POS Systems Go Corporate

Latest POS advancements lead to more efficient, consistent and cost-effective ways to manage F&B operations.

By Cherie Hensdill, Technology Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 2/1/1999

With F&B operations one of the

most profitable and competitive departments within a hotel,

second only to room sales, hoteliers finally are starting

to realize the power and potential, both financially and

operationally, of automated restaurant point-of-sale systems.

With the undeniable dominance of open-

architecture Windows-based platforms, current point-of-sale

(POS) technology is paving the way for integrated software

solutions that can perform a whole slew of cost- and labor-saving

feats. Thus, in addition to the obvious order-taking and

billing processes, today's new POS systems can track customer

buying and spending habits, cost out recipes, manage F&B

labor and inventory, control food costs, monitor table

conditions, process reservations, and even order product

on-line. And those are just the software enhancements.

POS hardware enhancements also are making rapid advancements.

With hardware prices plummeting by as much as 50% during

the past decade, says Rui Perira of the Phoenix-based technology

consulting firm InnGenius, such novelties as touchscreen

monitors and wireless hand-held devices are becoming industry

norms. The more recent hardware innovations include such

products as HSI's new voice recognition technology application

called Voice-Link, which allows users to place orders into

a POS via a hands-free headset with the mere sound of their

voice. The Boca Raton, Florida-based POS vendor currently

is beta testing the product and looking for technology partners

to help facilitate ongoing development, says HSI's Director

of Marketing Doug Crisafulli.

Integration & Centralization

Such software and hardware innovations

mean "the POS

is becoming the hub for foodservice operations," Crisafulli

says. As such, todays' POS products and their endless

array of integrated applications provide hoteliers and restaurateurs

with valuable customer purchasing and preference information

that can help enhance customer service, facilitate more

effective direct-marketing campaigns, and even support

revenue management operations.

Thus, when vendors and operators today talk about the new

enterprise-wide solutions, they invariably are referring

to integrated software packages that include property management,

central reservations and POS. In January, HSI took heed

of this trend toward systems integration by merging with

CRS/PMS provider Global Hospitality Solutions of Scottsdale,

Arizona. Crisafulli predicts the newly formed company will

announce its enterprise-wide Windows NT product line this

June at HITEC.

Other vendors already have adopted

this strategy or are quickly following suit. Thus, even

beyond property level customer service and marketing support,

today's POS products integrated into a company-wide management

system have the potential to centralize a chain's entire

F&B operation,

producing benefits of which most hoteliers have only

dreamed.

Centralized Savings

"Hoteliers have an infrastructure problem whereby

they cannot afford or even attract the level of expertise

they need to operate and maintain these systems at the property

level," says Scott Martiny, vice president of sales & marketing

for InfoGenesis, a Santa Barbara, California-based POS supplier. "They

many be able to afford only one full-time or part-time

person, and yet they have mission-critical systems and mission-critical

data that need to be managed, manipulated and maintained.

As the data has become more valuable, protecting the

data has become more valuable. And centralizing has become

the next solution."

InfoGenesis today has the technology available to deploy

property-level POS stations that are linked into a central

server via a wide-area network (WAN). Such a system could

provide centralized or corporate offices up-to-the-minute

reports and information on every imaginable aspect of unit

performance, including sales volumes and product popularity,

precise food and beverage costs, inventory availability,

customer buying habits, the impact of promotional programs,

and employee performance levels.

And at the same time performance data

is coming from the property, central managers can download

such operational information as training manuals, menu

and recipe changes, and purchasing and marketing materials.

With communication costs falling, the centralized POS

becomes an inexpensive two-way electronic communicator

between the restaurant and central offices, whether they

be a chain headquarter or an F&B office within a large

property with multiple outlets.

Further, such two-way communication could virtually eliminate

the need for additional management software and hardware

at the unit level. This means the individual unit also could

eliminate the support staff and maintenance costs that are

inherent with all systems installations.

With the reduction in software, hardware and training,

Martiny estimates a company could save as much as 25% with

a centralized POS system. And that figure doesn't even take

into account the savings from the greater controls and oversight

such a system provides.

Centralized Controls

One of the more mature players in

the enterprise-wide-solution game is MICROS-Fidelio of

Beltsville, Maryland. About a year ago, the company developed

a centralized POS operation for Forte's Posthouse brand.

The POS system, whose operation is outsourced to MICROS-Fidelio,

connects the F&B operations

of the 82 Posthouse hotels in the United Kingdom to a central

server via ISDN and dial-up phone lines. Data is exchanged

directly between the central server and each property's

MICROS 3700 POS system at a preset time on a daily basis

at each hotel, says Posthouse's Catering and Retail Director

Simon Crichton. And the system is used to control virtually

all aspect's of Posthouse's F&B operations.

With five standardized restaurant brands operating throughout

Posthouse hotels, Forte wanted a way to ensure consistent

and efficient operation across all properties. With it's

centralized POS solution, Crichton downloads menu changes

and pricing information, recipe specifications, banqueting

guidelines, pre-formatted reports, marketing materials,

and purchasing information. And for such items as menu and

price changes, the POS at the property is upgraded automatically

at a designated time and date so no computer input is required

from the hotel staff.

In turn, Crichton uploads from each property's

3700 sales figures and reports on a daily basis. The ability

to monitor closely an outlet's performance has significantly

increased Posthouse's operating efficiency and consistency.

Crichton says the biggest benefits of such a system are

a greater ability to account for and measure operational

changes, the ability to implement those changes across all

properties in an efficient and effective manner, and the

ability to better manage costs and pricing because of greater

access to detailed sales information. And the bottom line

clearly demonstrates the impact of these benefits.

After just one year of operating the

centralized POS system, Crichton says, Forte has experienced

an improvement in food and liquor costs of 2%, which translates

into a savings of £$2 million (US$3.26 million).

And Crichton expects that figure to grow for the next

couple of years. Overall, Forte spent US$4.5 million on

the project and expects a payback in two years.

All told, today's predilection toward

Windows and advances in POS technology have helped pave

the way for centralized F&B operations. With its cost-savings

capabilities and greater controls, such a system is bound

to become the preferred method to manage a group of outlets,

whether they be miles apart or within the same property.