October 2003

POS & Revenue Tracking Systems Deliver High ROIs
By Evonn Gibbs

...Another software used by food and beverage retailers is EatecNetX, a multi-faceted back office system that also interfaces to POS systems. "The software automates purchasing, receiving, requisitions, transfers, commissary production and recipe costing and pricing. Upon the import of sales data, inventory is depleted and profit analysis reports are generated," says Leslie Pullen, marketing manager with Eatec Corp. "Transactional data in EatecNetX is in turn exported to the financial system, eliminating manual data entry to update the general ledger."

The system has worked very well for Dale Robinson, vice president operations, Vall, Inc., a restaurateur, and as Global Miami, J.V. operates 12 food units at Miami International (MIA). Vall installed the system with expansion in mind. The company could add up to 17 units over the next three to five years.

One of the best features of the software, Robinson says, is that he can log onto the program and order food from the commissary to be sent to a specific unit, without calling someone who is busy and interrupting them. "More importantly we're able to post the cost of that transferred merchandise directly to the restaurant or the location where it's ordered," he says. "So at the end of the day, we know exactly money-wise, product-wise, what we transferred to them without trying to figure it out by hand."

A purchase order function when posted, goes directly into the inventory in the commissary, and Vall's staff can adjust any inventory on hand by looking at data showing theoretically what's on hand based on the latest transfers to the units.

Robinson says his intention when selecting software was to be able to track all requests for merchandise to the commissary from his 12 locations. "Eatec can do much more than that," he says, "but that was what had us initially think about how to get rid of all these little pieces of paper being generated."

Tracking Food Reduces Waste
Vall's ROI has increased, Robinson says, primarily because the commissary tracking data has eliminated waste. "We know at any given day theoretically what our food cost should be and what usage should be, whether it's at unit level, or at the commissary."

One challenge Robinson says he has to meet in using the technology is not to waste time reviewing reports that aren't helpful. Where possible he has reports customized to specific needs. "There's only so much you can look at," he says. "...We've been able to successfully operate in the business before without any of this [technology] so you kind of look at it like anything you get is a plus."

This was excerpted from the October 2003 issue of Airport Revenue News. For more information visit www.airportrevenuenews.com.

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