! THE DISRUPTION EDITION SPECIAL: DATA COLLECTION


Data is the new dish of the day


The foodservice sector is awash with data – on inventory, orders, customer behavior or any other parameter of a business – but many operators are not making the best use of it. Industry experts tell Jim Banks what data to gather, how to get value from it and whether the future of the industry is inevitably data-driven


A


n unstoppable tide of digital transformation is sweeping through every industry – and foodservice, though it lags behind many other sectors, is being carried along on the wave. Any up-to-date POS system will present restaurant operators with a host of information on orders, inventory, how often a particular ingredient was used, costs, profit margins and much more. Add to that the deluge of personalized information from loyalty programs that track the behavior of specific customers, and there is even more data to crunch. Then there is the information that comes from connected devices in the kitchen, recording everything from running time to energy usage. That is before external data sources – such as weather conditions, traffic or the occurrence of major local events – are factored in.


Ultimately, operators have access to all the information they need to refine their menus, optimize margins, reduce costs and predict future demand patterns. The challenge, however, is to ask the right questions of that data to obtain meaningful insights that can inform operational decisions. EPOS systems have been around since the early 1990s, but many operators are still not using the data they provide as effectively as they should. “POS gives data on sales, which is being tied into back of house operations and to vendors, who can get data from POS or digital inventory systems rather than getting sent a written order list,” says Bill Bender FCSI, founder and principal, W. H. Bender & Associates. “Tracking sales and setting up ordering is easy when operators just tie in technology with suppliers, so


“TRACKING SALES AND SETTING UP ORDERING IS EASY WHEN OPERATORS JUST TIE IN TECHNOLOGY WITH SUPPLIERS, SO THE OWNER CAN SPEND TIME ON HIRING, TRAINING AND OPERATIONAL MATTERS, RATHER THAN LOOKING AT INVENTORY LEVELS”


WORLDWIDE


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14