted as the best Hospitality Software for Cloud kitchens so far.  Final Words   We have mentioned the top 8 strategies to boost your restaurant business in this challenging era, you can seek technical assistance and upgrade your business to the cloud. The best part is you do not even have to buy a full-fledged package since Pay Per Use is available these days. Microsoft provides just the Hospitality Software. Trident Information Systems has been one of the Gold Partners of Microsoft and LS Retail Diamond Partners and has served various brands since then. For further queries or a demo contact us.  

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Try These 5 Hacks to Get 80% More Sales During This Festive Season: Guaranteed!

Festivals are around the corner. It’s time to extract the maximum benefits. Boost your potential with Retail Software. eCommerce sites are flooded with luring offers and deals! You must increase your presence with the right strategies. Make sure you have implied robust Search Engine Optimization.   At the same time, do not forget your in-store. It’s understandable that most businesses, in festive seasons particularly, are unable to provide as smooth and flexible services as they would in the off-season. Your staff may get overwhelmed with overloaded tasks and may not be able to serve every customer personally. Financial constraints, seasonal items, and temporary workers can put your revenue at risk. And if you aggravated a customer then, you may never see them back at your store.   Only suitable technology can handle this overwhelming situation. You can get wonderful results if you reinforce your business with powerful Retail Software that efficiently manages your brick-and-mortar store and e-commerce store simultaneously LS Retail ERP can be the best eCommerce Website Software that works for your retail in-store excellently.   In this blog, we will discuss Five guaranteed hacks to increase your sales by 80% this festive season:   Provide Ease to the Customer  Have you ever wondered why a customer would fight snow, rain, and wind only to visit an offline store to get the services they can get on their couch? They want to experience the touch and feel of the product. But what happens when they reach there, and the item is missing? They feel disheartened or may even frown at the situation. Everyone is in hurry and hence your staff must serve every customer and resolve their queries as fast as possible. You can also replace your legacy billing application with a Retail POS System that works as a sales assistant and an extension to your billing software. LS Central is one of the finest examples in this case. It can show product availability and records all the previous transactions of customers. You can also use the Retail Software to help customers repurchase an item that’s a name they can’t recall.  Give Your Customers Enough Space to Move Freely  Your store will get overcrowded during the festive season. Ensure enough space for your customers to roam around and check out different items, especially when they drag a cart. Check if the layout of your store is compatible to allow free movement. Also, notice if the placements of items are correct; check if some items are selling less than others. Modify the framework accordingly.   Be Organized (You Can Also Use a Retail Software)  Imagine walking into a clothing store to buy gifts and seeing stuff all over the place, shirts spread out on the floor, t-shirts scattered around, and a mannequin wearing a brand-new jacket that looks second-hand. Furthermore, it becomes hard for customers to find the appropriate item, followed by the right size. And it’s doubtful that they’ll want to spend the full price on shabby-looking products. They’ll probably depart out of frustration. Reinforcing your staff with Retail ERP Solution will help you avoid having your business resemble a battleground and will ensure that consumers who come through your doors can locate what they’re searching for.   Provide Precise Description   Is there another color available for this computer bag? Do you still have these in the pro version? As more and more consumers approach the store during the festive rush with a clear concept of what they are searching for and little time to squander, it is simple to become flustered.   At such a point, having the appropriate Retail Software is essential to support and increase sales. Many stores continue to use outdated IT infrastructure. These piecemeal systems frequently lack sufficient information synchronization, are expensive and time-consuming to operate, and prevent businesses from providing the services that customers want.   Therefore, they pose a significant danger and expense to the company, which exacerbates during the busy season. It’s better to consider a Retail Business Management Software that can manage your business on a single platform and provide a clear picture of your business to ensure a smooth operation throughout the holidays. It enables you to retrieve necessary data in real-time and gain insights. This further allows you to decide your next course of action and keep on top of things with confidence.  Extend the Return and Exchange Duration   People buy presents during the festive season, and naturally, some will not even work for them. This highlights the need of providing longer return policies that enable customers to return their purchases beyond New Year’s Day and under benevolent shipping terms. Accepting in-store returns for things purchased on an e-commerce website is essential for your company plan if you run an omnichannel operation. A UPS survey found that 60% of customers prefer to return things to a store and that 70% of them will make future purchases there.  You can make an incredible profit in this festive season, only if you work smartly and adopt efficient strategies. Our team of experts studies market gaps and discovered five hacks to boost your sales by 80%. You must invest in the latest Retail Software like LS Central. It is agile, flexible and provides a full-fledged suite of tools. Furthermore, it is hosted on Microsoft Cloud Azure, which means it’s extremely secure. Moreover, with Power BI, you can understand what exactly your customers want.   It is important to simplify your operations to optimize customer service. Get Retail Software that manages your ERP, finance, customer services, etc. on the same platform. If you are looking for a Retail ERP Implementation Partner, you can Contact Trident Information Systems. We are Microsoft Dynamics 365 Gold Implementation Partner and LS Central Diamond Partner.   

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Dynamics GP to Business Central Upgrade

Upgrade From GP to Business Central to Get Faster and Streamlined Business Operations!

Your company is determined for Dynamics GP to Business Central Upgrade, correct? GP’s end of support is ending in January 2023 anyway. If you are bothered about the inconveniences that this migration will bring you, don’t worry. Every Migration is not complicated. Moreover, most companies must progress toward digital transformation since it will enable you to boost your company efficiency.  Microsoft puts a lot of effort into enhancing the functionality and features of its products. Most of the time, you’re on-premises GP to Dynamics 365 Business Central Upgrade may increase productivity throughout your whole company. You will also be able to improve the efficiency of your business operations, services, and procedures.  Why Would You Upgrade from D365 GP to Business Central?  Dynamics Business Central is a cloud-based solution that offers more flexible features and agile tools. You can get more speedy operations while streamlining every process. It is suitable for businesses of all sizes. It provides other benefits such as:   Business Intelligence Fosters More Logical Decisions  After Dynamics GP to Business Central Upgrade, it supports business intelligence tools. You can use them to get insights into your business. You can also understand customers better as it stores, scans, filters, and presents customer data into dashboards allowing you to see how each customer spends in your business. You can then provide customized offers and services, deals, offers, and discounts. It becomes easier to segregate them into groups and individually. Moreover, Business Intelligence helps you spot your business’s KPIs, potential threats, gaps, and hidden earning opportunities.   Helps You Save Costs   After Dynamics GP to Business Central Upgrade, you will shift to cloud-based software which helps you save costs on maintenance and upgrading. You do not have to engage your entire IT team in maintaining and upgrading your software. You can instead use them to develop more useful tools to streamline your operations. D365 is an Saas as a Service Platform that helps you develop new software as per your need easily.   You Are Always on the Latest Version   Once you decide on the Dynamics GP to Business Central Upgrade, you will be hosted by and on Azure, you can always be on the latest version. Microsoft provides minor updates now and then without disturbing your business ecosystem. And twice a year, Microsoft provides major updates about which you are notified in advance. You can even reschedule these updates if you feel like it. D365 provides sandboxing allowing you to test changes and patch upgrades, even for those that Microsoft itself upgrades.   Get a suite of Cloud-based Software   With Business Central, you can access the complete set of applications provided by Microsoft such as SharePoint, Outlook, Teams, Power BI (Business Intelligence), and a lot more. These tools help you collaborate freely with one another and streamline operations more easily within the business.   Remote Access   One of the best qualities of Microsoft Dynamics Business Central is its remote access facility. You can access it from any device. In this period where everyone demands remote work, you need technology to support the same. Due to COVID-19, businesses were forced to shut down and demanded remote work. Businesses that couldn’t comply with the same either shut down or implemented technology to support remote work. This technology ensures work is done even if you are not available at the office.  High-end Security   With Dynamics GP to Business Central Upgrade, businesses especially SMEs don’t have to worry about their security as Microsoft Dynamics 365 ensures bank-level security. Microsoft has assigned more than 3000 experts to detect and defeat threats. There are thousands of other experts working day and night on the well-being of your software and data safety. Teams are assigned to create possible threats and other teams find ways to defeat them. Microsoft can be the most secure data you can have. Your data is stored and backed up on a single server. Therefore, you will get everything on a single server.   If you are looking forward to Dynamics GP to Business Central Upgrade, you can contact Trident Information Systems. We are a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Gold Implementation Partner and LS Central Diamond Implementation Partner. Our team of 200+ experts’ workday and night to ensure seamless and consistent operations in the organization. Contact us for further details.  

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Upgrade NAV to Business Central

How Sticking with Dynamics NAV Can Bring Your Business Down? 

The major reason for your business to suffer if you choose to stick to Dynamics NAV is its end of support which will eventually leave you on your own. Dynamics NAV 2017 version met its end-of-life-cycle support in Jan 2022, whereas Dynamics NAV 2018’s support is still viable till Jan 2023 leaving you a noticeably short time to optimize it further. It is best to Upgrade NAV to Business Central.  Some businesses still use Dynamics NAV to support their production environment. The decision to stick to the older version could be derived from its perceived stability: it can resolve all the issues and does exactly what it is expected to do.   Alternatively, a business may decide to delay its NAV to BC Upgrade to save IT capital cost while “sweating” its resources to extract maximum return on investment. However, this approach will eventually lead to the business’s downfall as it can collapse anytime.  What Would Happen If You Still Glued with Dynamics Nav Without Support?  You are welcoming a huge security risk, limited disaster recovery options, no more updates and patches, and a lack of functionality if you still expect Dynamics NAV to facilitate core functionalities to your business. Hence Upgrade NAV to Business Central.  A Massive Security Threat   Once your vendor ends the support for Dynamics NAV, you are no longer entitled to the relevant upgrades or patches. You will no longer receive any support for issues occurring in the application. Since you cannot resolve them on your own, the application starts posing a risk to your overall business rather than a medium for its growth.   Limited Disaster Recovery   Not having NAV to Business Central Upgrade means no more support from Microsoft leaves businesses to struggle on their own. Suppose if something wrong happens to the application and the entire environment demands a rebuild, the user is liable to source the correct version (which is not so easy). In this scenario, businesses will have to track aged operating system and SQL Server versions. This can even jeopardize your security and lead to data loss or data theft by hackers.   In the worst-case scenario, you may not even get to access the older version and require an urgent NAV to Dynamics 365 Business Central upgrade. An upgrade project can take a good sum of time. Even if the upgrade is planned, it can take up to months to complete. Leaving you with months of downtime and eventually, making your production suffer.   Functionality Deficiency  Many businesses who have been paying for maintenance licensing are entitled to access the latest NAV versions. However, delaying the upgrade is not useful either. Upgrade NAV to Business Central as Microsoft Dynamics 365 has a pedigree of ongoing developments and upgrades. For more than three decades, NAV has been redefined to provide greater functionalities. No doubt, it provided great services to its users, but the end of support will reverse the situation. The user can no longer access the new upgrades and functionalities while declining productivity.   So, what is the Solution?  The only solution is to Upgrade NAV to Business Central. Microsoft introduced Business Central on April 2nd, 2018. The newer technology delivers more robust features, tailored functionalities, and a more agile interface. It did not take too long to conquer a special place among SMBs as one of the most reliable, flexible, and scalable ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning). The NAV to Business Central Upgrade Enables – advanced mobile access, application integration, custom adaptability, seamless upgrades, affordability, and reporting capabilities.   However, besides worrying about training employees for a newer version, heavy historical data transition brings chills down the user’s spine. Little do they realize that the data structure of NAV and BC is the same. Thus, if your data is organized and corruption-free, you are good to go.   Dynamics 365 Business Central automatically upgrades your application frequently without disturbing your business’s ecosystem, and twice a year with major upgrades, for which the user is notified a couple of days prior.   Dynamics 365 BC is a cloud-based application that enables remote control, which means it is accessible anytime, anywhere, from any device. Thus, leaving you no scope for investing in hardware, server, and maintenance agreements.   The data is completely secured as 3,500 cyber-security experts are protecting, responding, and detecting cyber threats.  Business Central endorses faster and more flexible financial reporting via Jet Reports and Power BI (Business Intelligence). Machine learning and AI (Artificial Intelligence) (Artificial Intelligence) support tools monitor and forecast more precise data.   Its flexible licensing fees enable the user to manage cash flow. Instead of an annual enhancement, you only pay per user every month.  Bottom Line   No matter how efficient you perceive your Dynamics NAV to be, the fact remains that it is on the verge of its life. It is recommended to Upgrade NAV to Business Central as soon as possible as it will define your business’s future. If you are planning for a NAV to BC Upgrade, contact Trident Information Systems. We are Dynamics 365 Business Central Gold Partner and LS Central Diamond Partner. 

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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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