HOSPITALITY
21
STENA TAKES NEW POS ONBOARD
S
tena Line, the ferry operator between more contemporary solution. We looked from an IT support perspective, this solution
Ireland, the UK and Holland has for a ¾ exible solution that could handle the gives us unrestricted access to servers and
implemented new point-of-sale (PoS) complexity of the business environment in PoS onboard, which makes it very easy to
software to enable it to communicate which Stena Line operates. It was also very support the business with any technical issues
information from its on-board cafés and important to ½ nd a system that is easy to they may have.”
restaurants in real time across the Internet to use for both front and back of½ ce users. He added: “It is evident that the new
head of½ ce. We found the Torex-owned Dynamic Retail solution gives us more control and insight into
Stena’s new Torex DRS-PoS system stores Systems to be best in class, ful½ lling our our business. One major improvement is the
information from the back of½ ce and PoS. requirements at a competitive price.” fact that every PoS can run as a standalone
Martin Aalbregt, IT demand manager of Data transfer relies on the fact that unit just in case the server onboard goes
Onboard Services for Stena Line Group spoke every ship in the ¾ eet is equipped with down. In our previous system, every PoS
to Retail Technology about its deployment. satellite communication, enabling 24-hour onboard stopped working when there were
“Stena Line was using an application communication between shore and the problems with the server. Other major
developed in-house that was approximately vessels. Aalbregt explained: “Data is replicated improvements are the statistical functions
15 years old and had reached the end between head of½ ce, back of½ ce and vice and a ¾ exible discount and offers module,
of its life,” he said. “It therefore became versa almost instantly, giving real-time which enable us to run lots of different of
necessary to replace the system with a information about the business onboard. Also, promotions onboard our ships.”
YO! SUSHI GETS VOIP TO GO
Restaurant chain, Yo! Sushi has taken on a new internet protocol (IP) telephony system
to replace its aging circuit switched incumbent.
Uni½ ed communications provider, Swyx will upgrade the chain’s existing 35
restaurants with the new technology along with its aggressive plans to roll-out a further
15 outlets within the next 12 months. The solution will be supplied and implemented by
Swyx partner, GP Network Solutions.
IT manager at Yo! Sushi, Billy Waters explained: “The ongoing costs of the line rental and telephony maintenance were becoming a
signi½ cant overhead to the business and, as we had plans to double the number of outlets within two years, this was an appropriate time
review our overall telecommunications strategy.
“There are a number of excellent IP based products on the market, however what we liked about the Swyx solution was that it is
based on software licenses rather than hardware, therefore in an expanding operation such as ours rolling out new users would be very
straightforward and could be handled centrally without third-party support. Furthermore, it was very easy to use, and other options such
teleconferencing, auto attendant and its script editing features were included within the basic price, making it not only a compelling technical
proposition, but also very good value for money.”
The Swyx solution also provided Yo! Sushi with the opportunity to bring their home delivery service, which was previously outsourced
to a third party, back in-house. According to Waters the ¾ exibility of the system allowed Yo! Sushi to integrate their inbound calls with their
customer database and maps package, routing the calls using a non-geographical number to their call centre based in London.
Waters concluded: “We expect the system to pay for itself within two years. Furthermore, we believe that we have only scratched the
surface on what we think the telephony system can do for us in the future.”
NOVEMBER 2008 RETAIL TECHNOLOGY
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