24
HOSPITALITY
GUESTS GET
RESTAURANT GROUP
AQUAVISION
MEASURES ITS PERFORMANCE
B
ay Restaurant Group has worked for reporting as well as Cognos 7. Also, as
with consultancy change++ to its EPoS provider used Microsoft Analysis
introduce technology to analyse Services cubes, the IT team looked at this
the performance of individual outlets, while technology. It worked with consultancy
assessing sales trends and staf½ ng levels. change++ to implement Cognos 8 BI
The group, which includes Slug and technology. It best met the organisation’s
Lettuce and ha ha bar & grill restaurant needs as it can combine information
brands, wanted to look at the success of from across the company and deliver an
different promotions to help continue to immediate, personalised view of business
drive the business forward. performance to managers.
“We wanted to introduce one system for “The use of Cognos products for this
all users and for all data,” said Hazell West, project was central to its success, as they
head of IT at the Bay Restaurant Company. can be readily deployed by experienced
The four-star Grange Hotel in York “The technology needed to bring together Cognos consultants,” said West. “The Cognos
has recently invested in Aquavision information across a variety of areas. We 8 products used for Bay’s performance
waterproof televisions installed in the wanted to hook up our reporting databases, reporting effectively ‘sit’ as a layer on top of
ensuite bathrooms of new rooms that which included Cognos cubes based on data other systems and allow data to be drawn
formed part of a £1-million expansion from the ½ nance system and EPoS [electronic from a number of sources. This avoids the
programme. point-of-sale] provider, and various need for data ‘marts’ or ‘warehouses’ and
Amie Postings, general manager at The SQLServer databases to help interpret data.” accelerates the development process. It
Grange Hotel said: “We run at a very The company already had Business also allows the group to source information
high level of occupancy all year round and Objects business intelligence (BI) technology quicker regarding performance.”
our feasibility studies showed that the Initially the departments using the
investment would be worthwhile, however technology include operations, ½ nance,
there are lots of new bedrooms in York at marketing, product and purchasing. But there
the moment. are plans to roll it out across further areas of
“The Grange has always been York’s the business when necessary. Looking to the
¼ nest and most highly rated hotel and future, the group hope to use the technology
so our new bedrooms had to be extra to help manage stocks and analyse machines
special to compete. In-wall, waterproof information.
televisions came to my attention after “The rankings of sales by session for
researching several companies on the every outlet across all areas fosters healthy
internet. My initial enquiry to Aquavision competition throughout the business and will
was handled brilliantly - they helped me help drive further improvement,” concluded
determine the speci¼ cation that would West.
work best in our bedrooms and the whole
process has been painless.”
The six 17-inch widescreen Aquavision
EPOS SYSTEM WINS MECCA JACKPOT
televisions installed at The Grange Hotel
feature heated screens to prevent the Bingo club operator Mecca has chosen which eliminates the requirement for the
front misting up in humid conditions, to roll out a new electronic point-of-sale manual entry of data and to ensure the
Scart socket for SKY, DVD or VCR signals (EPoS) system nationwide. ongoing accuracy of ½ nancial reporting.
and component connections used for The installation, which began in June Stewart McGrow, head of food and
high quality video input such as basic and is ongoing, will be based upon MCR beverage for Mecca Bingo said: “It allows
HD, DVD and games systems. As with all System’s web-enabled Symphony reporting us to manage our data centrally and to
Aquavisions it comes with a waterproof architecture and will provide a central rationalise our product ½ le. This means
remote control and waterproof stereo control hub, from which Mecca’s entire EPoS that we can introduce exciting new food
speakers. system can be monitored and controlled in concepts to our customers more ef½ ciently
“Feedback from my guests has been real time. than ever before and try out new ideas.
brilliant - the Aquavision TVs add a real MCR Systems’ software team has written We can measure the performance of any
‘wow’ factor to our bedrooms,” added a bespoke interface between Symphony product or promotion and we also have
Postings. and the existing Mecca management system, quicker, more accurate stock reporting.”
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY NOVEMBER 2008
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