Welcome to Trident Information Systems!
Any Query? Write us to - info@tridentinfo.com
Let's Socialize

ls retail dubai

Make Your Restaurant Staff Happier and More Productive

The Hospitality Industry mounts severe pressure on the management as well as the staff. With increasing customer demands, restaurants are innovating strategies to cope with each other and move ahead. According to Deloitte research, 67% of consumers believe that having an authentic and engaging environment is the most important part of the overall customer experience. One can achieve this with Restaurant Management Software that offers Restaurant POS Systems.  However, frequent staff turnover is one of the most common issues in the F&B industry. Due to lack of staff, existing staff are expected to exceed more than the scope of their duties. This can lead to poor customer service, too much pressure on the staff, and exhausted resources.  Thankfully, we have Restaurant Management Software available which assists restaurants to adopt the latest approach, shun staff load, and ensure maximum engagement to the customer.   For businesses still working on outdated technology, things are not smooth: they encounter issues like:   High staff turnover.   Exceeding pressure on the existing employees.   Discontinuity of operations due to hardware breakdown.   Slow operations due to working in silos.   Overstocking and under-stocking of operations.   Hectic schedules, especially during peak times.   The pressure of waiters to coordinate between customers and the chef.   Technologies to Relieve your Staff and Endorse Better Customer Service   Owing to the technologies available in the market, you can equip your employees with robust advances and boost their productivity. Enable them enough time to give it all to the customers.   Cloud POS that Integrates Stock, Menus, and Prices  When the time is gone the waiter would roam around with a piece of paper and pet to deliver it straight to the kitchen with the risk of smudging or losing it their way. They can now use a Point-of-Sale solution that works on both mobile and tablet. These devices are affordable, easy to find, and more convenient. Your staff can go to the customers and record their orders and transfer the data to the kitchen. Apart from this, on the one hand, they can take orders from a group chilling at the terrace, while on the other hand, they can receive payments from the same POS on some other tables.   Things get way simpler with this technology. Additionally, they can also keep tabs on stock availability and avoid confusion where they must come back to the table and apologize for the inconvenience. They can also let customers know of the latest deals and offers on a specific meal, also they can suggest the most recommended dish so far to the customers.   If you opt for a unified Restaurant solution like LS Retail and integrate head office, kitchen, and the front office, your staff can be sure that the information they are provided: from prices to ingredients to product availability, is completely up to date.    Kitchen Display Systems  Coupled with the modern restaurant management software and cloud POS, the kitchen is connected with a two-way communication system where the orders are directly sent to the specific kitchen counter. Since the kitchen is sectioned among grills, fryers, bakes, beverages, salads, etc. the orders are sent directly to the right kitchen counter.  The Kitchen Display System (KDS) also enables additional facilities like customer comments, customization, and allergic altars to be marked specifically. Apart from this, it even enables manual customization so you could segment sections accordingly.   All these features are the precious support your staff desperately needs, especially during peak days and festive seasons. An effective KDS will also decrease the risk of dishes being sent back to the kitchen.   Shift Scheduling   Communication and clarity are necessary to maintain a healthy relationship between an employee and the employer. Miscommunication can leave both stressed out and exhausted. No employee likes being called during their day-off and asked why they are not there at the workplace and similarly, no employer likes to make such calls. You can have restaurant management software that is equipped with built-in scheduling functionality and organize complex shifts while sharing clear expectations.   A complete planning system also helps you apply up-to-date scheduling information to payroll, eliminating errors and ensuring you compensate everyone on time.   Role-Based Interface   Every staff member in a restaurant is assigned specific tasks and needs relevant information to comply with them. A waiter needs to know what dishes are available in the kitchen. Those working in the kitchen need to know the availability of the raw material, produce orders on time and know where each item is placed. As part of the management faculty, you need to make strategies to cut costs and provide maximum output.   You can cut costs and time with a customizable system that gives exact information each employee needs to see; you can maximize your staff time with role-based interfaces that enable them to focus on tasks relevant to them to deliver faster and more efficient services.   Intelligent Analytics and Report   The output of a restaurant does not limit its dining tables and staff alone. The managers need robust analytics tools to get insights into how their business is performing and pull out if the specifics are even working.   They can figure out where the business needs modifications? Are our loyal customers not coming back as frequently as before? Are our current facilities satisfying enough? Having such technology offers a glance over the prominent aspects of their restaurants.   These days, restaurant managers no longer have to browse through their Excel sheets and find out the issues. Instead, a Restaurant Management System supporting Intelligent Analytics and reporting functionalities enable insights the manager needs to act on. They can track loyalty programs, outputs, and success of the business while offsetting changes in ingredient pricing, menu customizations, staffing and offers, etc.   Restaurants need to get smarter and load their staff with less pressure. Equip your restaurant with a modern restaurant management system and optimize staff efficiency. LS Retail is one of the most renowned restaurant management software. Contact Trident if you are looking for its implementation.  

Make Your Restaurant Staff Happier and More Productive Read More »

How LS Central Transforms Retail?

Thanks to LS Retail Software Solution, various businesses have shifted their approach from choosing multiple software integration over a single commerce platform. Retailers, hospitality businesses, and restaurants in over 140 countries are overjoyed to use this platform and enjoy the benefits that come along. LS Central Software Solution is a retail management software that guarantees retail and hospitality management with its set of tools dedicated to providing visibility, transparency, and a single view of the entire business. However it is essential to find the most suitable Retail ERP Partner. With LS Central Software Solution, businesses are now equipped with technology that not only streamlines business but also reduces IT load and cuts costs significantly. For instance, a large ski resort in Canada used to have 26 distinct software solutions which needed to be updated and managed separately, causing too much load on its IT. They then decided to embrace LS Central, and now they can finally operate as a unified brand, track loyalty, run promotions and see their data. Eventually, the business became even more successful and competitive.  Here are some of the ways to keep your business ahead of your competition.    Omnichannel Integration   With omnichannel integration, you can let your customers shop wherever and whenever they want. LS Central connects to market-leading platforms such as Magento, Shopify, and Dynamic Webs. This integration guarantees two-way communication between the systems. Hence letting your staff and customers get real-time and updated information on each product. Be it product availability, prices, and offers on your online shop, they can always have updated data.   Additionally, LS Central tracks every sale you have made on a single platform, so you can even offer click and collect options so they can purchase online and collect it at the store if they want.   Contactless Options in Store  Customers were demanding contactless services even before the pandemic hit. They were looking for mediums to make things even more convenient without having to contact store staff.  By implementing self-service checkouts, you can ensure customers the autonomy they wish for while shopping in person while cutting the queues and saving time.  ScanPayGo technologies minimize contacts even more. LS Central combines loyalty with the POS (point of sale) in the single app that can run on your customer’s device. Being a One-stop-shop app, it lets customers shop, save lists, save money, apply coupons, check their loyalty score, and much more.   Drive Employees to Deliver Exceptional Services   LS Central enables a medium for employees to serve today’s well-informed customers.  With mobile POS, your staff can look up the product details- Its availability, alternatives, warehouse details, and even data on special orders. They can easily compare the size, color, and other details on their phone.   The key to obtaining loyalty is to build personalized services. At POS, employees can access their store’s loyal customer’s details, previous purchases, and preferences. They can even use LS Central’s AI-based abilities to make relevant recommendations and product suggestions.   Innovate and Go Beyond Industry Barriers   Customers are attracted to services that stand out in the crowd. Offer services that differ from your customers. You can use this LS Retail Software Solution, to run food service, retail, and hospitality within the same platform.   For instance, if you operate a mixed business like a garden center with a cafe, you can manage different segments within the same platform i.e., LS Central. You can easily align customers, offers, sales, food service, and a lot more within the same database. Furthermore, if you decide to expand and offer appointments with a garden designer, you can as well do it with LS Central’s robust LS Activity add-on.   Clear Visibility and Data-Informed Decisions   You can get a real-time view of your business with LS Central Software Solution. We recognize that data cannot help you make effective decisions. Thus, it offers intelligent functionality to make it easier for you to make relevant decisions.   For instance, one of its AI-powered add-ons called LS insight addresses KPIs that need the most attention. It delivers all the information that is more important for your business to grow.   Overstocking and understocking are some of the key issues businesses come across. With LS Retail Software Solution, you may get real-time visibility on your stocks and make more accurate, faster, and smarter decisions   LS Central is one of the leading unified commerce solution providers out in the market. Trident Information Systems is the best Retail ERP Partner, and is reinforced with 150+ technical professionals. If you are looking for an implementation partner, you can contact us.  

How LS Central Transforms Retail? Read More »

Tips For Rapidly Expanding Brick and Mortar Retail Businesses

According to Grant Thorton, e-commerce in India is expected to be worth US$ 188 billion by 2025. Despite having e-commerce contributing to a large part of our economy, there are still masses who prefer to purchase products offline in India. Many seek assistance of ERP Software for Retail from suitable Retail ERP Partner. According to the Economic Times, Nykaa has decided to triple store count in retail expansion. It operates as an e-commerce platform selling everything from global cosmetic brands to jewelry. However, Indian consumers still want to purchase products offline.  Certain issues come along with offline stores.   Customers might visit the shop and find the item they want missing.   Managing an offline establishment requires more labor.   Standing in long queues can infuriate customers.   Digital disruptions might hamper operations.   Inability to meet evolving customer expectations.   Poor internal communication.   Brick and Mortar stores need a lot more labor than e-commerce. Therefore, rapidly expanding businesses need to seek technological assistance. It is recommended to implement a ERP Software for Retail Like LS Retail. It offers a suite of all the tools required to run a retail business. Integrating everything under the same platform boosts synchronicities and a smoother business flow. For instance, integrating your website with CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) can help you understand trends better.   Allow Customers to Check Product Availability Online   Consumers are drawn where convenience is more prominent. Just imagine how frustrated a consumer can get if he drives all the way to a shop and finds the essentials he wants missing? It is important to enabling product information and availability online, so your customers save themselves time and labor. Additionally, retailers may integrate all touchpoints and allow customers to place orders online while collecting the item right on their way.   Enable Contactless Payments   Allow your consumers various payment options like debit, credit, mobile payments, and so on. Enable quicker and easy payment options to shorten queues while making cash handling the lead of their concern while checking out. And such transactions are even safer. Retailers may also enable self-check-out services at the counter and help themselves while freeing store staff. This way customers unburden the staff allowing them to focus on other activities like helping other consumers find a product or guiding them through product instructions or simply greeting them at the entrance.   Personalized Services for Customers   Track each transaction with customers, understand their spending pattern, and create customized services for them. You will need AI-based technology like the one LS Retail ERP Software for Retail offers to extract data from different touchpoints and generate comprehensive and actionable reports. This data is essential for creating personalized offers, deals, and promotions while making it one of the best ways to penetrate customers’ emotions. Delighted customers refer businesses or products to their friends, families, and acquaintances thus driving a robust referral promotion. Word of mouth is the most effective and cost-efficient promotion method; studies have shown that a person is most likely to purchase a product referred to by someone known rather than following an advertisement.   Enable product Information on handhelds  Enabling product information on handheld devices empowers store staff and extracts all their efficiency. They can locate each item anywhere in the store without having to hunt for it. They can organize item placements according to demand, size, and other features. Targeting and discarding expired products becomes a piece of cake. Since the staff is less burdened, they can shift their focus on other prominent tasks such as helping customers out, organizing inventory, and other manual tasks.    Avoid Overstocking / Understocking   Having an integrated system that offers a 360-degree view on inventory in the shape of insightful reports. With ERP Software for Retailers, you can track each item, its durability and easily discard the expired products. Additionally, they may also predict demands and make purchases accordingly. These insights can work wonders for inventory planning.   Adopt a Unified Communication Platform   One thing that bothers them most in multi-chain businesses is communication. LS Retail, ERP Software for Retailers ensures a unified platform that connects all the departments in an organization, such as sales, marketing, and IT, etc. Allowing your employees free flow of communication is not only time-consuming and labor efficient but also saves a lot of confusion in an organization.   Since the competition in the retail industry is cutthroat, retailers have to find a solution that covers all their business needs while optimizing their resources. LS Retail is one of the most prominent B2B ERP Software for Retail having eligible implementation partners such as Trident Information Systems, the Gold Retail ERP Partner of LS Retail. Contact us for further information.  

Tips For Rapidly Expanding Brick and Mortar Retail Businesses Read More »

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. 

Your Retail System Might Ruin Your Holiday Season Read More »

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. 

5 Retail Strategies to Gratify Customers in 2022 Read More »

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.  

How to Cut Costs Using Unified Restaurant Management Software? Read More »

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.  

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

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.  

Revolutionize Your Restaurant Experience with Technology Read More »

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.  

5 Restaurant Technology You Need to Know. Read More »

How can Retailers Surpass Competition with Innovation?

In today’s world, where competition is cutthroat, retailers need to find innovative ideas to stand out in the crowd. With the right technology and creativity, retailers can be ahead in the race. With suitable strategies, retailers can accurately capture a larger sum of customer base.   Traditional retail methods come along with various drawbacks such as:   Inability to record customer experience.   Consumers demand the latest POS experience.   Reliability of the same old methods to sell a product and expecting a different result.   Stores and eCommerce are still operating in silos.   Lack of accurate customer data for launching effective offers.   By combining the right technology and strategies, retailers can outshine their competition.   Switch to an Integrated POS system  Customers need flexibility and freedom to place an order however they want and get it wherever they want: their smartphones have become a walking POS. Traditional POS would only support billing offline and online separately. It would not record customer data further to form effective loyalty programs. An integrated POS does the job. With this technology, even staff efficiency increases, they can serve customers even more effectively, find the product location right away, manage inventory more easily and greet customers with a warmer smile. The customers no longer must stand in the long queues, they can help themselves with the payments and free the space soon. Before creating any loyalty program, the first step is to access the customer data, only then can a retailer classify customers into diverse groups for different deals and offers.   Offer Subscription Boxes   A subscription box is a marketing tool to enhance brand exposure to the customers. Be its meal kits, books, shaving kit, or wine subscription boxes have transformed the concept of repeat purchases. Surprises excite everyone. Hence, they can be used as a great marketing tool. Consumers adore the experience of convenience and a surprise of a curated selection of new products directly sent to them. According to a recent eCommerce study by McKensy, about 35% of active box subscribers tend to purchase more active subscriptions.   Surprise Customers with a Surprise Basket   Understand each customer’s preferences and their spending pattern. Offer deals on their favorite products. Mix a few of them and voila! you have a surprise basket for your customers. Distinct baskets for different segments. Not only does this boost customer satisfaction, but also builds recognition for your store. Satisfied customers tend to spread word of mouth contagiously. There is no better promotion than a referral. It is economical and more effective than any other promotional measure. As human beings, we all long for a sense of belonging. If you successfully show your care and affection towards your customers, you are already ahead of the competition.   Promote Sustainability by Reselling   Customers these days have become more sensitive towards our environment. According to Neilsen, 73% of global consumers are willing to change their consumption habits to reduce environmental impacts. Consumers are now holding retailers accountable for their production tacts. Keeping this new mentality of their customers in mind, retailers have decided to respond by reselling pre-used items.   According to the latest Thredup resale reports, the sale of second-hand items has grown 21 times faster than the retail apparel market over the past three years. Now the time has changed, and bargaining is not limited to just students. Even 26% of luxury shoppers are now preferring pre-used luxury items.   Allow Apparel on Rent  As the trend of ethical consumption grows, the rental market is fueled as well. Consumers nowadays do not prefer to empty their bank accounts and buy expensive clothes to rot in their closets as soon as a trend is over. Apparel rentals give enough flexibility to the buyer to keep up with the trend affordably.   Retailers willing to enter the rental market must make sure that they have the right technology that tracks each item; which one is in, and which ones are out. It should be efficient enough to check the state of each product when it is back in the store and identify if it is in the proper shape.   Bottom Line  Retailers can barely stand up to their strong competitors Without innovation. With better technology, more accurate data, and more efficient strategies, retailers can beef up their business tremendously. LS retail is a unified software specializing in retail matters offering a complete set of tools required to run a retail business. From integrated POS to automatic inventory tracking, you can get everything under one umbrella. Trident Information Systems is a Gold Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner who has served various business ventures so far. For further information, contact us.

How can Retailers Surpass Competition with Innovation? Read More »