Mission E-possible

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when electronic point of sale (EPoS) would have been salesman-speak for a till that beeped. Today, however, it means an IT system that has become essential to the efficiency of any hospitality business.

Operators are now turning to software and hardware suppliers for systems that are designed to complement and improve the traditional methods of running a restaurant rather than blind the restaurant owner - and the customer - with science.

Bank Solutions is one company rethinking EPoS by putting the restaurant customer and the operator's needs first. Its EPoSV3 system is designed, according to managing director Ken Stratford, to streamline the complex logistics of restaurant management.

The company was formed in 1998 after Stratford was asked to design both an EPoS and reservations system for Bank restaurant in London's Aldwych. The product is now installed in Fish!, Alcazar, Petit Blanc,St Martin's Lane and others.

Although Bank Solutions is developing new systems from scratch, Stratford admits to a certain amount of "reinvention of the wheel" in his approach.

"The basic functioning is relatively straightforward," he says. "You need to be able to display your products in some way, select them, press buttons, send messages to the kitchen, print bills and charge people money. What we've done is make the system as easy as possible for all the operators so that user error is minimised."

But that's a simplification. EPoSV3 system has been installed in restaurants with up to 950 items on the menu, "so it obviously needs more sophistication to be able to navigate that," Stratford explains.

He claims the benefits of new features on EPoS systems such as that from Bank Solutions come not only from ease of use but just as importantly from the information they provide the operator. For instance, Bank Solutions' system can provide a constantly updated histogram of who is having what course at any one time. This means reception can see that, for example, tables 31, 32 and 93 are all having coffee and therefore those tables will become free shortly.

There's also a system of warning flagsto the chef which say, for instance, that table 32 hasn't had anything happen on it for half-an-hour, or it's been 20 minutes since they sent out the starters and they haven't yet asked for their main course.

"All these types of things are where we've been able to step back from the system and analyse the requirements of different people in the organisation," explains Stratford. "We've extended the concept of EPoS to the supply of information promoting the running of the restaurants."

According to Stratford, the key is using conventional computing platforms such as Windows and standard hardware such as PCs.

In general, he explains, these platforms make the whole system easy to manage because most users are familiar with them; changing hardware becomes simple and, above all else, integration with other systems is much more straightforward.

"That's very important," says Stratford, "What we, and others, have developed is a way to integrate easily the reservations, the EPoS, the stock control and so on, and have all these things talking to each other."

Unlike previous systems, Stratford claims, EpoSV3 reduces an operator's dependency on suppliers.

But, like all IT systems, there is a downside. Joel Katz, IT manager at Conran Restaurants, says people will always be more important than computers.

"I recently went to a chain restaurant where you could order one wine by the glass in two different sizes and then a different wine only in a small size," he says. "When I asked for a large size of that second wine, I was told I couldn't because they only had a button for the small.

"A lot of it comes down to staff training; if employees aren't taught how to use the system effectively, you won't be able to maximise the functionality."

Whereas Bank Solutions is a relatively new player in the EPoS market, Micros-Fidelio is one of the established companies, supplying operators including Beefeater, TGI Friday's, Café Rouge, Est Est Est and other chain restaurants.

Sales director Steve Maddon says operators who approach them are looking for definite functions in their EPoS systems.

"Many of them want it purely for standardisation and control throughout the group," he explains. "That way, every site operates the same way from a standard template. That means there's a continuity of product and procedure."

One group using Micros-Fidelio's EPoS system is Conran Restaurants. Katz says reliability is one of the biggest factors he considers when choosing any set up.

"I think the primary thing to think about is the robustness of the system," he says. "The environment they are needed to work in means they need to be able to cope with the day-to-day running of a restaurant."

The trouble with any computer system, be it a home PC or a business network such as an EPoS system, is that technology races forward at a headache-inducing speed. It seems there is always something faster, bigger and cheaper just around the corner, so what is the future for EPoS systems?

"We're developing hand-held systems where one device could be used for dozens of applications," says Steve Maddon at Micros-Fidelio. "For instance, they can be used at a hotel to check someone in without them having to going to a front desk; a duty manager looking for maintenance faults can key into them as a report; and the same devices can be used as a PoS system in a busy restaurant in the evening."

Stratford at Bank Solutions doesn't see the same attraction. "We don't supply hand-held devices because we don't think they are the right way to go. We believe customers don't want someone arriving at their table with a computer.

"There are applications for portable systems and we had a foray into them, but we don't think that the technology is up to it yet."

What both Stratford and Maddon agree on is that centralisation and integration are the way forward for EPoS systems.

"We're developing a consolidated property system where EPoS, reservations, stock control and all these other separate things are just modules within the same database."

Bank Solutions is already working on this for its next major development - centralised control of restaurant chains using Fish! as a prototype. Menu prices, stock control and so on will be controlled from a head office and EPoS system databases updated from there using Internet technology.

But is there a danger that the customer could end up facing a bank of computers and never seeing a person at all? It cannot be denied that, in most restaurants, punters still feel reassured by the sight of a waiter with a pen and pad, even if that waiter does then disappear to key the order into a computer terminal elsewhere.

The solution lies with the operators, not the suppliers, and Katz at Conran gives his view: "The word ‘hospitality' is very important," he says. "It has to reign supreme always. These systems are there to assist, support and increase the efficiency of the operation, but should never hinder the experience of the customer." n