Ryan Volberg, CEO of Vivonet Canada Inc., a Vancouver, B.C. based software company, will speak on the iPOS product at the NW Food Service Show (www.foodshownw.com
) in Portland, OR.
Vivonet has developed the technology behind the iPOS product that will be distributed by MICROS Systems, Inc. (www.micros.com
), the global leader in the hospitality industry, as part of the mymicros.net product suite. iPOS is an Internet-based enterprise management, customer care and point of sale solution for the restaurant and hospitality industries.
The mymicros.net suite of products will also showcase other modules developed by MICROS including the mymicros.net portal which will allow restaurant managers to create a personalized “digital dashboard” for their operations: real-time reports on the business parameters of their choosing, continually available from the data warehouse via their Internet connection. The portal will also be able to connect to existing POS applications through the mymicros.connect module. Simple and easy to use back-office functionality is also included, such as human resources, payroll, scheduling, ordering and inventory valuation through the myoffice module.
Paul Armstrong, MICROS Executive Vice President of New Technologies, states that iPOS will drive cost out of the day-to-day challenges of managing a restaurant while having a dramatic positive impact on managerial effectiveness. “Our new iPOS Operating Environment begins with the data warehouse and extends to each POS. This will allow our customers to operate each location as though it were their only location and to interact with customers as individuals. Additionally, we are very sensitive to the human resource challenges our customers face. By leveraging the low cost delivery mechanism of the Internet, we believe we have a solution that will help relieve the ongoing burden of staffing and training both at the store and within Information Services.”
iPOS is an end-to-end business solution that allows restaurant and hospitality operators to have real-time access to their entire enterprise from a web-browser anytime and from anywhere. This operating environment provides mission critical functionality such as real-time sales mix analysis, menu configuration and price changing abilities for one or multiple locations via the Internet. The iPOS product is due to be officially launched in May 2001.
Additionally, an integrated consumer response solution called iCare collects timely customer feedback tied specifically to each customer’s purchase transaction. This means comprehensive real-time customer preference monitoring for the operator. iCare provides the operators with a less obtrusive way to gain more knowledge of and access to their customers.
“This is a powerful way to gain a “real-time” customer report card pertaining to a new menu item, an individual server and specific store performance. This information also serves as a foundation for a new “best practices” metric that is sure to drive performance in pursuit of customer satisfaction and fact-based menu engineering,” says John Kirk, Vivonet President and COO.
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