5 technologies you should be using

5 technologies you should be using
Tags: Operations Management, Systems / Technology, Trends / Statistics
February 3, 2009

Technology innovations like table-finding devices can serve customers as well as employees.

Veterans of economic downturns know that belt-tightening is the flavor of the day — but this time around, cutting costs could be a lot easier, thanks to technology. Gadgetminded inventors and computer gurus have created a wealth of ideas, ranging from a wet floor warning sign that actually dries the spill to silverware-wrapping machines.

Here are five cool tools we think have the potential to impact the space this year.

Online ordering

Pizza-delivery companies paved the way for online ordering with the public, so what are fast casuals waiting for? ONOSYS, based in Cleveland, Ohio, is a back-end system that serves as an order facilitator for restaurants.

The service appears on participating restaurant Web sites in the form of an "Order now" icon, which leads to what co-founder Stan Garber described as "pretty much a virtual employee asking them everything they might want." Once an order is submitted, the restaurant receives it through a fax machine, a connected printer, a call center or an integrated POS system.

Garber said ONOSYS' clients typically see a 20- to 35-percent increase in ticket size, "primarily because your customers aren't rushed when looking at the menu like they might be when placing a call-in order." One client has seen online ordering take over more than 10 percent of its total sales, with a 22-percent-higher average ticket price just since September 2008, he said.

Garber also points to reduced labor costs and a more efficient, streamlined orderfulfillment process as benefits. The bottom line: "If you do the math, you can see there's actually a net-sales increase for the stores, straight to their top-line revenue," he said. As might be expected, ONOSYS' client list includes many pizzarias, but the company's fast casual contingent is growing, with operations such as Fresh City, D'Angelo's Subs and Jersey Mike's on the roster.

Table-finding devices

It remains one of fast casual's short-comings: food expeditors who can't match an order to its owner. At McAlister's Deli, chief franchise officer Patrick Walls says the plastic-tent-number strategy means food sometimes circles the dining room as many as four times.

Now, thanks to Long Range Systems in Dallas, Texas, restaurants can rely on Key Call, tableside transmitters that use the same technology as a cordless household phone.

The cashier programs each transmitter with an order number at the POS and then hands it to the customer, who inserts it into a transmitter docking station at her table. The base then communicates to the runner that order 56 is sitting at table 18, for instance.

Those few seconds here and there add up to a faster turnover that grows to as many as three additional tables sat during a busy lunch hour, according to Long Range Systems' vice president of sales, Jim Livingston. Amazon Grill, a regional chain in Houston, reported saving between $400 and $500 a week in food-runner wages during its testing phase back in 2006.

New channels for delivery of food, such as the re:vive kiosks at JFK International Airport, is one trend for 2009.

Delivery channels

Kiosk service is everywhere: ATMs, grocery-store check-outs, movie theaters and airport check-ins, to name a few. Now, too, this technology is poised to take fast casual to new heights.

To take advantage of that opportunity, Deepend New York, a strategic design-led company, partnered with OTG Management, the airport food and beverage operator at JFK International Airport Terminal 5, to create re:vive. The touchscreen monitors let passengers order meals for delivery at their jetBlue gate areas. Since October 2008, passengers have used the devices to select upscale entrees from Revolucion, AeroNuova and Deep Blue Sushi restaurants before hitting the skies.

Park the kiosk in other high-traffic areas where people work up an appetite — think recreation centers, shopping malls, college campuses — and fast casual operators could see the same delivery increase on their bottom lines, without the operating expense of building another unit.

Nutrition labeling at the POS

Menu nutrition-labeling legislation taking effect in pockets throughout the country costs chains such as Denver-based Spicy Pickle approximately $750 per signboard to comply.

"And if you bring it to front and center in customers' minds, you really want to educate them as well," pointed out the chain's CEO, Marc Geman. Chalk up still more dollars to the final price tag.

So Nutricate Corporation in Santa Barbara, Calif., introduced a POS software program that prints nutrition facts such as calories, protein and carbohydrates on a customer's receipt. The information is laid out in a food package-style chart, so anyone who has scanned a box of cereal in the grocery store will follow along easily. The price, tax and total remain prominent as well.

Additionally, if a customer orders "no mayo" or "hold the cheese," the receipt calculates how many calories the diner saved, and every slip offers tips for choosing a healthier meal. Extreme Pita tested the software in its seven Arizona locations in 2008, and media interviews with diners indicate a thumbs-up for the plan.

Hiring software

Creeping unemployment numbers indicate a steadier stream of job applicants in the new year. That traffic is good long term but can be disruptive in the here and now. Managers will suddenly spend far more time with people inquiring about jobs than they will working with their customers or employees.

Peopleclick hiring software allows everything from getting the usual background and contact information to the admistration of aptitude tests.

But technology has the power to help conserve some of that time, as McDonald's U.K. and 7-Eleven convenience stores have learned from their partnership with Peopleclick, out of Raleigh, N.C. The personnel software developer sets up an online-application process that includes everything from the usual background and contact information to aptitude tests. The data is stored in a central processing location and made available to franchisee managers as they need to hire.

"It's really about making the process feel as much at their fingertips as that stack of paper applications felt, but doing it a lot smarter and more cost-effectively," said principal product manager for high volume, Eric Edwards. After all, they can eliminate the percentage of applicants unsuited to the job without wasting a minute on the qualification process.

Nor does the process discourage good hires.

Edwards claims more than 90 percent of job applicants today prefer to fill out the paperwork electronically from their homes as opposed to running from store to store.

"It's great to say, â€˜Here is our card, here is our Web site, and we'd love to hear from you," he added. "We get everybody on equal footing in the hiring process."