Mirus Reporter

A restaurant’s marketing department might use a slew of strategies to determine where their brand strategy is going in the next few months. Whether that means adding new items to the menu, incorporating new combos, and/or other customer-related experiences, data integration can help restaurants make fact-based decisions using real-time information. Continue reading to find out more about the benefits of utilizing restaurant data to help with marketing tactics.

Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurants is more  than just a restaurant, they're a lifestyle brand.  While centered around wine, their focus is on creating memorable moments that enrich lives. They currently have 35 locations in 8 states throughout the United States and over 400,000 Wine Club Members.

As a Mirus client for over 3 years we've been helping Cooper's Hawk manage those wine club members along with point of sale and labor scheduling information. 

I had the chance to sit down with Cooper's Hawk Solution Architect, Matt Reid, to talk about how Mirus helps them engage guest loyalty. 

At Mirus, the job of an Integrations Specialist, is to help restaurants figure out which systems should be integrated immediately and which systems can wait. It’s important to prioritize integration because the process requires a bit of effort and focus. However, if done right, the business will begin to gain reporting insights that will turn into actionable intelligence.

In this article, we will focus on the benefits of integrating financial data. The content presented here is meant to be an introduction piece dedicated to thinking about why it is important to integrate financial data and how restaurants can increase profitability and decrease losses through proper data analysis.

There are several reasons why integrating operational data for your restaurant is an ideal choice. From keeping tabs on sales and labor to essential reporting and more, integrating data is simply a must. For more insight on integrating operational data, we had a moment to catch up with Mirus Integration Specialist Kadiata Diop, better known to friends and colleagues as Jet.

What does integrating data mean and why is it beneficial for your restaurant? With Mirus’ services, it’s all about ease-of-use. “What that means is looking at all the systems a restaurant may have and deciding which data points they want to see, bring in, and integrate into Mirus so that they can run reports of analysis on that data all in one place, “ says Jet. Convenience is the name of the game and with professional data integration, reporting can be achieved all in one place.

If you haven't had an opportunity to join the Mirus User Conference, then you've been missing out! Besides enjoying time with industry peers, sipping on drinks, and bowling, we also discuss how restaurants can leverage their data.

Executives and managers in the restaurant industry are extremely busy. They have very little time to open multiple reports in various systems to see how they are doing. Dashboards let them know how things are going with a quick glance.

Learn the basics of setting up restaurant dashboards to improve your business. Also, be sure to download the 5 Keys to Setting Up Restaurant Dashboards guide to get the most out of your dashboards.

What's data integration and how is it leveraged?

Data integration is a process in which heterogeneous data (finance, marketing, operations, sales, customer, mystery shop, cleanliness, inventory, etc.) is organized and cleansed into a data warehouse. It is leveraged when it's accessible through a platform that allows it to be leveraged together to form meaningful and actionable reports.

What are some challenges restaurants face today?

Restaurant companies are drowning in data about their customers, operational execution, internal business processes, finances, suppliers, partners, and competitors. Many can't leverage this flood of data and convert it to actionable information for growing revenue, increasing profitability, and efficiently operating the business.

Why? Well, there are multiple reasons, here's two that come to mind:

In this post, I want to examine the differences between reporting and analysis. Why? Because they're fundamentally different. Yet, I never hear, "we're doing all the analysis we need." No, instead I'm hearing, "we have all the reporting we need." And I'm quite certain they do - what with all the systems used to run a restaurant. It's likely that they and you have hundreds of standardized reports available and many are likely helpful at telling you what happened; e.g., how many of this or that item did we sell, what's our percentage of labor, what's our gross / net sales in this or that store, market, overall, what's our cash over short, etc. See, all helpful until you want to understand why the cash is shorter than you'd like, why that item didn't sell as you expected, why labor in a market is higher or why that promo did so well but we wound up making less money.

To get an answer to 'WHY' something happened requires you to perform some analysis and that requires a solution that can help you knit together the pieces needed to get at the underlying answer. So let’s start with a high-level definition of Reporting and Analysis.

Client Spotlight: Alamo Drafthouse

Alamo Drafthouse has been named the coolest movie theater in the world. Their mission is to provide good food, good beer and good film all in the same place. They currently operate over 40 locations and have more scheduled to open.

As a Mirus client for over 6 years they've added a number of integrations into their data warehouse including : ticketing point of sale, food & beverage point of sale, scheduled labor, guest feedback and weather.

I had the chance to sit down with Alamo Drafthouse's Integrations Manager, Jake Lawson, to talk about how Mirus helps him manage data and reporting for both the movie and food & beverage sides of his company.

Data collection is important but the quality of data for a restaurant enterprise is key to ensuring that it is used in the most productive way. Inaccurate and outdated data can affect overall productivity. When multiple sources of data are getting pulled into one database, duplicate and/or erroneous information can be inevitable.

Data cleansing is the process of finding and correcting flawed information from your restaurant company’s database. The process is mainly used where incorrect, incomplete, or irrelevant details are identified and then modified, swapped or cleared out. Data cleansing is important because it improves the quality of your data and in doing so, increases productivity, while simultaneously doing away with potential expenses, and helping to improve ROI. Managing and ensuring that the data is clean can provide significant business value and making decisions without being able to weigh them against a strong, valid set of data can hurt a restaurant business.