Scrap the Spreadsheet
When trying to organize and make sense of various point-of-sale data reports leaves no time for analysis, business intelligence software can save the day.
By Derek Gale, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 5/29/2007
 Hard Rock Cafe |
Data in point-of-sale systems can tell restaurant operators a lot about their businesses. But extracting, organizing and analyzing the data can be overwhelming. For some, umbrage is found in ignoring the information altogether or not taking full advantage of it. Operators looking to get ahead of the process increasingly are turning to business intelligence software to simplify the process.
“You want to find ways to put seemingly unrelated data together to find patterns and relationships that you might not find otherwise; business intelligence is the way to do it,” says Dan Connolly, assistant professor of hospitality information technology at the University of Denver.
Orlando-based Hard Rock International looked at its mountain of sales and operational data and aimed to turn it into a useful tool for refining its business and enhancing the customer experience. Its IT team started by working closely with the operations group to determine what type of information would be have the greatest impact and how it could best be presented to easily assist in operational decisions.
The IT team collaborated with technology partners to create a user-friendly dashboard of top-line reporting and key metrics for both the executive team and the unit-level management teams. The dashboard also offers the ability to drill down into greater detail within any category.
“Before [the dashboard] launched, we had a lot of reporting, but it was difficult [for management] to get all of the information that was needed. You had to go from report to report, looking at manual spreadsheets that were put together every day, which was taking time away from analyzing the data to make better business decisions,” says Kelly Maddern, senior IT director.
With the business intelligence tool offering features like a staff productivity report, “managers will go in and can see who the top and bottom performers are, and then can [establish] corrective action plans, [or] reward top performers with better shifts or stations,” Maddern explains.
“We see this system as a distinct competitive advantage,” says Mike Kneidinger, vice president of company operations for Hard Rock International. “Our cafe management teams use it every day to evaluate and adjust their operations to serve our guests happily and profitably.”
Out of the Box
Other restaurant groups including Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, BR Guest Restaurants and China Grill Management have turned to Web-based business intelligence solutions to serve similarly. This annual subscription model offers customizable online reporting of POS data, broken down into various categories that help companies navigate the data and analyze performance and productivity at the enterprise or unit level.
Similar to the Hard Rock dashboard, unit-level managers within user restaurant companies can drill down into server profiles to see who is struggling in what areas and then base training around areas of need. They also can break down sales by food category and use the system to analyze cost of sales and profitability of various menu items.
Managers can even forecast business and make staffing decisions based on historical data for similar circumstances. Monica Samuels, general manager of SushiSamba Rio in Chicago, spends a minimum of 30 minutes a day using the application, noting that she can’t imagine how managers functioned without it.
No More Matrixes
In scheduling, managers have historically dealt with all manner of headaches, from personality conflicts and time-off requests to shift preferences and seniority issues. Artificial intelligence software can identify past patterns, using them to forecast business and create a staff schedule, even taking into account any special requests and limitations.
The Trellises Restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla., uses such software to accurately yield forecasts of daily meal period covers up to nine days in advance, as well as to simultaneously automate staffing, activities that previously took managers there up to five hours per week to complete.
“Such technology [takes] human error out of scheduling, [a factor] that causes 90% of the problems we see,” says Fred Hoffman, director of food & beverage at the hotel.
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