Sold on EPoS systems
Long gone are the days when electronic point of sale (EPoS) systems were regarded solely as stand-alone electronic tills. Today, an increasing number of operators in the hospitality sector are integrating their EPoS with central databases, or linking EPoS systems from multiple outlets.
The information generated through EPoS has now become a key tool in helping businesses generate meaningful reports and make informed decisions.
According to Steven Watts, a principal consultant at Review Consultancy, the hospitality industry has adopted this way of working from the retail sector – where the likes of John Lewis and Tesco have been putting the data from their tills at the centre of their activities for years.
He says: “EPoS systems can be adapted to work in many ways. They can be used to identify how well products have sold, and shape marketing and ordering strategies. They can also be used for benchmarking, by comparing different sites, and can enhance security by tracking sales against stock levels.”
But with the technology now being available to configure an EPoS system to carry out numerous tasks, Watts has one piece of advice. He says: “The temptation is to overcomplicate by integrating the EPoS with too many applications. I suggest choosing five robust things you want to achieve from your EPoS, and doing those well.”
Chris Swift, managing director at hospitality software supplier Alacer, also preaches simplicity. He says that the Alacer approach to EPoS design has been to create a system where all the information flows into a central database along with data from other Alacer modules, such as hotel front-of-house and property management systems, and golf and spa reservation tools.
Swift says that this methodology enables a hotel to track guests’ preferences from initial room booking through to any orders they may make in the restaurant or other facilities. He says: “This joined-up approach gives information that can be used to tailor promotionsaround, say, a customer’s favourite bottle of wine or choice of spa treatment.”
But he adds: “We don’t want to integrate with anyone else – wherever you have an interface, you have a weakness. Our system is built around a central database and users can add modules as they see fit.”
The Alacer system also offers an interesting weekend’s entertainment, according to the chairman of a company that runs four boutique hotels with restaurants in the East Anglia region, who asked not to be named for this article.
With the EPoS systems from all four of these properties linked centrally and information being updated in real time, he says, he can access the system from a secure web-browser and follow the overall progress of the business as it happens.
He says: “People joke and say I’m staying in on Saturday night to watch Hotel Manager – but I do. I can literally see when a drink goes on the tab, whether a team is upselling side orders. I might even pour myself a drink if we sell a bottle of Champagne.”
Weekly and monthly reports also give him a view of what dishes are selling, and help shape decisions about the next quarterly menu choices. Apparently, lamb was the best-selling dish in East Anglia over the autumn, with red mullet and wild pigeon among the losers.
Wagamama is another operator taking the joined-up approach. Earlier this month, the noodle restaurant chain announced that it had deployed MICROS RES, a series of integrated applications including EPoS, restaurant operations and corporate applications, across its entire UK estate of 65 sites.
Orders taken by hand-held devices are part of the system, while reports are generated via a tool called myMicros.net, which provides business intelligence via an online portal.
According to wagamama’s IT manager, Richard Tallboy, the implementation has helped improve customer service. He says: “myMicros.net provides us with real-time data directly from our sites, allowing us to be more proactive in reacting to any trends.”
The restaurant chain is also the first to implement MICROS' latest tool, myCentral, which allows operators to take orders online and via mobile phone texting.
Wagamama is using the functionality for its take-away business: when an order is received, it is transmitted to a display in the restaurant’s kitchen, boosting efficiency.
Tallboy says: “We are very excited by myCentral, which will allow Wagamama to continue to grow through providing our customers with the latest ordering capabilities.”
With hand-held ordering devices now commonplace, the definition of what constitutes an EPoS machine is changing, as are the designs – an area that excites Richard Heitmann, a director at J2 Retail Systems.
Heitmann’s heritage is in building touch-screen EPoS systems for retail operators, but he also has numerous clients in the hospitality sector, including salad bar chain Chop’d and London’s Ribo Waring Pub Company.
Recent innovations from J2 include an RFI transmitter fob built into a watch strap which alerts an EPoS terminal that a registered individual is using it. J2 has also developed monitoring software that sends out an alert if there are power failures or problems with the network.
One trend that Heitmann has seen moving from retail to the food service sector is the use of self-service EPoS kiosks. J2 produces these for a number of cinema chains, where they are commonplace, so Heitmann was pleasantly surprised to find that similar self-service points are being trialled by fast-food chain Burger King.
He says: “Self-service could help bring in efficiencies and reduce scheduling problems in the fast-food sector.”
