In association with


chief operating officer at Deep Blue Restau- rants. “We had a fragmented tech stack where everything was disjointed and separate. We had different providers for our EPoS and digi- tal ordering, and all our delivery partners on top of this,” he adds. Deep Blue went from managing its digi-


tal ordering, EPoS, kitchens and third-party delivery platforms with separate providers to running it all on one platform with Vita Mojo’s Order Manage- ment System. Deep Blue ini-


tially met with Vita Mojo to explore intro- ducing ordering kiosks in some of its busiest sites, but the res- taurant tech pro- vider saw several inefficiencies in the Deep Blues’ oper- ations beyond simply digital ordering. It would take the Deep


Blue team three weeks to make menu updates because changes needed to be made across all different platforms, leading to the brand having two people working on menu updates alone. As well as time being wasted, there was a huge margin for error and often mistakes were made. But now, menu items, images and pricing can be changed instantly through just one system, so Deep Blue’s menus are up to date and consistent across every channel.


www.thecaterer.com


With the new system in place, third-party delivery orders are auto-accepted and go straight to the kitchen. In addition to efficiency and labour savings, Ellison also notes finan- cial benefits: “People say the biggest upside to digital ordering is the increase in average spend. I was sceptical about this at first, but results have been very positive. We typically see a 20%-30% uplift in average transaction value when some- one uses a kiosk or mobile order and pay rather than when they use the till,” he says. “In one of our busi- est sites in Bour- nemouth, we are seeing 50% of sales go through kiosks, which makes a big dif- ference during


peak hours.” How was the pro-


cess of migrating


from multiple service providers to a single plat- form? Ellison says: “We used to have three or four different till


systems, so integrating them all into one and getting the team used to it was a challenge. But we’re really happy with the system now.” He adds: “A lot of people see [technology] as


a hindrance and I can sympathise with that. Fish and chips are very traditional and we were also hesitant to move away from the conven- tional way of doing things. But our journey has shown it’s worth the risk and hard work to get there.”


FRONT TO BACK


In addition to processing payments, a modern EPoS system can offer time and money-saving features such as reporting, stock management, kitchen management and staff scheduling. Room 305 started as a coffee shop in the centre of Whitley Bay on the Northumberland coast five years ago and upgraded its kitchen during Covid. With the business offering an expanded menu of Greek and Turkish dishes as well as a broad range of drinks and cocktails, co-owner Gill Haciouglu found that the existing EPoS was no longer fit for purpose. “We needed something that would integrate


with the Xero accounting system as well as with our card provider. We also wanted a sys- tem that worked on iPads, which we already used,” she says, adding that Room 305 chose a Tabology Restaurant EPoS system which includes a full range of features. “We use the back-office functions for stock management, and to calculate gross profit,” she says. “With food prices changing so fre- quently, it’s useful to be able to enter your cost price and use the gross profit calculator to see what the menu price needs to be.” Haciouglu also finds the staff sign-in fea-


ture very useful. “If there’s ever a query on a bill, I can see who handled it, who took the payment, whether it was a split bill, and so on. I can open the back office from wherever I am and check what’s happened, and speak to the staff member involved. We also do some cus- tomer and staff discounts, and it’s useful to check who’s putting those through.” She adds: “I don’t have to be on site to check something. I can keep an eye on the busi- ness in real time, as well as historically, from anywhere. That’s really useful.”


Technology Prospectus 2024 | 21


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