Oct. 6, 2008 08:00 AM EST
American Roast Beef Switches to RTIconnect and Saves on IT Costs
Switching to
RTIconnect back office software for their 10 Arby’s restaurants allowed this
Minnesota company to save “a bundle of money” in IT costs and get more
connected with their store operations.
ATLANTA
—When American Roast Beef, Inc., decided to change their back office software,
the company wanted better tools to show their restaurant managers how they were
doing on food and labor costs. They got that and then some, according to Director of Operations Joe James.
The
Willmar, Minn., Arby’s franchisee chose RTIconnect™-RTI’s back-of-house system
for food, labor and cash-to replace its former back office software
for its 10 restaurants. Not only did they get better reports to help managers
track costs of inventory and crew labor, but RTIconnect has saved managers and
supervisors hours every week, and enabled the company to eliminate an IT salary,
said Mr. James.
“One thing we
really like about RTIconnect that we did not have with [our previous software]—and again, it was
very expensive, it was very labor
intensive—we had to have our own IT guy on hand for [our previous software]
just to maintain it. With RTI we don’t. That’s saved us a bundle of money, just
because we’ve eliminated that salary. That was a major accomplishment,” said
Mr. James.
“More
connected”
“The
other thing with RTI that we like,” he said, is that he and the owners “can get
in there and we can look at our stores and see what they’re doing for sales.
We’re more connected than what [our previous software] ever was as far as day-to-day
operations. Now instead of calling stores, we can get into RTIconnect and just look and see what
they did for the day, for yesterday, what labor was, how many sandwiches they
sold. There’s so much information there that’s helping us.”
Each
area manager is responsible for five restaurants. Before RTIconnect, said Mr.
James, if the area manager didn’t physically get to a store for several days,
it could be too late to take care of the problem. Each morning they look at the
stores’ deposits, tills, inventory, variances, efficiencies, and cash
over/shorts, he said. Now, because RTIconnect is Web-based, area managers can
see the reports each morning from anywhere and call the restaurant manager to
head off any problem before it grows.
American
Roast Beef switched to RTIconnect on the recommendation of another Arby’s
operator. They have used RTIconnect for about 18 months, and they use all three
RTIconnect modules: Food, Labor, and Cash. Describing the overall value of
RTIconnect to their company, Mr. James said, “It’s very high; on a [scale of]
1 to 10, I would say it’s a 10. It’s been very helpful to us, just the reports
we’re getting out of it now, that we’ve never had before. It’s giving us more
information at our fingertips— that’s what we like about it, that’s a really
big plus.”
Reports Catch Problems Before They Grow
The
Food module analyzes menu item sales and inventory item usage to enable
restaurants to control food cost. Reports pinpoint variances in actual and
ideal food usage, excessive waste, and high food cost percentages.
“Basically
we’ve always had good labor and food cost for our sales,” said Mr. James. “But
we didn’t have anything to let the manager see how good they were doing, as far
as reporting. With RTIconnect, managers can
see what their food cost is. The reports really help the store managers on a
day-to-day basis… letting the managers know where the food cost is supposed to
be, and where it’s actually at. The Daily
Food Variance Report really helps at the store level for the managers,” he said, “and
especially for my two area managers. They’re looking at that every day and
they’re calling the stores if they see a variance that’s not acceptable.”
Managers
inventory the 10-12 most expensive and most-used items every day, explained Area
Manager Denise Hohn, adding that before RTIconnect those calculations were all done
by hand. Also, she said, the software shows them waste percentages, which they
didn’t track before, and sales and labor projections for holidays based on last
year’s sales on that day. “For example, we could compare what we did last year
on the 4th of July, and kind of know what’s going on this year. All
the stores use that and it’s very helpful.”
Saves
Hours, and Enables Quicker Scheduling and Improved Accountability
RTIconnect
also saves time for restaurant managers, said Ms. Hohn. “Before, morning tasks used to take an hour and a half. Now it
takes 30 to 45 minutes. It could save sometimes an hour a day in the morning
for that manager.”
Another
benefit of RTIconnect is the reduction of time a restaurant manager spends
preparing weekly employee schedules. “It now takes a manager about an hour to
make a schedule,” she said. “Before RTIconnect, it took a minimum of a couple
of hours.” To create an efficient schedule, RTIconnect collects hourly sales
data and generates sales trends—down to the quarter-hour. These trends help the
manager project sales for the upcoming week and in turn create schedules that
include very little excess labor. For example, said Ms. Hohn, “the manager can
now look at sales projections for an afternoon and know that they don’t need
four people there, they only need three.”
For
the restaurant managers, who are accountable for their stores’ food variance
and labor, adjusting to the software was easier for some than for others. “It’s
like any change,” said Mr. James, “they’ve got to get used to it and they’ve
got to use it. Once they start using it and see the benefits of it, they all
like it. It’s another tool they can use to make their store better. It makes
them aware of problems that maybe they didn’t know they had, that weren’t being
checked on. And again, how well they run their store determines how much of a
bonus they might get. We explain it that way to them, and we try to help them
so they can make more money.”
The
company is also seeing benefits from the RTIconnect Cash module, which focuses
on improving cash accountability by monitoring daily deposits and reporting
excessive over/short occurrences by cashier. Here again the RTIconnect reports
have proved helpful, said Ms. Hohn. “Everything’s in front of you. You know
where to look for a problem. You can see who was on a certain drawer, you don’t
have to look back and see who was scheduled. We’re more able to pinpoint who
was on the register when there was a shortage and if there’s a certain pattern.”
About
Restaurant Technology, Inc. (RTI)
RTI is a
leading developer of technology solutions for the restaurant industry, and a
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Today more than 9,500 restaurants, including
many of today’s best known brands, rely on a broad suite of RTI hospitality
solutions. Application of RTI solutions enables restaurant operators to
maximize efficiencies in their restaurant operations, reduce operating costs,
and improve service to guests, which ultimately yields more profitable
restaurants. Incorporated in 1985, the company is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.
For more information, please visit RTI on the Web at http://www.internetRTI.com.
###
Contacts:
Greg Waddell
Vice
President – Sales & Marketing
Restaurant
Technology, Inc. (RTI)
ph:
770-590-4300
fax:
770-590-4313
Joe
James
Director
of Operations
American
Roast Beef, Inc.