BelAus

I recently started an exciting personal little side-project. For this project I am looking at the business processes and possible IT systems for small restaurants or café’s; i.e. establishments with about 30-40 seats.

In the - small hospitality business - market segment, the majority of successful businesses still seem to operate the old fashioned manual way.

During my analysis of existing systems - and there are plenty of existing systems out there - I noticed that most systems mainly target larger businesses. The majority of these systems claim they can also be used by the small restaurants and cafés. A lot of the systems are POS systems only. The bulk also seem to try to be a generic “retail POS system”. Generic POS systems tend to group businesses like; grocery stores, hardware stores, souvenir shops, hairdressers and restaurants & cafes; even though they have completely different business processes.

I have come across a number of systems that do have some good features; from the commercial systems I would like to mention http://www.redcat.com.au and http://ordermate.com.au and from the open source world I can see plenty of potential in http://www.openbravo.com. Even though it’s a retail POS system I also want to refer to the award winning http://checkoutapp.com.

Why has this niche market not jumped on the new technology?

• No tangible added value
• Relative high initial investment
• Too complex or no good fit in the existing operational model

What is missing from the retail POS to meet the needs of a typical small restaurant?

• Reservation and seating management
• Portable electronic order taking
• Focus on the different stations; i.e. restaurant, bar, kitchen
• Useful reporting

The essential features for a successful system;

• Seating management; manage reservation, quick and easy overview of tables. Note: some systems have implemented a graphical table layout but I don’t think this would add any benefit for small restaurants.
• Order management; allow the waiters to take orders electronically in a similar way as they do now using the paper order pad. Since the Palm and iPaq’s are on the way out, I am thinking iPhone/iPod Touch or Nokia smart phones. Either display or print the ordered items to be prepared at the appropriate station. Note: there are PDA systems to take orders but I find them not very user friendly and they tend be look ugly.
• Billing; create bill and process payments. It would be nice if the waiter could carry their own hip-pocket printer and credit card processor.
• Menu management; allow the manager and chef to alter the menu, change the prices, create set menu’s for large parties and print the menus.
• Stock management; assist in stocktaking and projecting required stock. Why not use the same mobile device as used to take orders to assess actual stock levels.
• Reporting; provide useful reporting assisting the manager with staff rostering, stock ordering and supplying the accountant with the required data.
• Staff management; manage staff shifts, have their shifts even sent to their calendar, phone and/or email. Register staff start and end times and calculate wage.

I am trying not to focus too much on the implementation but I think it’s clear that the portable electronic order pad will be the main supporting device rather than the touch screen POS.

Still a work in progress …