Mirus Reporter

Today, for many restaurant companies, the challenge of harnessing the myriad of disparate data generated by the systems (POS, BOH, ERP, etc.) used to operate and manage their businesses is just that, a challenge. And when it comes to the Human Resource (HR) department, well, they're no different - the reason being, data associated with different tasks such as hiring, job satisfaction surveys, training details and performance management reviews all reside in different databases.

What a great conference this year! I want to thank everyone who joined us, especially the presenters and panelists. This year we made it back to lively and always exciting Vegas strip. Check out our photos here.

Gone are the days of consumers ordering meals from menus delivered in the mail or left at their doorsteps. The frustration of dictating the order and repeating credit card information to a restaurant employee, struggling to hear over the background noise of a bustling restaurant is coming to an end. Once again, technological strides have brought us one step closer to making our lives easier. All we have to do is download the app, put in our location, and we're shown dozens (if not hundreds) of restaurants in our area that we can choose from. Whether placing an advanced order through an app and having the food waiting for you upon arrival or getting meal ideas for delivery by having access to a plethora of choices, the food ordering apps were intended to take us to the next level of convenience.

The Future, Now?

All restaurant businesses strive to improve and streamline operations and increase profits by cutting expenses and recovering resources. A common reaction to increased wages by some restaurant executives has been to replace human labor with machines. In the ever-changing climate of the restaurant industry, it makes sense that some restaurant companies would implement the use of machines to grow productivity and cut down on labor costs. But are robots equipped to give customers the same level of service as a friendly employee? Are automated machines destined to take over restaurants?

"POS, Meet BOH"

In today’s restaurant space, the business of owning and operating a restaurant is more challenging and competitive than ever before. This means it’s more important than ever to leverage technology to your advantage and no better place to start than using your Point-of-Sale system’s (POS) sales data combined with your Back of House (BOH) to help more tightly control your two biggest controllable expenses – food and labor costs.

Looking more closely, restaurant food & beverage purchases plus labor expenses account for 60 to as much as 68 cents of every dollar in restaurant sales. The combined total is referred to as; “Prime Cost”, and it's at this crossroads where the battle for restaurant profitability takes place. Why, because you have the ability to control these expenses. Unlike your fixed costs (lease, utilities, insurance, etc.), you can directly impact your food cost percentage by more effective purchasing, product handling and menu pricing and your labor with tools to help with allocation, scheduling and overtime reduction/prevention. More on the labor from an earlier series of Blogs.

Upgrading Your Insight

Restaurant company executives carefully select best in class systems to manage their restaurant operations. Each system (Point of Sale, Inventory, Food Cost, Labor Scheduling, Online Ordering, Customer Feedback, Payroll, GL) likely does an excellent job of collecting the necessary information. However, piecing together the data from all of these transactional systems, in order to gain greater insight, is often done manually and the process is not only time consuming but also often unreliable. Ever feel like you go through the effort of collecting, sorting and entering data into a spreadsheet, but then you’re not able to access the right information when you need it? Here is when executives begin to experience frustration because they aren't always able to get the necessary answers in a timely manner (if at all). Do you find your company in the same predicament? How long does it take to get a report? And will it tie in all your restaurant data? Are you frustrated by reporting limitations? If the answer is yes, it may be time to upgrade your current restaurant reporting methods.

Restaurant organizations are increasingly turning to data to help manage their operations more effectively, improve marketing, drive revenues, increase profit margins, ensure competitiveness and grow their businesses. Unfortunately, today, the most widely implemented solutions aren’t Business Intelligence (BI) or Business Analytics (BA) solutions. No, today, the vast majority of restaurant companies rely on reports generated by the very systems used to operate (POS, BOH, etc.), their businesses.

Why? In my humble opinion, there’s a lot of confusion around terms being used to describe what any restaurant company may be receiving when it comes to their reporting. There’s Above Store Reporting (ASR), BI and BA to name a few. While they each provide a means to an end, that end is very different in each case.

What is a Restaurant Reporting Dashboard?

In layman’s terms, a dashboard is a user interface that, to some extent, is similar to an automobile's dashboard. It organizes and presents information in a way that is easy to see and understand. A dashboard is a graphic presentation of the most important data needed to accomplish a number of objectives all combined on a single screen.

A restaurant business can obtain information from any system that contains data (the Point of Sale system, a Back Office system that contains labor and inventory information, guest loyalty, accounting, etc.) and then combine it all to present all the data as though it came from the same source. The goal is to integrate information from numerous systems into a unified presentation in order to gain greater access and a deeper understanding of the business.

For the past year, reports have been consistently detailing the decline in restaurant same store sales. Mirus reporting clients, as a group, have not suffered this fate.

Mirus Index is a same store sales performance benchmark of all the restaurant companies who use Mirus reporting solutions. For the past eight years we have routinely compared the Mirus Index against the more popular indices published by companies like Black Box Intelligence, MillerPulse, Restaurant Research, and others.

How much does it cost? That’s the question that inevitably comes up whenever I’m talking with a restaurant executive about the data analytic services Mirus provides. Sometimes the timing of the question is right on; other times it’s a bit premature.

If I were selling pens or another commodity the price question wouldn’t be that big of a deal. A pen is a pen. You can touch it, you know what it does, how to use it and why you need it. Business Intelligence (BI) Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions, while not new to the restaurant industry (we’ve been around for more than 17 years), are not so straightforward. The benefits and use cases of these solutions are different depending on who you talk to.