Currently, restaurant owners in the choice of catering software, generally through the following three ways, one is through the industry's acquaintances, friends, partners of the introduction, the second is through the initiative of the door-to-door sales promotion of the software provider in the comparison of choice, the third is through various types of media, such as the Internet, the introduction of various types of professional media and advertising to choose. However, due to the complexity of catering software and catering management system, the diversity of the catering industry, as well as the expectations of the owner of the catering company and the specificity of the quality of the staff, etc., so that the catering boss is not very easy to find a set of suitable for their own catering management system, is not very easy to find a satisfactory catering information technology in the field of partners.
First of all, at the conceptual level, we emphasize that we should not focus on the product, but on the customer's needs.
Most of the catering software providers in the market today are still unconsciously centered on the products they develop and market their products to catering companies, regardless of whether their products are suitable for that catering company. We believe that the catering business has Chinese food, Western-style food, Chinese fast food, Western fast food, casual cafes, coffee bars, delivery takeaway, group chain, different catering business, catering business processes are very different, the natural catering management software required functions are very different; and, catering companies in different stages of development, although the catering business is the same, the requirements of the catering management software Will also show a great deal of variability, for example, some restaurants are still in the primary stage of development, the requirements of food and beverage management software only stays in the automatic processing of business processes, such as computerized cash registers, automatic printing and delivery of the kitchen, etc.; some companies have been asked to carry out the control of kitchen warehouses and costs, and therefore the back office warehouses and cost management to put forward the corresponding requirements; there are also a number of companies to the need to operate data, customer Some companies have developed to the need to analyze business data, customer consumption data, in order to adjust and build the restaurant's business direction and business policy. Therefore, the catering company to choose the right software system, the first need for the product is suitable for their own needs to make a basic judgment, rather than relying solely on the software provider's self-promotion, so there is often a need for professional catering information technology consulting company or catering information technology experts to provide scientific, objective and impartial advice and guidance.
Second, look at the quality of the product (functional and technical aspects)
Catering software is a tool for catering business services, inspection of the quality of the product need to pay attention to three points, one of which is that the product is not the best, only the most appropriate; secondly, it is necessary to combine with the catering company's own characteristics, to seize the main contradictions, do not expect the catering software can solve all the problems in the management; thirdly, safety, The third is the importance of security, reliability, stability than the richness of the product features, because according to our actual statistics, for a more mature software in the market, the majority of catering companies are only the use of catering software 30% -40% of the function, and the product itself, the data security and system stability determines the user's evaluation of the system is good or bad of the most important factors.
From the technical level, not necessarily the most advanced technology will bring the best products, but what technology used in some way can explain what era of the product, the design thinking is what type of customer service. For example, the operating system, catering software based on DOS, WINDOWS, LINUX, etc., which, based on DOS belongs to the older system, most of the catering software on the market is based on the WINDOWS operating system, there are also part of the catering software taking into account the issue of copyright, the use of the LINUX operating system; and for example, system databases, there are ACCESS, SYBASE, MYSQL, SQLSERVER, etc., for the restaurant system, what database is used with the size of the restaurant is more relevant, smaller restaurants can use a relatively simple database such as ACCESS, so that the use of maintenance can be done more simply, and large-scale restaurants should be used in the SQLSERVER such a database, which can protect the data more secure, System is more stable, but at the same time the industry requires a specialized system administrator to maintain. Also, data entry is usually three ways, one is based on ordinary computers, the second is based on the touch screen, the third is the use of wireless ordering system, and wireless technology is based on infrared technology and technology based on wireless networks. From the current development trend, catering systems are increasingly using touch screen, and wireless technology is gradually maturing.
Another important issue to consider at the technical level is whether the software is based on an open platform or a self-contained closed platform. Open refers to the compatibility of the software to do a good job, you can support all kinds of general-purpose hardware devices, so that the user is free to choose the right equipment for their own, such as printers, wireless PDA, all kinds of read-write card reader, etc., in case of failure of the hardware equipment, the user can always be procured in the market; and the closed system is a system provider to provide a dedicated equipment, and the general equipment can not be accommodated, therefore, once the user uses such a system, the user will be able to use the software to provide the best solution. Once the user has used such a system, equipment maintenance and updating will have no choice but to do through this company. At present, the market by some restaurant management system is in some parts of the use of specialized equipment, such as special printers, special wireless ordering equipment, special information reading and writing cards, etc., so that the system provider can improve their own profits through this part of the equipment. We believe that the real future of the software is not relying on these small smart to win, but by the software's own continuous improvement, by the intimate service to win the market, win customers.
Third, the service consciousness and serviceability
Software is service. If the catering management software service providers do not have a good sense of service, or do not have a good service capacity, then, again, the good product is not able to play out the due effect. Service contains three aspects: first, pre-sales consulting, including understanding of the user's real needs, product selection recommended; second is the sale of implementation and training services, this link is very important, the quality of network cabling directly affects the system data security and stability, the quality of training is directly related to the efficiency of the system, training should be divided into training, unified exercises, to strengthen the communication of the various departments of the post Interaction, one by one assessment, only through the assessment to be allowed to work, usually training positions should include: ordering staff, lobby manager, cashier, kitchen manager, warehouse manager, financial personnel, system administrators and general manager; Finally, is the after-sales service, after-sales service, including jury stores, on-site support, telephone support, computer remote service, etc., a good set of software should be supplemented by a set of customer needs to meet a complete after-sales service program, the system should be able to meet the customer's needs. A good set of software should also be complemented by a set of customer needs to meet the complete after-sales service program, including the establishment of customer maintenance service files, the development of maintenance service level.
Examining a system service provider's service consciousness and service capability is a simple and easy way to see whether it has established a relatively complete service process and service standards. If a software provider even the minimum service process and service standards have not been established, it is difficult to believe that its future services in a timely manner to meet the service needs of users.
Fourth, business focus vs. company size
Despite a considerable number of catering software systems on the market, but from the overall level of the industry, the proportion of catering companies to use the software is still not high, the current catering software is still part of the market introduction stage, the number of companies specializing in the operation of catering management software is not much, the scale is not yet very large, as a professional development of the operation of catering software With nationwide visibility and reputation of the company is almost none; there are some slightly larger companies, the main product may not be restaurant management software, just a department or a team responsible for the development and sales of catering software, for such a company, although the size and strength of the company seems to be relatively large, but due to the business is not focused on, once encountered operational difficulties, it is very likely that they will abandon This is one of the more important issues in our industry. This is a relatively common phenomenon in our industry. Therefore, we believe that, compared with the size of the company, it is more important to focus on the business. Because the law of development of things is, only focus, will become an expert; only focus, can have the power!
Fifth, the number and quality of effective customers
Food and beverage companies in the choice of software has been known to need to understand the software's existing customers, or called success stories. Some software companies tend to throw in the towel, the success stories of the customer list on a long list, no address, no phone, no contact information, such a customer directory even more, are meaningless. We are talking about effective customer directory, not only refers to the use of the software customers, more importantly, by who to complete the implementation and service. Often encountered in some markets have a certain degree of popularity of the software, in the global household up to thousands, but specific to a market, there may not be a few users, therefore, encountered such a situation, we hope that the user to brighten up the glasses, because perhaps you are encountering a newcomer in the service provided to you it. In the field of application software, the specific implementation of service capabilities, experience is very important, which often becomes a key factor in the successful implementation of software. For example, a set of restaurant management system can be successfully implemented in store A, not necessarily in store B will be able to achieve the same effect, because of different implementation service capabilities, will bring very different implementation results; the same thing will happen in some of the small companies that continue to split from some relatively large companies, this situation is more commonplace. The same thing happens to small companies that split from larger ones. Because they have just split up, despite having a revamped product, the new product does not yet have any official users, so one adopts a free strategy, and the other adopts a ****-enjoying-users strategy, whereby the customers of the former company are listed in the company's user directory in the same way. Therefore, the examination of effective users, not only to look at the number, but also to look at the quality; not only to listen to the introduction, the conditions of the best to go to the scene to see. This will certainly be able to see what is really going on.
Lastly, choose a partner vs. choose a product
At present, many catering companies, especially in the center of the city's large catering companies, choose a catering management system has a very superior choice of space, the beginning of the opening, there are often a large number of food and beverage software companies to market software, some catering companies responsible for the selection of personnel to make the self-perception of too good to have too much choice! And after a few introductions, the original layman has become a so-called insider, at this time, in addition to the function of the software is a selection of indicators, the most important trade-off standard seems to be the price. In fact, it is this time the most likely to fall into the wrong zone. Why is it, because the product's rich functionality is not necessarily what they need, the price can not be used as a criterion for the selection of software. We must emphasize that catering enterprises in the choice of software, must be catering enterprises other product suppliers have a clear distinction, software is not only a product, but also a service, is a mixture of products and services, therefore, the choice of software rather than choosing a product, rather than choosing a long-term partner.