Wireless ordering system can help F&B outlets increase billings by 20 percent

Restaurants and WiFi hotspots will be able to increase revenue and streamline operations with MGI Multimedia Sdn Bhd's Malaysian Delights, an innovative and robust wireless ordering system. It allows waiters to electronically submit orders directly to the kitchen, bar and cashier from using Bluetooth or WiFi enabled IPAQ personal digital assistants (PDAs).

"It's convenient, increases a restaurant's efficiency, allows for better resource management, and more importantly, result in higher customer satisfaction level," says MGI Multimedia chief executive officer Trevor Nesbeth. MGI Multimedia will be showcasing its flagship innovation, Malaysian Delights, at Maxis' Solutions Unplugged Conference & Showcase 2003 ( SUC 2003 ), that will be held on July 29th and July 30th, with several business partners.

System Infrastructure
The system's infrastructure relies on Bluetooth or WiFi and can be divided into three main elements.

Firstly, wireless access points are strategically placed throughout the restaurant's premises and waiters are equipped Bluetooth or WiFi enabled PDAs using the Malaysian Delight application. "The number of access points will depend on the restaurant's size and the number of PDAs on the number of waiters," he explained.

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Secondly, the Malaysian Delights system and a database centrally reside in a server with a wireless network card. This server recognizes and communicates with each PDA in a network fashion. It is located on the restaurant's premise and kept in a secure location such as the administrative or cashier's office. The restaurant operator may also choose to network and integrate the Malaysian Delights system to their existing Point of Sale (PoS) system.

Lastly, the kitchen will feature a small but robust printer, which prints order chits and details. "In our visits to local restaurants, we find that although their operations vary, many still use clothes pins, pegs and even paper clips. Their waiters use a pen-and-paper approach; take the customer's order, go to the kitchen, place the order on a table, pigeon-hole, rotating belt or basket. This method is not error free and sometimes, orders maybe misplaced. Malaysian Delights replace this practice with a printed chit, complete with a time stamp, customer sequence number, waiter ID, table number, orders and quantity." The head chef will collect the order chit, issue an acknowledgement and then delegate the task of preparing the necessary ingredients and cooking to an available chef at the kitchen

Advantage
This system and technology infrastructure has several advantages.

Restaurant operators will discover its effectiveness in resource management. It allows a smaller number of waiters to cover more tables. "Waiters can fully concentrate on the order taking function and move from table-to-table, replacing the previous practice of table-to-kitchen-to-table."

In the table-to-kitchen-to-table practice, the waiter seats the customer and takes the order. The waiter then walks to the kitchen area and places the order before returning to wait and seat the next customer and take more orders. This process of walking from the table to the kitchen and back may take approximately two to three minutes.

"The time needed for order fulfillment can be substantially reduced. Malaysian Delights removes the need and time for the waiter to approach the kitchen area, just to place an order. When a restaurant scales up its activities as you can find in restaurants during peak hours or weekends, this time of two to three minutes can translate to more than 30 or 60 minutes per day," he said. Malaysian Delights help restaurant operators eliminate this wastage and recovers this valuable resource by using a table-to-table approach. "The waiter actually earns more revenue for the restaurant by attending and taking orders from customers instead of walking to the kitchen and back to the tables."

The system can accommodate order alteration. "Changes to the customer's order can be made at the table and these changes sent in the blink of an eye to the kitchen. The waiter no longer needs to walk to the kitchen, searches for the paper clip or order stub and then informs the head chef. The system does this function automatically," he said.

Malaysian Delights also allow menus and images of each dish to be made available on each PDA. "In this method, updates to the menu can be instantly beamed to each waiter. Furthermore, the waiter can show savoury images of any dish to help customers decide," he said. This represents an incredible opportunity to promote new dishes or highlight in-house promotions such as lunch-sets and dinner-sets.

Another advantage is the restaurant management can identify and amply reward employees with better service and productivity. It is difficult to recruit, train and retain waiters. According to Trevor, the current remuneration system for waiters in the food and beverage industry can be vastly overhauled. "Malaysian Delights can provide various reports to help restaurant operators manage their human resources," he said. The system can calculate revenue earned per waiter, time taken between orders per waiter, a daily count of tables served per waiter and much more. These performance indicators can be used to devise suitable remuneration packages or reward waiters for their productivity. It is also an intangible benefit, impressing on the industry, employees and prospective employees that the restaurant prides itself on provide a high level of service and highly values its human resources.

Malaysian Delights also removes the guesswork of out today's operations. "Restaurant operators can keep count of its daily activities. Many restaurants can only guess their most popular dish and drink, or the most busiest hour or day," he said. "They don't really know for sure. Malaysian Delights provides accurate, to-the-minute, information."

Restaurant operators will benefit from real-time access to such information. This offers restaurant operators an effective means to plan when dealing with higher demand during busy time, days and weekends. Restaurants could arrange to have more tables and increase their seating capacity during this peak period and vice versa. "They could also offer promotions to entice more customers to make up for the lack of demand."

Real- Time Information
The real-time information also allows chefs in the kitchen to have a better idea about the current state of their ingredients and manage their perishable inventory. "All chefs place high importance on the freshness of their perishable such as vegetables, meat, poultry and eggs," he said. With Malaysian Delights, both restaurant managers and chefs will have a clear picture about the rate their ingredients are being consumed, and consequently, able to construct a timely replenishment schedule. "Imagine going to a restaurant, seating down and the waiter says Item Six to Ten is unavailable because the necessary ingredients have not been replenished. The customer won't be impressed. Malaysian Delights will change that image."

The system offers a better method in dealing and recognizing slow-moving perishables and excess items. These items cost money and the longer it sits on a shelf or in the refrigerator, the higher the chance of losing its value. The investment in these slow-moving items can be recoup by turning it into a promotional item.

Malaysian Delights also features a unique numbering system to ensure customer's order is taken in sequence. This means the third customer and fifth customer that place their order in a restaurant will have their orders placed third and fifth in that sequence. "The restaurant operator can guarantee and assure their customers about their sequence and as a result, increase the level of customer satisfaction. For example, both of us go to a restaurant. I am the third and you are the fifth customer. I am new to the restaurant and take time to consider the menu. However, your order is taken first because you are familiar with the dishes and immediately order coffee and nasi goreng. In this situation, you are served with your drinks and dishes before me even though I came earlier. This situation can now be avoided with Malaysian Delights," he said.

Demonstration
The system can be deployed in a variety of premises, restaurants and integrated with a diverse spectrum of POS. A demonstration of Malaysian Delights will be made available during SUC 2003.

If your organisation seeks a similar enterprise mobility solution, please contact us at 1-800 82 1919 - we, together with our partners, will work with you to develop a solution best suited to your business needs.