Industry Experts Say Restaurants Need More Technology

By KAREN ROBINSON-JACOBS / The Dallas Morning News

May 24, 2010 — The nation's restaurant industry – known for being "high touch and low tech" – must become more tech savvy or lose a future generation of technology-minded customers, industry experts said Sunday.

"We've been slow, really slow" to embrace technology, said Wally Doolin, former chief executive of both Dallas-based La Madeleine and Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, the parent of TGI Friday's. "Now we find ourselves in a situation where technology starts to make a whole lot of sense."

In the 1970s and 1980s, with restaurant sales growing and labor plentiful, restaurants didn't need a lot of technology, Doolin told restaurateurs and technology vendors at the annual trade show of the National Restaurant Association.

Restaurateurs were comfortable with a hands-on business model, and many were wary that too much technology would create distance between them and their customers.

Today, the industry is overbuilt, and the number of young people eager to work in the industry is diminishing, according to statistics from the restaurant association.

As customers, young people increasingly use technology for almost everything.

The growth of the restaurant industry parallels that of grocery stores, said Doolin, who now heads Black Box Intelligence, a Dallas-based research company.

Years ago, grocers added technology to speed checkout, improve data collection, boost sales and improve razor thin margins, he said.

"That's what we're going to have to do," Doolin said, pointing to the range of technology options from online ordering to "kitchen display systems" used by chains such as Chili's to track the progress of a food order.

"All of us have to adjust to change in an incredibly fast way that your grandfathers never had to face."

Some restaurant operators said they've been cautious about adopting technology because of the bewildering array of choices and the speed at which new technology becomes obsolete.

"I am not a Luddite," joked Jeff Sinelli, founder of the Dallas-based Which Wich sandwich chain. He took some ribbing on a technology panel for his low-tech order entry system – a paper bag and a red Sharpie.

Sinelli said he was evaluating a number of tech upgrades and noted that the 110-store chain has online ordering available at about a dozen stores.

He wants to expand online ordering throughout the chain.

"These are important decisions," Sinelli said. "You want to make the right one."

Jim Knight, senior director of training and development for Hard Rock International, said the year-old Hard Rock Cafe Dallas is one of only five in North America with high-tech interactive tables that use Microsoft technology and allow visitors to view up to 1,500 digital images of memorabilia, such as letters from Paul McCartney.

Booths in the Victory Park outlet sport plasma screens that allow diners to vote on music video selections played.

"We decided to go more forward thinking with that one," said the rocker-esque Knight, sporting spiked hair and a pierced ear. "We've reinvented ourselves."

But Knight admitted that, from a return-on- investment standpoint, the Dallas restaurant has not delivered the sales burst the company had hoped for, largely because of slack traffic in Victory Park.

"People have not rediscovered that area," he said. "Once we get the people in, the response is extremely favorable, especially among young people."

"Where we still have issues is getting the word out that this is what we've done," he said.

"It's killing us that we've made that investment, and we're not able to do anything about that."

~ Dallas News

Compeat Keeps Nick's Pizza & Pub Rolling in the 'Dough'

May 20, 2010 — In 2010, Nick's Pizza & Pub will be celebrating 15 years of being one of America's most loved independent pizza restaurants. With two locations in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, the secret pizza recipe that has been passed down through generations is not only the talk of the locals, but also of visitors from far and wide. However, the secret for this company's success is not only in their pizza sauce; Nick's benefits from a strong company culture as well as from an end-to-end back office solution that helps them to increase control and efficiency in their daily operations.

In 2005, Nick's Pizza & Pub decided to take control of their inventory and accounting by replacing their spreadsheets with Compeat Advantage. Prior to using Compeat, Nick's Pizza & Pub had major cost control issues. Nick's was manually tracking their inventory via spreadsheets and using QuickBooks for accounting. This process was inefficient and required a lot of extra administrative work for the managers and accounting staff. The tedious nature of using spreadsheets caused managers to become frustrated. They also lost faith in their numbers and the entire process.

Nick's immediately started polling their Radiant Systems Aloha Point of Sale system to automate their Daily Sales Reporting, menu item sales tracking, and their sales posting to the general ledger.

Nick's also began using Compeat to suggest inventory ordering and to validate what they received against what they ordered. Nick's also built recipes in Compeat to generate theoretical food costs and inventory usages which were then compared against actual food costs and inventory usages. To complete their implementation of Compeat Advantage, Nick's automated their accounts payable, general ledger, and profit and loss reporting.

Instant benefits
Nick's immediately benefited from Compeat Advantage's integration with their Aloha POS due to the manual processes this integration eliminated. Nick's was also pleased with how easy it was to train their staff on the new software. Management was able to get a much clearer picture of daily operations and could therefore be held accountable for their results. Soon enough, ordering, receiving, transferring, and tracking inventory was as easy as a toss of a pizza.

Prior to Compeat, only one person could concurrently access QuickBooks to see information or run reports. After implementing Compeat, Nick's could allow multiple managers to concurrently see information in real time. "With Compeat, I can ask any manager at any time to look at a P&L and pull out details of any category. I can obtain the information I need in a fast and efficient manner," says Nick Sarillo, owner of Nick's Pizza & Pub.

Nick's management reports that Compeat Advantage has provided them with more real-time insight into their operations, and has also saved them a significant amount of time in completing administrative tasks. This savings has provided management more time to focus on customer satisfaction and employee retention. In an industry where a 200% employee turnover rate is average, Nick's has managed to lose and replace only 20% of their staff every year. "It is really nice to know where you're at financially at anytime," says George Magana, controller of Nick's Pizza & Pub.

Since implementing Compeat, Nick's has been able to trim at least 1% off of their food costs. With their average $3.5 million per store volume, and 2 stores using Compeat, Compeat has saved Nick's a minimum of $70,000 per year since first implementing in 2005. Nick's also has a very supportive management team that takes accountability for everything they report. "Credibility in numbers is very important," says Sarillo, "We can now trust each other and trust the system thanks to Compeat."

With Compeat, managers do not have to worry about numbers being inaccurate and they have more time to analyze their inventory and proactively discover new ways to improve. They plan on opening another store in Chicago in 2011 and hope to continue to grow. "It is nice knowing that Compeat can grow with us, no matter how big we get." Sarillo adds.

~ Hospitality Technology

Compeat Back Office Software
Tenderizes the Steakhouse Industry

March 29, 2010 — Compeat Restaurant Management Systems provides Back Office and Accounting software solutions to the food service industry. While Compeat has installations with restaurant operators in virtually all segments of the food service industry, a surprisingly large number are with Steakhouse chains. When it comes to restaurant back office management systems, Compeat appears to be the place where steakhouses prefer to dine.

Steakhouse chains utilizing Compeat software include; Weber Grill, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse, Black Angus Steakhouse, Dickie-Brennan’s Steakhouse, Arigato Japanese Steakhouse, Ben Benson’s Steakhouse, and Copeland’s of New Orleans. Any steak aficionado should agree that these are some of the largest and very best Steakhouse brands in the nation.

In addition to increasing control, reducing costs, and improving efficiency, a key reason so many Steakhouses are using Compeat is for managing their butchering processes (cutting individual portions from larger cuts of meat or seafood). Compeat’s “Portioning” feature tracks inventory through the entire butchering process – from primal cut, through individual portions, and on to sale. Portioning efficiency (yields) can also be measured for different suppliers and for each butcher.

Chicago based Weber Grill has implemented Compeat in all of their locations. Weber butchers 90% of their plate steaks. Weber takes full advantage of the Compeat Portioning feature to better control their daily kitchen operations, to minimize inconsistencies, and to reduce product waste. “We find the portioning feature of Compeat advantageous because it gives us the most accurate and up-to date valuation of our most valuable inventory category,” says Brad Ritz, Corporate Purchasing Director for Weber Grill. “Compeat provides a significant value to a restaurant concept that has a strong steak-oriented focus and Compeat is vital toward positively impacting our bottom line.”

Morton’s The Steakhouse, another Chicago based steakhouse chain, is about to open and install Compeat in their 78th store in Miami Beach, FL. Compeat software allowed Morton’s to simplify their inventory (condense 77 different inventories into one), more effectively control costs, and gain labor efficiencies. “We selected Compeat over other software providers due to the very robust functionality and the added control provided by an integrated back office and accounting solution,” says Ron DiNella, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Morton’s.

Charlotte Prime (owner of 3 Ruth’s Chris Steakhouses) has stated that they are using the Compeat Portioning feature to achieve one of the lowest meat cost percentages in the industry. “We are continually satisfied with the entire suite of Compeat products including Back Office, Accounting, and Payroll. We are especially impressed with how the Portioning feature allows us to convert catch-weight products into portions that can be easily and accurately tracked through sales and usage,” says Paul McGowan, General Manager for Charlotte Prime. Charlotte Prime’s Executive Chef, Matthew Brennan, states, “Compeat Portioning is one of the most important features for a Chef in a busy steakhouse if the Chef wants to maintain an accurate inventory and good food costs.”

Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse is excited to be celebrating 20 years as one of Chicago’s favorite steakhouses and dining spots. Gibsons utilizes Compeat in all 7 of their locations and will also install Compeat in their new location opening in June 2010. “Compeat has improved our efficiency in ordering, receiving, and tracking our inventory. The added insight and control Compeat provides has reduced our food and labor costs,” says Jeff Harris, Controller of Gibsons Restaurant Group.

So why have Weber Grill, Morton’s, Ruth’s Chris, Gibsons, and numerous other steakhouse chains all chosen to utilize Compeat? It may appear like they all talked to each other and made a collaborative decision, but the real answer is that Compeat simply has a great solution for the Steakhouse industry. When it comes to Compeat software, they will all say Compeat is “well done.”

Morton’s Restaurant Group Wins “Excellence in Business Efficiency” Award Due to their Implementation of Compeat Restaurant Management Systems

September 17, 2009 — Morton’s Restaurant Group has won Hospitality Technology’s Breakthrough Award for “Excellence in Business Efficiency” for the work they have done with Compeat Restaurant Management Systems to streamline their accounting and inventory management. The announcement was made live on September 17th at the Restaurant Executive Summit in Orlando.

Compeat Advantage software allowed Morton’s to condense their 77 different inventories into one simplified and easily monitored master inventory and gave them the ability to manage their accounting more efficiently. This system has also allowed Morton’s to more effectively monitor and control food and beverage costs. Labor efficiencies were also gained in both the restaurant and at the corporate office through this more streamlined approach. Other significant cost savings were recognized in the area of record retention and the elimination of document shipping costs by utilizing Compeat’s document imaging capability. Documents are handled only once at the restaurant level and then electronically retained by the Compeat system.

“We are honored to receive this award of Excellence in Business Efficiency,” said Ron DiNella, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Morton’s. “With Compeat we have been able to achieve great advancements and efficiencies in our restaurant back office management and we could not be more pleased,” added DiNella.

“Morton’s represents an example of what our customers can accomplish with Compeat Restaurant Software,” said Harry Barkerding, CEO for Compeat. “Their commitment to implementing our software and using it effectively is extremely impressive,” added Barkerding.

About Compeat Restaurant Management Systems
Compeat was founded in 2000 on the premise that restaurant management and accounting systems provide critically important evaluation and control solutions for restaurant operators. Today, Compeat is the only provider of a complete, end to end solution for all restaurant management, accounting, business intelligence, and payroll requirements. All Compeat solutions are web-enabled harnessing the power and flexibility of the Internet.

About Morton’s The Steakhouse
Morton’s Restaurant Group, Inc. is the world's largest operator of company-owned upscale steakhouses. Morton's steakhouses have remained true to its founders' original vision of combining generous portions of high quality food prepared to exacting standards with exceptional service in an enjoyable dining environment. The Company owns and operates 77 Morton's steakhouses located in 65 cities across 27 states, Puerto Rico and six international locations (Hong Kong, Macau, Mexico City, Singapore, Toronto and Vancouver) and three Italian restaurants.
Read more about Morton's The Steakhouse in our customer showcase >

New Compeat and FoodCalc Partnership to Provide Restaurant Operators with Comprehensive Back Office Management and Nutritional Analysis Software Solutions

July 1, 2009 — Compeat Restaurant Management Systems and FoodCalc have partnered to deliver a comprehensive back office management and nutritional analysis solution to restaurant operators. The combination of Compeat’s back office management software and FoodCalc’s nutrition analysis software provide restaurant operators with web based solutions that manage their entire inventory, recipes, and menu offerings.

“Our clients are facing a growing demand for nutritional analysis,” says Dave Douglas, Vice President of Business Development for Compeat. “Even though software providers like Compeat create recipe files for our customers for food costing analysis, proper nutritional analysis requires more expertise and more ingredient information than can typically be provided without creating a partnership like we have with FoodCalc. Our existing and future customers will not only get great inventory control and food cost analysis, but now they can also receive state of the art nutritional analysis from experts in this field.”

"It is common knowledge that today's restaurant diners are increasingly demanding nutritional information in order to make informed, wholesome choices," said Lucy Needham, President and CEO, FoodCalc. "And offering this data is one way for far-sighted restaurants to distinguish themselves from their competitors and build lasting customer loyalty. With MenuCalc, we've successfully eliminated the high costs and complexities traditionally associated with menu labeling to create a practical and efficient online solution. Many of Compeat’s restaurant operator customers are ideal candidates for FoodCalc."

About Compeat Restaurant Management Systems
Compeat was founded in 2000 on the premise that restaurant management and accounting systems provide critically important evaluation and control solutions for restaurant operators. Today, Compeat is the only provider of a complete, end to end solution for all restaurant management, accounting, business intelligence, and payroll requirements. All Compeat solutions are web-enabled harnessing the power and flexibility of the Internet. Compeat clients include Morton’s the SteakHouse, Legal Seafoods, Jean-Georges Restaurants, and Kona Grill.

About FoodCalc
San Francisco, CA-based FoodCalc® LLC, is the food industry’s gold standard for web-based nutrition analysis solutions. Since 2003, the company has pioneered the use of internet-savvy technology to deliver instant, affordable nutrition data. FoodCalc also owns LabelCalc®, which generates up-to-date FDA-compliant facts panels for food manufacturers. LabelCalc clients include award-winning specialty cheese manufacturer Sartori Foods, premium snack manufacturer Energy Club, soy yogurt producer Whole Soy & Co., certified organic products supplier Herb Trade, leading wholesale grocery distributor Unified Grocers and international airline caterer Gate Gourmet. Multi-unit restaurants that have signed up for MenuCalc’s nutrition analysis include Specialty's Café & Bakery; Granite City Food & Brewery; Chronic Tacos; Bakers Drive-Thru; Lee’s Sandwiches and national franchiser Food Systems Unlimited, which owns Asian Chao®, Maki of Japan® and Chao Cajun®. In addition, MenuCalc is utilized by culinary experts including youth food educator Chef-K; as well as top-tier food media such as Supermarket Guru® Phil Lempert and NBC’s The Today Show.

Morton’s The Steakhouse to
Deploy Compeat Software to All Company Restaurants

May 13, 2009 — Morton’s The Steakhouse has selected Compeat Advantage software for utilization in all of their restaurant locations. Compeat Advantage will provide Morton’s with an end to end restaurant back office and accounting solution. Morton’s and Compeat have completed a very successful installation of the Compeat Advantage in several of their restaurants and Morton’s is now ready to begin rolling out Compeat to the balance of Morton’s restaurants.

By selecting Compeat Advantage, Morton’s has gained significant new functionality and moved to a state of the art level of technology that utilizes a web-enabled platform. Compeat also developed a series of customized features and reports specifically for Morton’s requirements.

“We selected Compeat due to Compeat software’s robust functionality and the added control features it provides,” said Ron DiNella, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Morton’s. “We saw an immediate increase in efficiencies in the initial installation and are now ready to deploy Compeat to the rest of our restaurant locations,” added DiNella.

“I am delighted to have such a high quality company like Morton’s as a customer and am very pleased by the successful results of our initial Morton’s installation,” says Harry Barkerding, Founder and CEO of Compeat. “We are also pleased to see the success Morton’s is having with the custom software features and reporting that Compeat has provided to them,” Barkerding added.

About Compeat Restaurant Management Systems
Compeat was founded in 2000 on the premise that restaurant management and accounting systems provide critically important evaluation and control solutions for restaurant operators. Today, Compeat is the only provider of a complete, end to end solution for all restaurant management, accounting, business intelligence, and payroll requirements. All Compeat solutions are web-enabled harnessing the power and flexibility of the Internet.

About Morton’s Steakhouse
Morton’s Restaurant Group, Inc. is the world's largest operator of company-owned upscale steakhouses. Morton's steakhouses have remained true to its founders' original vision of combining generous portions of high quality food prepared to exacting standards with exceptional service in an enjoyable dining environment. As of May 13, 2009, the Company owned and operated 81 Morton's steakhouses located in 69 cities across 28 states, Puerto Rico and six international locations (Hong Kong, Macau, Mexico City, Singapore, Toronto and Vancouver) and three Italian restaurants.
Read more about Morton's The Steakhouse in our customer showcase >

Dave Douglas, Founder of ReMACS,
Serves on Compeat Advisory Board

August 20, 2008 — Dave Douglas has spent the last 25 years delivering technology solutions to the Restaurant and Hospitality industries. Mr. Douglas has launched several successful restaurant technology companies and has delivered a variety of different technologies to all types and sizes of restaurants, restaurant chains, and other hospitality providers.

Mr. Douglas founded ReMACS, one of the first and most successful restaurant back office solution companies. In 1997, Mr. Douglas sold ReMACS to Radiant Systems and became Radiant’s first President for their new hospitality division. In 2000, Mr. Douglas was recruited by the founders of priceline.com to launch/run a new suggestive selling restaurant technology business called RetailDNA. Mr. Douglas now serves on multiple restaurant technology company boards and typically plays an active role in helping define and implement the business development strategy.

"We are extremely excited to have Dave working with our company," says Compeat founder and CEO, Harry G. Barkerding. "Dave spent 15 years establishing ReMACS as the number one provider of restaurant back office solutions and we are confident he can help us expedite our efforts to do the same with Compeat."

Of the new strategic alliance Mr. Douglas states, "Compeat is delivering the most comprehensive set of back office solutions in the industry today and the company is very well positioned to achieve excellent growth. Compeat is already starting to dominate the full service chain restaurant sector and we are working on strategies to enable Compeat to do the same in the quick service sector."

About Compeat Restaurant Management Systems
Compeat was founded in 2000 on the premise that restaurant management and accounting systems provide critically important evaluation and control solutions for restaurant operators. Today, Compeat is the only provider of a complete and fully integrated solution for all of your restaurant management, accounting, and payroll requirements.

Breaking Down the Fudge Factor

October 1, 2007 — Experience and educated guesses drive a lot of the daily decisions in a restaurant: what quantities to prepare; how many workers to assign; what to order; how the special will sell; and how it will impact regular menu items.

Operators know some are off target on any given day, but as long as overall sales and margin goals are hit, that's a grey area many can live with.

But that may be changing as restaurateurs find there is real money to be saved using the menu analysis and forecast-driven production systems incorporated into back-end restaurant management systems.

New Orleans-based Taste Buds Management, for example, drove down food costs from 31 percent to 27.5 percent and labor costs from 12.5 percent to about 11 percent using software from Compeat. That's in line with the typical four- to seven-point reductions restaurant operators enjoy when deploying solutions that allow them to see, control and scrutinize their costs, vendors say.

In addition to reduced inventory and labor costs, these solutions can mean reduced waste, fresher food, tighter delivery cycles, more effective menu changes and promotions, as well as enhanced manager accountability and therefore improved performance -- for the operators willing to do the work to truly integrate them into their operations.

Forecast-driven production
For Chris Rodrigue, CEO of Taste Buds, which operates three concepts including Zea Rotisserie & Grill, Semolina, and Semolina Bistro Italia, running a restaurant without an advanced food prep tool is not an option. "We use a prep mentality -- prep to shelf life," says Rodrigue. "We want to prep once for the usable life of the product."

Taste Buds uses time and motion studies to determine the processes involved in preparing its dishes, then uses forecasts to dictate what's made, and when. "In two organizations I've been in we've been able to reduce labor by more than 33 percent in the prep room simply by forecasting properly, based on product mix, and using the shelf life of the product to tell what to prep," Rodrigue says. Items with a hree-day shelf life, for example, are made three days a week, reducing food costs by eliminating waste.

Another Secret: Calculating a daily par level (the most of an item that will ever be consumed, plus one) rather than averaging across days. "That decreases the product prep, decreases the time to manage the product, decreases waste and impacts labor," says Rodrigue.

Managing menu analysis
Beyond making prep more efficient, these tools also make ordering more accurate by recommending orders based on forecasts, not just previous orders. Operations can incorporate variables such as upcoming promotions, area events, seasonal trends and gut instinct into forecasts so they are coming as close as possible to the ideal inventory.

That comes in particularly handy when new items are added to the mix. Crystal Bridge Inc. operates nine Arby's franchises in Broward County, Fla. In addition to using Restaurant Technology Inc. www.internetrti.com)to guide ordering and food prep, the franchisee enters recipes into RTI's menu analysis tools to see their impact on food costs, paper costs, revenues and gross profit.

The company looks at daily sales and product mix pre- and post-intro to measure the results of sales and marketing and the item's impact on other menu items, says Mike Welch, president. "We can know the cost of the item and use the tool to see what we believe sales will be and how the sales mix will change. What will happen if we promote the item?" The tool also enables Crystal Bridge to decide when to participate in optional brand promotions.

Operational insight
Especially powerful is the real-time visibility the tools provide, a particular advantage for restaurants whose senior management is remote, such as chains and franchise systems.

"The beauty of the whole system is, you're not waiting until the end of the week to solve a problem," says Crystal Bridge's Welch. "You're solving problems daily."

The secret to making the most of backend solutions, users say, is to employ them in the environments where they can do the most good, and then commit to doing the work to make them effective.

Arby's corporate employs RTI for overall business analysis, while franchisees such as Crystal Bridge use it in their own headquarters and within each unit. At the franchisee management level, for example, Crystal Bridge looks to the system to continually tweak its operation. For example, "If a restaurant is running .5 better than ideal food costs, you can decrease the waste amount in the recipe so it causes the variance to go to .25," says Welch. "We want to run as close to ideal as possible." Individual units tap the tool to drive tactical daily tasks in addition to monitoring key metrics.

To gain the most benefit, however, users must be prepared to work.

"I've seen too many restaurateurs think they can buy a piece of software and plug and play," says Taste Buds' Rodrigue. "You have to plan how to use the tool before you set it up. People don't commit the time and resources. They're not willing to make the financial investment to get the most out of it." Securing the technical expertise to translate recipes into something that works operationally in the software can also be a challenge, he says.

Next, train managers and franchisees to use it. "Get operators involved in using the system not just from a report standpoint, but understanding how it's produced," says Crystal Bridge's Welch. "That's the only way they can start helping more." Remote access to data means management can call a store and start right in on solving problems, not just get updates on daily results. Then, best practices at leading stores can be shared with under-performers.

"It's a must-have," says Welch. "When you weigh the costs versus the benefits, you can't afford not to have it."

~ Lisa Terry, Contributing Editor, Hospitality Technology

Black Angus Steakhouse Counts on Compeat

January 11, 2007 — American Restaurant Group has zeroed in on Compeat Restaurant Management & Accounting Systems, the provider of restaurant information technology, to provide back office software for 85 locations of Black Angus Steakhouse. "Compeat offers the best features for our concept", says Joe Trietsch, director of information technology for Black Angus Steakhouse."It already has the features that other back office software companies only promise to deliver."

The first Black Angus Steakhouse opened in April 1964 by Stuart Anderson, a prominent rancher and Washington State native, in the remodeled dining room of the Caledonia, a Seattle hotel. The original concept for the Steakhouse was to provide patrons with a top quality, complete steak dinner at an affordable price, served in a warm, comfortable atmosphere with friendly service. Each of the locations has approximately 75 employees and serves an average of 3,000 customers per week.

From the beginning, Black Angus Steakhouse has built its reputation on providing a great steakhouse experience. Their Chefs take pride in serving Black Angus steaks that are carefully aged and grilled to order over an open flame. At Black Angus Steakhouse, superior quality and friendly service is more than a tradition, it's their passion every day.

Taste Buds Raises the Bar for
Restaurant-Acquisition Efficiency with Compeat

Jan. 10, 2007 — There is restaurant-acquisition efficiency — and then there is Taste Buds-style restaurant-acquisition efficiency. In fact, it would be tough to find another full-service restaurant acquisition that was more streamlined and cost efficient than the Louisiana-based Taste Bud's purchase of the five-restaurant Semolina concept in December 2006.

Taste Buds, which has managed six Zea Restaurants since 1997, not only absorbed the five new restaurants without adding additional administrative costs, but also eliminated a six-figure accounting firm used by Semolina. What's more, Taste Buds rapidly deployed the restaurant's back office management and accounting software system in the new restaurants, and trained the new managers to use the application's functionality in record time.

A large share of the credit for its efficient acquisition of five restaurants goes to its software application — Compeat Back Office Software — according to the management team, including VP of Operations Paul Hutson, who has over 20 years of restaurant industry experience.

"The software's power and efficiency has allowed us to double our locations without adding a single person to our administrative team," notes Hutson. "That's a remarkable feat in this industry."

The top three efficiencies gained from Compeat, according to the Taste Buds team, are its full-service functionality, its fast and flexible reporting, and its food cost management tools.

Full-Service Functionality
Taste Buds has tapped into Compeat's wide range of accounting and back office software tools for many day-to-day operational tasks, including managing food prep labor and inventory, perfecting recipe maintenance, and compiling profit and loss statements.

Fast and Flexible Reporting
Compeat is set up to automatically produce all of Taste Buds' many reports. "Compeat's reporting functionality is not just faster, but it's also more accurate and flexible than other accounting processes," says Hutson. "For example, it used to take us two months to turn around a complete profit and loss statement each quarter. Now we can create our P&Ls in three days."

Taste Buds has also tapped into Compeat's wide range of eXcellent reporting tools. "It's easy to pull the data I need, export it into spreadsheets, and analyze it any way I want, for example, by total cost or a percent of cost, by individual store or region, or by one menu or one dish. No other software system I've used compares to Compeat's flexibility, speed, and power. It's phenomenal."

Food Cost Management Tools
In the first year after expanding its use of Compeat, Taste Buds' food costs were down by 5% for a total savings of $1 million in its five Zea restaurants. "Compeat gets credit for half of that savings. It has impacted our cost savings in so many ways, including accuracy in product receipt at the back door, reducing prep waste, and managing theoretical costs-to-sales.

"Prep-to-shelf life is one of our favorite Compeat tools. It is a revolutionary way to forecast prep in a full-service restaurant. It constantly gives us accurate information so that our product mix is always up-to-date. As a result, we've reduced our food rotation problems, eliminated food waste, and lowered our labor costs.

"Also, Compeat's theoretical cost forecasting and analysis tools give us an almost real-time picture of what our theoretical costs could be," notes Hutson. "So, we can examine any area, from a single dish, to a restaurant, to a region. Compared to software systems I've used in the past, I would not want to run a restaurant today without Compeat. The value you receive for the investment is hard to beat. In fact, because of Compeat's power and extensive capabilities, we could acquire even more restaurants and still not expand our accounting staff."

About Compeat Restaurant Management Systems
Compeat Restaurant Management Systems is the leading provider of restaurant back office and accounting software. Its flagship product, Compeat Back Office Software, is the first fully integrated inventory and back office accounting system created specifically for the foodservice and hospitality industry. Today over 200 customers use Compeat in over 1,000 restaurants, with annual sales ranging from $1 million to $400 million.

Download PDF version

Intelligent Business

January 1, 2007 — Consolidating financial data can be a daunting task when hotels and restaurants lack standardized back office applications and systems. This creates a number of challenges as well, including difficulty analyzing and generating customized reports. More and more hospitality companies are moving their back office systems online to save costs and improve productivity.

Moving real-time information

Al Copeland Investments, a privately owned management company in Louisiana, comprises 30 different restaurants, 30 franchises, and 19 different corporations. Several years ago, the company relied on Platinum for Windows as its off-the-shelf accounting software.

Shari Albrecht, controller for Al Copeland's restaurant division, says this software didn't cater to the needs of those in the restaurant industry. Managers couldn't get information they needed on a daily basis and the system didn't track food costs. Also, owners had to wait until the end of the month for the controller to generate a profit and loss statement.

In 2001 the management company started its conversion to Compeat Restaurant Management Systems in different stages with a few locations a week. "Each conversion, for instance daily sales reporting, accounts payable, and inventory, was simple and smooth," apprises Albrecht.

In April 2006, Al Copeland Investments added a payroll module. Training occurred in mid February from a trailer since many people were still displaced from Hurricane Katrina. Microsoft Live Meeting enabled these employees to dial in and see exactly what to do.

"The conversion to Compeat was so simple our COO asked if the conversion had even taken place," Albrecht relates. "No one in operations had been complaining, so he didn't think it had happened!"

Al Copeland Investments has realized a number of benefits from moving its back office system online. Users can get information at a quicker pace, including next-day reporting. The transition enables the management company to eliminate several systems and go down to one.

Driving data for dashboards

Different point-of-sale (POS) systems served as a driving need for The Palm Restaurant Group, an 80-year-old family-owned company with 30 restaurants around the country, to examine moving its back office systems online.

Kelly McCardle, IT director at The Palm Restaurant Group, says corporate was asking store managers to complete significant amounts of data entry because they couldn't get the information everyone needed out of the POS system — information such as product mix, employee performance metrics, trends and average checks. Corporate then had to consolidate these 30 Excel spreadsheets (one from each restaurant) and transform all the information into its own Excel spreadsheet.

"We had a real need to stop the manual input of data because it's time consuming and you run the risk of lots of user error," informs McCardle.

The Palm Restaurant Group selected Mirus because it did enterprise-wide reporting and was POS neutral. This transition went hand-in-hand with the company's rollout of digital subscriber line technology in 2003. In first quarter, it polled the data to Mirus' data warehouse for validation. After training the project was fully operational by third quarter of 2003. Employees now log in at the Mirus website to access information and reports. One of the greatest benefits of this system is automated daily reporting, which means reports are ready online by 9 a.m. each day. Previously, restaurants printed nightly sales, entered the data into Excel, and then reports would go out to owners by 3 p.m.

The Palm Restaurant Group also established an executive dashboard for managers in 2005 using this sales information to help them run their restaurants more efficiently. It provides tools to help operators know how they're running their restaurants. The dashboard monitors performance metrics and shows a snapshot of the restaurant's performance in the last four months in color-coded key performance indicators.

"It's a wonderful tool since it points to a danger area early enough to start fixing the problem rather than letting it get out of hand," highlights McCardle. "General managers love it and show it to their staff. The results are also tied into their yearly bonus."

Internet-based applications

ZMC Hotels, Inc., a Minnesota-based company with 30-plus hotel properties and 50 legal entities, added Profitvue Enterprise back office from Aptech Computer Systems in 2003 to consolidate operating information at ZMC's home office. Before installing this system the properties were feeding information into corporate, but managers at the properties couldn't review the financial information before it was sent out.

Raija Macheledt, CFO and treasurer at ZMC Hotels, says the organization has experienced a number of benefits by enabling hotels to run their own accounting systems from the corporate back office application over the Internet. These include generating financial statements within 24 hours rather than two weeks and providing managers access to detailed information at any time in the Webvue Internet-based property accounting application.

"It's certainly much cheaper than a major computer system, and people are already familiar with the Internet so half of the training is already done," informs Macheledt.

ZMC Hotels added Aptech's Execuvue Business Intelligence system in 2005 using data from the properties and centralizing it in a business intelligence database to spot trends before they impact the bottom line. Macheledt says this enables them to create comparison reports with updates on a daily basis. "The key is we're getting information from the properties and turning it around into something they can view anytime," concludes Macheledt.

~ Vicki Powers, Contributing Editor, Hospitality Technology

Compeat Restaurant Management Systems Announces Compeat Back Office Software Based on Microsoft .NET

November 6, 2006 — Compeat Restaurant Management Systems, the leading provider of restaurant back office and accounting software, announced that Compeat Back Office 5 will be available to existing customers by year-end and to new customers in the first quarter of 2007.

Compeat Back Office 5 (Compeat Advantage) is a Smart Client application written entirely in Microsoft .NET and represents a fresh new face on an already popular product. It has been re-engineered from the ground up for greatly enhanced scalability and performance. By using Smart Client technology, Compeat Back Office combines the best features of both web applications and Windows applications. It allows for remote access and high scalability, while at the same time giving the user a rich and responsive interface. Additionally, the need for certain client access licenses from Microsoft will no longer be needed, thus reducing cost of ownership and increasing ROI.

“Compeat Back Office will streamline their current business processes, and – because of the built-in processes within the software – restaurateurs will have the ability to grow their business without drastically increasing administrative costs,” said Harry G. Barkerding, Founder and CEO of Compeat Restaurant Management Systems.

Compeat Back Office 5 includes many new features, including improved searching and enhanced browsing and filtering. In addition, all reports have been completely redesigned using Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. Key reports can now be scheduled and pushed to designated staff members on a daily basis. “This latest release allows users to have continuous access to their business information, enabling them to make the right decisions at the right time and in the right place,” added Barkerding.

Integrated document imaging has also been added to Compeat Back Office, which allows a scanned image of an invoice to be attached to the receiving detail, allowing it to be viewed or printed as needed. Updates to Compeat Back Office are accomplished through the use of smart client technology. Updates are applied to the server in the Home Office, which will then automatically update all client versions.

About Compeat Restaurant Management Systems
Compeat Restaurant Management Systems is the leading provider of restaurant back office and accounting software. Its line of products and services provides a totally integrated inventory and recipe management system with a powerful, yet easy to use accounting system, allowing restaurant owners to manage their restaurants with confidence.

Download PDF version

Former New Orleans Technology
Firm Finds Success in Austin

November 3, 2006 — You wouldn’t know it’s been a difficult year at Compeat Restaurant Management Systems by the numbers. The company that develops software to handle the back-office operations of restaurants — from New York’s acclaimed French bistro Jean-Georges to the entertainment powerhouse chain Dave & Busters — is on track to break $2 million in sales in 2006, nearly double last year’s revenue. At the same time, Compeat has added three staff members for a total of 13 employees, and is looking for more. But the company founded in New Orleans in 2000 was uprooted by Hurricane Katrina, which left some employees with nothing. Compeat spent months in temporary offices in Dallas before finding a new permanent home in Austin in February. Harry Barkerding, CEO of the software firm, says if he had returned Compeat to New Orleans, he’s convinced the company would not have survived.

Growing pains
Typically, restaurants have purchased inventory management software along with separate accounting programs to handle both sides of the business. The problem: One software system couldn’t communicate with the other. Enter Compeat. Barkerding is quick to note that Compeat’s isn’t the only software that allows various management systems to communicate. But he says, unlike the competitors, his is the only system that brings each transaction all the way through to the company’s general ledger in a seamless fashion. On Nov. 6, Compeat

will unveil a redeveloped version of its product line that is truly Web-enabled, allowing the company to better serve its larger customers.

“We think we’re going to be able to lighten some of the burden through this new platform,” Barkerding says. Karen Ferreira, chief financial officer of Truluck’s, says her company used to outsource accounting for its six restaurants (currently 10) before discovering Compeat. Now, everything from inventory to accounting is done on one system. “We think it’s more efficient and easier to use,” she says. “Plus, I can access the information on my laptop from anywhere.”

Barkerding has been developing restaurant-specific software since 1988, when he created an accounting system for Copeland’s of New Orleans. Later in 2000, he left the corporate offices of Ruth’s Chris Steak House Inc. to form his own software development firm dubbed Compeat. The company had a lot of initial growing pains. With no track record, Compeat found it difficult to get restaurants to even listen to a sales pitch. By 2002, Compeat’s initial funding began to dry up. Eventually, new investors came to Compeat’s rescue with a cash infusion that carried the firm through the rocky period.

“We have not had a financial crisis since that time,” Barkerding says. “We operated within our means. There were things we wanted to do but couldn’t afford, so we didn’t do them.” Today, Compeat has 225 customers ranging from $1 million to $500 million in annual sales. Truluck’s, Dave & Busters and Waterloo Ice House are among the restaurants with local operations that use Compeat systems. With many clients operating multiple locations, the company’s products are in more than 1,200 individual restaurants.

A New Home Base
Just before Hurricane Katrina struck, Compeat’s staff went into action, executing a previously designed plan for relocating the company’s operations to Dallas. Just days later, the company was fully operational in Big D. But after the hurricane passed, “it was obvious we weren’t going back to New Orleans anytime soon,” Barkerding says. While it was universally agreed Dallas wouldn’t be Compeat’s permanent home, the company considered a number of cities in the central part of the country, such as Nashville. But when Barkerding decided to scout out Austin on a short trip, he returned with a decision his employees embraced. “To us, Austin just seemed like a slam dunk,” he says.

This article is reprinted from the Austin Business Journal, Volume 26, Number 32, November 3-9, 2006, page A8.

~ A.J. Mistretta
amistretta@bizjournals.com

20/20 Vision

November 1, 2006 — Centralizing applications had a profound effect for the 23 U.S.-based stores of Le Pain Quotidien, a bakery-café concept headquartered in Brussels.

Prior to implementing its enterprise management solution, the restaurant used Peachtree accounting and specialty production inventory software for an overall solution that was "in the stone age," according to Michael Castagnetti, Le Pain Quotidien's director of IT. "We would fax daily orders to the production center, all based on our gut feeling," he recalls. Processes included double or triple manual data entry into separate programs. Annual price adjustments on 30 to 40 items took a week to implement.

Le Pain Quotidien implemented Compeat and a Micros enterprise management system. Remote sites access the applications via a VPN. Though Le Pain Quotidien implemented over the course of two years, the company saw quick benefits: data entered in one place is automatically reconciled elsewhere. The company now saves a week closing the books and sales are reported daily or sometimes hourly versus once a week. Le Pain Quotidien also measures table turns -- something the chain wants to extend, contrary to typical restaurant practices, due to its relaxed atmosphere and communal tables.

"It's helped with management decisions," apprises Castagnetti, such as scheduling staff by day-part according to each location's traffic, and providing regional managers with insight into operations issues. "We would not be where we are today without this as a tool," he notes. Le Pain Quotidien also uses the infrastructure to remotely support POS systems, dropping service contracts.

"The biggest impact is, it's allowed us to grow in a much more structured and faster way," says Castagnetti, since there is little technology to install locally. "It allows us to make decisions faster and more accurately," he adds.

~ Lisa Terry, Contributing Editor

Katrina-Displaced Compeat Donates Office Supplies to Louisiana Elementary School After Corporate Rebranding

October 11, 2006 — Compeat Restaurant Management Systems, the leading provider of restaurant back office software, announced today that it will be making a donation of over 1700 pens, note pads, and folders to Joseph S. Maggiore, Sr. Elementary School in Metairie, Louisiana.

Originally located in Metairie, Compeat was forced to move to Dallas, Texas last September during Hurricane Katrina. One year later, the company and many of its original employees have relocated to Austin. "The transition – we've been in three different cities in the last year – has been hard," said Harry Barkerding, founder and CEO of Compeat Restaurant Management Systems. "However, the last year has been good to us in other ways. We've had a record year and we plan on doing more great things in the months and years to come."

Part of the Compeat plan included a corporate rebranding effort, which left the company with a large supply of "obsolete" office supplies – supplies with the old corporate branding. "We've been fortunate," he said. "Many of us still have family and friends back in Louisiana and we felt that, instead of throwing the supplies in the trash, we'd try to do something positive with them."

The problem, though, was what to do with them. Through an Internet search, Compeat found iLoveSchools.com, a non-profit company dedicated to matching donors with recipient schools. School teachers build wish lists of equipment, materials and supplies. Donors locate teachers through the wish list search and offer their donations of new or used items.

By conducting a wish list search, Compeat was able to find over 50 schools in Louisiana that were requesting assistance. Refining the search turned up a school from Metairie: Maggiore Elementary School. Once the connection was made, there was no turning back; not only is Maggiore Elementary from Compeat's hometown, but the school is named after the father of one of the Compeat employees.

"It's a natural fit," said Barkerding. "We had something they needed. It feels good to be able to give back to the community like that."

About iLoveSchools.com
Non-profit I Love Schools, Inc. provides a matching service between America's school teachers and generous donors of new or used classroom equipment, materials and supplies. Over 40,000 teachers ask for anything from pens and pencils to naptime rugs. 100% of a donor's new or used gift goes directly to the teacher they choose. Visit www.iLoveSchools.com to find a teacher in need.

About Compeat Restaurant Management Systems
Compeat Restaurant Management Systems is the leading provider of restaurant back office and accounting software. Its flagship product, Compeat Back Office Software, is the first fully integrated inventory and back office accounting system created specifically for the foodservice and hospitality industry. Today over 200 customers use Compeat in over 1,000 restaurants, with annual sales ranging from $1 million to $400 million.

Contact
iLoveSchools.com
Jerry Hall
Executive Director
858-274-2121
jhall@iLoveSchools.com

Download PDF version

Mission Automation

October 1, 2006 — Consolidating financial data can be a daunting task when hotels and restaurants lack standardized back office applications and systems. This creates a number of challenges as well, including difficulty analyzing and generating customized reports. More and more hospitality companies are moving their back office systems online to save costs and improve productivity.

Moving real-time information

Al Copeland Investments, a privately owned management company in Louisiana, comprises 30 different restaurants, 30 franchises, and 19 different corporations. Several years ago, the company relied on Platinum for Windows as its off-the-shelf accounting software.

Shari Albrecht, controller for Al Copeland's restaurant division, says this software didn't cater to the needs of those in the restaurant industry. Managers couldn't get information they needed on a daily basis and the system didn't track food costs. Also, owners had to wait until the end of the month for the controller to generate a profit and loss statement.

In 2001 the management company started its conversion to Compeat Back Office Software in different stages with a few locations a week. "Each conversion, for instance daily sales reporting, accounts payable, and inventory, was simple and smooth," apprises Albrecht.

In April 2006, Al Copeland Investments added a payroll module. Training occurred in mid February from a trailer since many people were still displaced from Hurricane Katrina. Microsoft Live Meeting enabled these employees to dial in and see exactly what to do.

"The conversion to Compeat was so simple our COO asked if the conversion had even taken place," Albrecht relates. "No one in operations had been complaining, so he didn't think it had happened!"

Al Copeland Investments has realized a number of benefits from moving its back office system online. Users can get information at a quicker pace, including next-day reporting. The transition enables the management company to eliminate several systems and go down to one.

Driving data for dashboards

Different point-of-sale (POS) systems served as a driving need for The Palm Restaurant Group, an 80-year-old family-owned company with 30 restaurants around the country, to examine moving its back office systems online.

Kelly McCardle, IT director at The Palm Restaurant Group, says corporate was asking store managers to complete significant amounts of data entry because they couldn't get the information everyone needed out of the POS system -- information such as product mix, employee performance metrics, trends and average checks. Corporate then had to consolidate these 30 Excel spreadsheets (one from each restaurant) and transform all the information into its own Excel spreadsheet.

"We had a real need to stop the manual input of data because it's time consuming and you run the risk of lots of user error," informs McCardle.

The Palm Restaurant Group selected Mirus (www.mirus.com) because it did enterprise-wide reporting and was POS neutral. This transition went hand-in-hand with the company's rollout of digital subscriber line technology in 2003. In first quarter, it polled the data to Mirus' data warehouse for validation. After training the project was fully operational by third quarter of 2003. Employees now log in at the Mirus Web site to access information and reports. One of the greatest benefits of this system is automated daily reporting, which means reports are ready online by 9 a.m. each day. Previously, restaurants printed nightly sales, entered the data into Excel, and then reports would go out to owners by 3 p.m.

The Palm Restaurant Group also established an executive dashboard for managers in 2005 using this sales information to help them run their restaurants more efficiently. It provides tools to help operators know how they're running their restaurants. The dashboard monitors performance metrics and shows a snapshot of the restaurant's performance in the last four months in color-coded key performance indicators.

"It's a wonderful tool since it points to a danger area early enough to start fixing the problem rather than letting it get out of hand," highlights McCardle. "General managers love it and show it to their staff. The results are also tied into their yearly bonus."

Internet-based applications

ZMC Hotels, Inc., a Minnesota-based company with 30-plus hotel properties and 50 legal entities, added Profitvue Enterprise back office from Aptech Computer Systems (www.aptech-inc.com) in 2003 to consolidate operating information at ZMC's home office. Before installing this system the properties were feeding information into corporate, but managers at the properties couldn't review the financial information before it was sent out.

Raija Macheledt, CFO and treasurer at ZMC Hotels, says the organization has experienced a number of benefits by enabling hotels to run their own accounting systems from the corporate back office application over the Internet. These include generating financial statements within 24 hours rather than two weeks and providing managers access to detailed information at any time in the Webvue Internet-based property accounting application.

"It's certainly much cheaper than a major computer system, and people are already familiar with the Internet so half of the training is already done," informs Macheledt.

ZMC Hotels added Aptech's Execuvue Business Intelligence system in 2005 using data from the properties and centralizing it in a business intelligence database to spot trends before they impact the bottom line. Macheledt says this enables them to create comparison reports with updates on a daily basis. "The key is we're getting information from the properties and turning it around into something they can view anytime," concludes Macheledt.

~ Vicki Powers, Contributing Editor, Hospitality Technology

Pay it Forward

October 1, 2005 —

Hospitality Technology: When did you first formulate your evacuation plan?

Harry Barkerding: This all started last year when we dodged a serious bullet with Hurricane Ivan. At the last minute it moved away from New Orleans and we were spared totally. But for a week afterwards something didn't sit right with me.

Soon after I got the team together and asked, "what would have happened if the storm came here?" It was very, very difficult to convince our team that a disaster could happen. We could not even begin to put together a plan until everyone understood the risk. Once we got to the point that people recognized the potential, we had several meetings throughout the year to develop the plan. When we had a minor storm come through earlier this summer we had dry run. Friday before Katrina hit, it seemed imminent, and we decided to put the plan in action.

HT: Do you know the conditions of your employee's homes?

HB: There are hundreds of thousands of people without homes. We have one miracle of one employee who doesn't have a shingle out of place, but one gal whose home was several hundred yards from the levee break was devastated. In my case and for two other employees, our houses are total losses. We have various renters that did not lose much. For many of us, we are still weeks away from even being able to return to our neighborhoods.

HT: Will you return to New Orleans?

HB: Emotions are running high and there is still a huge amount of unknown and confusion. As a business we are committed to remaining here in Dallas and we are probably going to re-establish in Austin, Texas. It is unlikely that we are going to return to New Orleans full time. There is so much that has been wiped out. I am a life-long, multi-generational resident of New Orleans. Rebuilding the city will be really, really, really tough.

HT: You are staying at Dave & Buster's corporate office, how helpful have they been?

HB: If I could ask one thing, it would be for everybody to play one game and eat one meal at Dave and Buster's in appreciation for what they have done for us. I contacted them a year ago when we first formulated the plan. I wasn't afraid to ask if they could host us, because their facility is quite abundant. Although no one really expected it to happen, everybody has been absolutely fantastic.

They have done tremendous things not only to support our organization, but also my people. They didn't need to do it to the extent that they are continuing to support us, but they have. I was in touch with VP IT Barbara Core when we were in transit, but when we pulled up there were probably ten people waiting there to help us. I don't know what I am going to do to repay them. What I want Barbara and the other people at Dave and Buster's to know is that I believe in the concept of "pay it forward." I may not be able to do it directly, but we will do something for someone else in their name.

Harry Barkerding is the founder and president of New Orleans-based Compeat Restaurant Accounting Systems.

~ Mary Carlin, Contributing Editor, Hospitality Technology

Untethered Access

October 1, 2005 — More and more hotels and restaurants are untethering their back-office applications and taking advantage of hosted and application service provider (ASP)-based solutions. With less technology at remote units and easier access for management, the wireless office has finally come of age.

Self-learning Handhelds
Internet-based back office solutions are changing the way restaurant operators do business, as shown by Jeff Weiss, senior manager of IT store operations for the 45-unit Dallas-based Dave and Buster's, which serves up food and entertainment in equal measures. Dave and Buster's has been using Compeat's Back Office system since October 2001, and went live with the wireless inventory component right away for food, six months later for beverage, and six months after that for redemption. "Now, we're completely live in real time with five Symbol PPT 8800 handhelds per store, and Cisco Systems' wireless access points," explains Weiss.

"The biggest pros are labor savings and accuracy," Weiss adds. "It reduces the number of people to two thirds as many, and the time to do inventory by half. Now we count by position for food in storage, and by barcode on bottles for the bar. It's self-learning, and asks for information on new barcodes automatically." The system allows Dave and Buster's to count by the bottle or case at the same time (in multiple units), and the handhelds read from the bar codes to know the difference.

Out of the Stone Age
Wireless inventory has so completely changed the way that Dave and Buster's does business, that no one can remember how it used to be done. "The labor savings could easily cover the ROI, but the staff got too used to it," says Weiss. "Last week a general manager called me with his wireless network down, and I suggested they do a paper inventory. He thought that was like chiseling into stone, or using an abacus, but that was how we did it for 20 years!" Weiss' only regrets are that Dave and Buster's initially launched with less expensive equipment, like consumer-grade handhelds, which broke easily and lost settings and programming if their power was lost. "You also need good wireless coverage. Interference from our games was an issue, so we went to better and more access points, and have four to eight store now."

Jeff's advice to operators considering wireless inventory is to learn from his experience. "Take the time to position it right--from coolers to programming, keep it in the same order. The more work you do up front, the quicker your inventory process will go."

The first time through is time consuming, getting all the programming in, Weiss recalls. "Training was a bit of a challenge, putting bartenders and computers in the same sentence, but they did pick it up quickly, and through paper manuals only. The handheld applications are fairly self-explanatory." Weiss says that Compeat had the most robust and flexible product, with quick responses from the support desk: "In terms of development, they've been uniquely responsive in requests for software enhancements. Our support desk says it's the most stable system we have."

Weiss sees a wireless future for the restaurant industry, with improved networking, less expensive hardware, and increased functionality. "We're looking at wireless receiving with Compeat when it's offered, but ask, and you will receive," he says.

~ Mary Carlin, Contributing Editor, Hospitality Technology

Storm Past . . . Storm Path

September 22, 2005 — With most of the French Quarter still shuttered and another hurricane churning across the Gulf of Mexico, a scattered handful of business owners were struggling to reopen this week.

"I've got to make a living," said Vaughn L. Morenti, owner of Bourbon Street Party Balcony & Facility, which rents spaces for Mardi Gras and other events, and a souvenir shop that sells Mardi Gras beads, masks and T-shirts. The souvenir shop's cash register and a generator had been carried off by looters, and the interior was dark and stifling, but Morenti said there was no chance he would leave his business again.

Around him, the landscape was unpromising. In a city that a week ago sounded as if its business core would be up and running in no time, only a few doors were opening. And some businesses may never return. Jim Funk, the chief executive of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, said he expects a quarter of the area's 3,400 restaurants are closed for good because of a lack of enough insurance coverage, added to what looks like months of little to no business.

Many Bourbon Street restaurants remain closed -- with none of the telltale signs of reopening, such as trucks parked in front bearing industrial strength carpet dryers.

Julio Menjivar was dragging cases of 7-Up and Coca-Cola into Utopia, a bar on Bourbon Street, on Tuesday, preparing for a smattering of customers. When he came to check on the bar Sunday, people stopped by to ask if he was open, so he pulled out some beers and let them stay. By Tuesday night his electricity was back, and he was fully opened. "Everyone has Dominos pizza, and it turned into a beer and pizza party," he said.

"A lot of people are just looking at things now and may not know for sure what they're going to do," Funk said. "We're only three and a half weeks past the storm, and communication is still a challenge in this area. E-mails are sporadic. Insurance adjustors are backed up." And water is still not potable. The association is working with the Department of Health to come up with creative but safe ways for restaurants to reopen. On the possible list are bottled water, water shipped in, and plastic plates and utensils. "Can you imagine that at Commander's Palace?" Funk asked with a wry laugh.

Compeat Restaurant Management & Accounting Systems, a company that provides accounting software to restaurants, was based in Metairie, La., until the Sunday before the storm. Harry Barkerding, who founded the company in 2000, said he made a contingency plan after Hurricane Ivan to leave. Now he has moved to Texas. "It is unlikely I will move my business back to the city," said the lifelong New Orleans resident. "I have a young, growing business, and it's one that is portable. From an emotional standpoint, that's a whole other matter."

Barkerding said Dave and Buster's, a major client of his in Dallas, agreed to house the company temporarily if another hurricane hit. When the storm approached, Barkerding got his plan rolling. He and his 13 employees were on the road Sunday and plugged in to servers at Dave and Buster's in Dallas by 11 a.m. Monday, as the storm raged in Louisiana. He did payroll on Tuesday, as he normally would, and sent out monthly billing to clients on Wednesday. He plans to relocate permanently in Austin.

"This was seemingly the best choice with the cards in front of me," he said, choking up as he spoke. "I'm a lifelong resident who's seen lots and lots of hurricanes come and go. But I'm at a point where I have a growing business and employees who rely on me. If we were forced to stay in New Orleans and be down for the many weeks, I'd be out of business."

One of his clients, the historical restaurant Antoine's, is not so portable. Located on Louis Street since 1840, the 1,300-seat restaurant that claims to be the originator of Oysters Rockefeller is trying to make its comeback.

Michael J. Guste, general manager, was at the restaurant Tuesday, as Dryout, a company that provides huge fans to remove moisture, was at work -- for $10,000 a day, according to Guste. The restaurant, founded in 1840, has been in his family for five generations. "And it will be here for a sixth and seventh," he said.

He had set up on the sidewalk this week with his cousin, Rick Blunt, who helps him run the business, and Finis Shelnutt, a real estate broker in the area, cooking red beans and rice for anyone in the city.

Tuesday night, they scored fresh chicken and made a pot of jambalaya for about 100 passers-by, mostly military, journalists, and a few French Quarter holdouts. They pulled out white tablecloths and a few tables to seat anyone who wanted to stop. Flashlights worked as ambiance, and Shelnutt later found a generator to hook up to portable lights and a fan.

Guste said he has been in touch with his Chicago-based meat supplier, which said it is ready to cut and ship meat for Antoine's. His dishwasher supplier gave him chemicals for clean up. He hopes to have a small rollout in two weeks.

And as for Hurricane Rita? Guste said the restaurant will secure the roof of the four-story building and hope for the best. "That's not going to stop us."

~ Amy Joyce, Washington Post Staff Writer, Washington Post

Building Relationships

September 1, 2005 — Managing the wide-range of relationships, suppliers and food-cost variables has always been one part science, two-parts art for hospitality operators. While a loft, ambition, bringing logic and efficiency to the supply chain has proven difficult. After a brief flirtation with the fantastical promises of a few dot-com companies, hotel and restaurant companies are finally giving renewed attention to supply chain. Using supplier-relationship management and materials-management tools, as well as a more sophisticated approach to procurement and managing the supply chain, making the supply chain work.

With four locations around Chicago, Weber Grill Restaurant added the Compeat Restaurant Accounting System in 2003 after its previous software product focused only on the inventory side. Compeat's system seamlessly merges accounting and inventory needs for the hospitality industry. It also includes purchasing/receiving, menu item sales, theoretical versus actual analysis, and prep portioning. Weber Nation's Bradley Ritz, corporate purchasing manager at LSG Food Services, says as a growing company Weber Grill Restaurant needs systems that allow the business to do a number of jobs of the business at the same time. According to Ritz the Compeat system allows Weber Grill to

Restaurants often create a high-volume, high-stress environment where managers are required to juggle 15 to 20 balls at any one time. Ritz says anything his restaurants can do to obtain efficiency and consistency makes managers' jobs easier with less chance for error.

At Weber Grill, Ritz's job is streamlining the supply chain so people touching the food and serving drinks can focus on their jobs rather than putting fires out all day, which can become a costly exercise. "With an efficient supply chain, managers can focus ultimately on what they were hired to doâ€"provide customers with an extremely good experience," Ritz says.

The biggest advantage to Weber Grill's supply chain/materials management solution, according to Ritz, is it allows him to extract historical buying data and then use that data to negotiate the best possible contracts and deals with vendors. Ritz can pull data over a period of time (such as how many pounds of beef were purchased or the dollar amount spent on ribs) and use that information to forecast buying habits going forward.

"One thing that opens eyes is to sit with a vendor and tell him we spent thousands of dollars to the penny on a specific product and what we'll be buying in the future," Ritz says.

The software also enables Ritz to compare food costs from one restaurant to another and achieve a greater degree of consistency and continuity in terms of food and beverage for the guest. A slightly different price in butter can cause a fairly significant difference in what a plate costs from one restaurant to another.

"Without a centralized system in place, it would be impossible to get that type of control," Ritz says.

Managing Materials

Three years ago Pechanga Resort & Casino opened in Southern California with its materials management system from Agilysys already in place. This huge property, boasting 522 resort-style rooms, casino, health club, spa, theater and convention facility insisted on having a complete inventory and procurement system to manage its entire online procurement process ready at start-up.

"The beauty of the system is it's all-encompassing with inventory, retail, barcoding, accounts payable, purchasing and recipe analysis," states Jim Guenthner, Pechanga's purchasing manager. "A large property that buys the volume we buy and has to manage goods once they hit the dock—whether it's sheets, towels, toilet paper or vehicles—benefits from this system that has the best encompassing technology to wrap it up all together."

Guenthner says the materials management system (MMS) helps Pechanga ensure the best possible bid price. The MMS system also offers real-time inventory control and captures the procurement history for each item, which plays a big factor at budgeting time when employees need to know how much they spent. A database of vendor history ensures the resort/casino gets the price actually quoted. If a product is one penny more than quoted, the system blocks the invoice and it must route for approval.

To get the best possible vendor bids, a number of companies offer bids, then system generates a bid list that ties into its ordering system. When it's time to place orders in produce, for example, the system selects according to price, which ensures that Pechanga gets the best price available for the right product.

"There are numerous benefits of running a large property with a multi-million inventory and knowing everything coming and going is accounted for," Guenthner says. "That's ultimately the goal."

Guenthner says the materials management system saves a tremendous amount of labor as most buyers do the majority of work on a computer rather than making phone calls. It also creates a paperless office, which provides a big savings to the company.

Gaining Insight

A merger in 2001 created a need to rethink purchasing when Nathan's Famous purchased Miami Subs and acquired its purchasing organization. Nancy Murphy, vice president of purchasing, says it became important to consolidate data so the organization could use the information to know where in the country it needed different products and how many products it needed to bid more effectively.

"We build our brand and conduct our business all through the supply chain," Murphy states. "That's what the restaurant runs on, especially with franchise organizationsâ€"getting the proper product at the right price at the right time with the correct quality."

Nathan's added Instill's Purchasing Insight to gather accurate supply chain purchasing data to find hidden cost savings in the supply chain. The organization might use one brand of mayonnaise in New York, another in Florida, and another in Texas.

Murphy says it's important to have the technology to capture that information and get bids to take over the business in all distribution centers. The organization also uses a Contract Management system that matches contract prices with actual purchases. This provides a cost savings by ensuring distributors are charging the right price. Overall, Murphy says the system has saved the organization money and provided better information.

~ Vicki Powers, Contributing Editor, Hospitality Technology

Putting Data to Work

July 1, 2005 — About two years ago, the eight-unit Culpepper's casual-dining chain sought to get a better handle on inventory, as described by company partner Chris Olson.

"We were managing on a location by location basis with tons of spreadsheets and Peachtree (accounting software)," Olson recalls. "But when we went from four stores to eight in a very short time, we knew we had outgrown those processes. Plus we wanted to automatically generate levels, but not by having our managers sitting in their offices five hours a day."

It was then Culpepper's turned to Compeat, which provided the chain with a client-server-based and centralized view of inventory and purchasing. "We now create electronic purchase orders that are converted to invoices right away and have significantly reduced errors and improved workflow. Plus, the detail is specific to restaurants and you can tailor inventories by fluid ounce, weight, count, and other metrics specific to our operations," Olson says. He even boasts that the inventory piece alone has reduced his clerical salary expenses by as much as $50,000 per year.

Culpepper's has since added Compeat's accounting, sales and product forecasting modules that according to Olson, provide an end-to-end solution that is connected to the chain's Micros 3700 point of sale. Olson also makes extensive use of Compeat's eXcellent™ Financial Functions, which link his spreadsheets to the Compeat GL to generate customized reports.

~ Ed Rubinstein, Contributing Editor, Hospitality Technology

Signs of Intelligent Life

June 1, 2005 — Business intelligence email, faxes and Excel spreadsheets have been essential tools to help hospitality executives gather and analyze data. But advances in technology and increased competitiveness are driving the need to go one better, with faster, more sophisticated solutions.

Many are turning to business intelligence tools to gain visibility and insights. According to an IT industry survey by Forrester Research, user demand for business intelligence is expected to rise by 9 percent in 2005.

At Innkeepers Hospitality, the hotel management arm of Innkeepers USA Trust, the struggle just to get data from its brands' proprietary property management systems via email, and then key-punched into accounting systems became unbearable. Ambitiously, the firm decided to rollout an Aptech business-intelligence tool in the midst of a 90-day implementation of JDEdwards accounting software, in order to meet SEC requirements.

Intercepting eMail
Thankfully, both went smoothly. Now Visual Basic scripts intercept 1,000 to 1,200 daily incoming e-mails with varying types of data and insert it directly into the Aptech database. It's then used to create reports for executives and export data to the accounting system. Just six of its more than 70 properties can send data directly into the system.

As a result, Innkeepers executives receive reports by 10 am rather than 3 pm. "Having access to that data so fast means managers can now react a lot quicker to trends," says Marc Dober, business applications manager. "They can go in via a dashboard, click on a report, and it pulls the latest data," which is more accurate. Revenue management uses it to compare internal data to STAR competitive market reports. Comparison data is particularly helpful during budget season, he adds, and Innkeepers plans to increase use of the tool for forecasting, planning and budgeting.
"We learned that our business is very cyclical and trend oriented," says Dober. "We knew that to a point, but now we know even better and can really plan for spikes in business," such as better allocating labor.

Multidimensional Thinking
Budgeting was also on the minds of White Lodging Services when the 90-hotel operator chose to deploy a tool from Clarity. "We were getting too complex to send Excel worksheets back and forth, and we would lose track of changes," says Carolyn Cochran, VP, accounting and IS. The hotelier also wanted to fully leverage its Hyperion Essbase multidimensional database.

"We tried to make the templates as close as we could to our existing budgeting solution, therefore it was an easy rollout to end users," says Cochran. "Once we were familiar with that I was able to easily build a whole reporting portfolio."

White Lodging uses the Clarity tool for daily reporting, forecasting, STAR data comparisons, and to centralize purchasing. Other uses include loading daily labor data into Essbase for analysis, and flow-through, flexible budgeting. Plans include adding the ability to drill down into transactional data.
The solution has enabled hotels to access their own data, and made decision-making more proactive. "We're able to quickly see stats such as supplies [spending] versus budget and see trends quicker by region," Cochran adds, making employees more efficient and better allocating resources.

Hotels are not the only hospitality organizations tapping business intelligence. Brixx Wood-Fired Pizza, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Macayo's Mexican Kitchen of Phoenix, needed better tools to collect data from their restaurants.

Brixx uses a solution from Posera to pull data from the Maitre'D POS system at its six restaurants, including sales, labor, payroll, product mix and inventory. "We use it for comparison sales, sales reporting, managing invoices, to see trends and to help with ordering," by checking alcohol usage, for example, says Eric Horsley, owner. Managers spend less time working with data and more on the floor, and can better run sales contests, contain labor costs and manage invoices, says Sandy Lash, general manager of Brixx's Birkdale Village unit. "We've gotten a lot of insights now that we didn't have before," says Lash.

The day-and-a-half it took accounting to process payroll is reduced to 30 minutes, and the data provides insights into food costing. "We use it for new menus, to see what's really moving and not moving, as well as an idea of where food costs should be and what's the variance from that," Horsley notes.

Macayo's needed a solution not only to pull in data to replace manual spreadsheet entry, but to issue invoices to units for use of its commissary. Using Compeat, the 17-unit chain now pulls in Radiant Systems Aloha POS data daily for reporting or sales, cost of sales and soon, labor, as well as to collect invoices entered by restaurant managers.

Fast, easy access to data "enhances our ability to manage stores better," says Bob Myers, CFO. "They can see labor and food costs the next day."
Increased efficiency and accuracy has helped reduce accounting staff, and Macayo's has improved inventory control, says Kathy Biernot, accounting supervisor. "We can increase sales because we've not run out of something, it deters theft, and aids in reordering." Alerts point out variances between expected and actual data.

Macayo's also plans to add flash reports and food costing. "Mexican food is very hard for food costing -- we have lots of combo plates and substitutions," Myers explains.

The application has had such an impact that even a year after deploying, "We can't even picture what we used to do," says Biernot. "The longer we're on the system, the more proficient store managers become."

~ Lisa Terry, Contributing Editor, Hospitality Technology

Back Office Tool Box

May 1, 2005 — Big Burrito has been mixing innovative, award-winning contemporary cuisine with creative restaurant design and exciting dining experiences at its nine Pittsburgh area restaurant since 1993.

The back-office operations, however, were another matter. Managing six Mad Mex restaurant locations, which serve Mexican food and offer an extensive beer list, would be enough. Add in Casbah, which serves upscale Mediterranean inspired dishes, Soba's pan-Asian cuisine, Umi's focus on Japanese fare and contemporary American cuisine at Eleven, and you can begin to understand the need to assert order in the Big Burrito world.

"Our financials were primarily driven by Excel spreadsheets and we outsourced our accounting operations," admits Jim Miller, director of information systems/information technology at Big Burrito. "Our company has grown to the point that this was not only very inefficient, but a relatively costly way of doing business. Paper flow alone was so inefficient that it caused delays in preparing and finalizing our financials."

Miller's top priority was to bring accounting operations in-house, centralize its data and make it accessible for actionable reporting. To achieve these goals, Miller quickly realized that Big Burrito needed a comprehensive back-office solution, not just a replacement for his current spreadsheets. After an exhaustive search, Miller selected Compeat Restaurant Management and Accounting Systems.

Getting Buy-In

Purchasing, inventory management, accounting and reporting were the primary focus once the system was installed. "If Compeat was just an accounting package, we would likely not have purchased it," Miller notes. "The fact that it is a full featured accounting and inventory management system set it apart."

Already, use of the system has spread out to include Big Burrito's corporate chef, accounting department and inventory manager, who all access the system from within the corporate office.

"Our accounting process has become much more efficient and we now have access to an exceptional set of tools and reports that are meaningful to our business," adds Miller. At the restaurants, managers use Microsoft Remote Desktop Web Connection to access the system in the corporate office to enter invoices and work with the inventory.

Big Burrito polls data from its Aloha point of sale from Radiant Systems. To bring the data into the back-office system, the POS polling is replicated on a server, where it is interfaced to the Compeat system. The POS data in exported in XML format to the Compeat server in Big Burrito's corporate office. In the final step, the data is made accessible online to Big Burrito users.

According to Miller, a key advantage of having all of the data centralized is that Big Burrito can now see food-cost trends as well as review food-cost comparisons for its six Mad Mex locations. "This helped us to identify costing problems and ultimately reduce food costs," he notes. "This is something that is very critical to any restaurant business and we were not able to do this with our Excel spreadsheet system."

Theoretical Inventories

For Big Burrito, the next step is to begin using Compeat's theoretical inventory feature. With a broad range of menu items for its various restaurant concepts, enforcing efficiency on inventory and procurement is an ongoing struggle. "This will help us to take our inventory management to the next level by identifying excessive waste and have better control over shortages," Miller explains.

"From an overall systems point of view, we have just begun to scratch the surface," Miller concludes. "Over the past year, we have managed to centralize our POS data as well as our accounting data. We are now in the process of creating and providing meaningful information that will help to drive our business to become more profitable."

~ Reid A. Paul, Editor-in-Chief, Hospitality Technology