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INFOSYS.110 BUSINESS SYSTEMS: DELIVERABLE 2: BUSINESS SECTION2014

Name Ellen StrangeNetID estr181Group Number: 165Website Link:

Tutorial DetailsTutor: Day: Time:Johnnie Shubert Wednesday 9am

Time Spent on Assignment: 1065 hours Word Count:

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THE SELFWAITERINTRODUCTION

As all restaurant and cafe owners know, satisfying customers is of the utmost importance in

any hospitality business. But it’s almost impossible to achieve at the same time as keeping

labour costs low. Right? Not with the SelfWaiter! This is a unique and innovative system that

will take all the hassle out of the ordering process without having to spend any more on

staff. Speed, ease and efficiency will be improved and every customer will feel completely

satisfied with the service they receive.

3. BUSINESS SECTION

3.1 Vision

“To enhance the speed, ease and efficiency of café and restaurants’ ordering process by

creating an innovative system and quality service.”

3.2 Industry Analysis:

Industry: The Hospitality Software Industry. The Hospitality Software Industry comprises of

software such as apps or websites that help restaurants, cafes, hotels etc. with their

business processes and also enhance their customer’s satisfaction.

Force: High/Low: Justification:

Buyer power: High Applications such as the ‘Fast Food Restaurant

Menu’ and the ‘TourPal’ found on the App Store

can provide maps, menus and tours for

hospitality companies and their customers. This

gives buyers a wide variety to choose from.

Supplier power: Low Avram (2014) highlighted that there are “29

million ICT-skilled workers in the world as we

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enter 2014, including 11 million professional

developers.” Companies can choose the lowest

priced and most suitable software developers out

of a wide variety.

Threat of new entrants: High According to Hamilton (2013), “business owners

and entrepreneurs can... build their own

professional looking websites” and Fletcher (n.d)

says, “anyone can make an app” indicating how

easy it is to develop the software to enter the

market.

Threat of substitutes: High Prabu explains that, “Traditionally, restaurants

had their menus in paper/booklet form”

indicating paper menus are extremely

threatening. Hiring extra staff, chalk board menu

etc. are also other substitutes.

Rivalry among existing

competitors:

High Rivalry is high because a large amount of software

is available that aims to help owners of hospitality

companies to satisfy their customers. These are

all competing fiercely in the hospitality software

industry.

Overall attractiveness of the industry: Overall Porter’s Five Forces shows that the

hospitality software industry is not very attractive due to the ease of developing the

software and magnitude of software already available. This may make it difficult for

companies in the industry to gain market share and generate profits.

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3.3 Customers and Their Needs

Restaurant and cafe owners are the target customers of the SelfWaiter. A vital part of their

businesses day to day activities is their ordering system and it can be a struggle to master

due to high labour costs. Pavesic (n.d) expresses that “Labor issues are still the No. 1

concern of most restaurant owners and managers” because “You have two major “cost

centers” ... food and beverage and labor”, indicating labour costs are large for restaurants

and cafes. It is necessary to keep labour costs low in order to generate profits and keep the

business running but is almost impossible when labour costs are high and high levels are

staff are required to achieve an exemplary level of customer service. Owners and managers

need to find a way to balance keeping costs low while still providing excellent service to

their customers.

3.4 The Product and Service

The SelfWaiter is an innovative solution to help owners of cafes and restaurants solve their

labour issues. It is a digitalised platform where customers place their orders from their table

in to the ordering system from either a tablet or their own smart phones. The system can be

accessed through the means of an app or website on an internal wifi network. Our company

creates a customised application or website for the restaurant/cafe, setup their wifi

network, collaborate to design tablets/ screens and design furniture that they would

require. With the SelfWaiter it is no longer necessary for a member of staff to take

customer’s orders and customers can then order when and how they like. Therefore

customers will be happier and more relaxed - not worrying about having to choose quickly

or waiting around for a waiter to come take their order. Using this system will also mean

that less staff will be required because noone is needed to take orders. Staff will have more

time to ensure customers are comfortable, take orders to the tables and clear up tables

increasing customer satisfaction without extra labour costs.

3.5 Suppliers and Partners

Suppliers - Our Company’s focus is not on developing the software but more so providing an

outstanding service to our customers therefore we outsource this task. We will pay a

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software developer to build the applications and websites, for example Enlighten Designs, a

NZ company, provides custom software development and website design. A company to set

up the network in the restaurant or cafe in order to create a private wifi system will also be

required. Potential companies could be NSP (Network Service Provider) who are IT System

Engineers.

Partners - In order to produce our service to our customers we need to collaborate with

companies to build tablets and furniture that meet their specific. For example tables with

tablet pockets and tablets with hidden ‘on’ buttons. Therefore we will partner up with tablet

manufacturers and furniture designers such as Apple or Samsung for the tablets and

furniture designers such as Optimum Furniture.

3.6 Strategy: Differentiation

The SelfWaiter is a high quality product that will bring high value to its customers. Premium

quality software and tablets will be used and therefore a high cost strategy will be

implemented. The SelfWaiter will also target a broad market because all cafe and

restaurants across New Zealand could make use of this product and could effectively

simplify their ordering process with the SelfWaiter.

The overall strategy is therefore: Differentiation

3.7 Value Chain Activity: Service after the sale

The most important value chain activity for this business is Service after the sale.

Service after sale is an incredibly important value chain activity for the SelfWaiter because in

the hospitality industry reputation is extremely important. According to Metclafe, “Your

number one marketing priority should be developing a 5-star online reputation,” indicating

it is essential to get good reviews. Without a good reputation it is impossible to retain and

gain customers. It is important for our company to maintain their service after the sale in

order to keep with our vision of enhancing the ‘ease’ and ‘efficiency’ of the ordering system.

It is also necessary to bring high quality service to keep in line with our ‘high cost’ strategy. If

the customer is constantly having issues or faults that we are not providing help with, then

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the order process will become even more difficult than if they weren’t using the system at

all and they will not be receiving the quality they are paying for. This is certainly not ideal as

these customers will share this bad experience and our company will lose many potential

customers.

3.8 Business Processes

3.8.1.CUSTOMER COMPLAINT PROCESS

The customer complaint process will receive and file complaints from the customer

referring to glitches in their software or tablet breakages for example. A decision will be

made if it can be solved and whether it is a software issue or not. Action will be taken

accordingly, such as sending information to the customer on what is going wrong and how

they could deal with it themselves or sending the software issue to the IT department.

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3.8.2. QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCESS

The quality assurance process alerts the company to any faults in a customer’s system and

involves the filing of the fault, decision on whether the company could fix it internally or not

and a decision on whether it is a fault in the software and if so, update the software.

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3.9 FUNCTIONALITIES

3.9.1. CUSTOMER COMPLAINT PROCESS

Capture complaint data

Send software information

3.9.2. QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCESS

Receive fault alert

Update changes to software

3.10 Systems

3.10.1. CUSTOMER COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - A customer complaint management

system would be used to capture complaints from customers, store them on a database and

organise them. Employees can use this system to find complaints, process them and then

decide how to react to them. This will ensure customers have a chance to solve their issues

through the quality service we aim to provide.

3.10.2. QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM- A quality assurance system would capture any faults in

the system of our customers and report the error as an alert on our system. It will provide

details on the fault such as which customer, their location etc. and help ensure the quality

of the customer’s product. Again this will support quality service by maintaining their

product.

3.10.3 SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM- A software management system would record the

complaints and faults and the action that was taken previously. This information is then

used to refer back to in a repeat event. It will also provide information on whether it is a

software issue/fault and will also record any updates that were made to the software in

order to avoid the faults/complaints occurring again.

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VALUE CHAIN ACTIVITY

PROCESSES FUNCTIONALITIES SPECIFIC SYSTEMS BROAD SYSTEMS

Service after the sale

Customer Complaint Process

1. Capture complaint data

2. Send software information

1. Customer complaint management System

2. Software Management System

Customer Relationship Management

Transaction Processing system

Quality Assurance Process

1. Receive fault alert

2. Update software

1. Quality Assurance System

2. Software Management system

Customer Relationship Management

Transaction Processing System

CONCLUSION

Overall, the SelfWaiter will add a whole new dimension to the ordering process. The

industry is not extremely attractive but being an original product, the SelfWaiter has a first

mover advantage in the industry and will gain market share initially. As long as the

company’s reputation is maintained, restaurant and cafe owners will continue using the

SelfWaiter as the ‘go to’ product to simplify their ordering process which will keep their

costs low and profits high.

REFERENCES

1. Pavesic, D. (n.d) Boost Productivity to Control Labor Costs. Retrieved from: http://www.rrgconsulting.com/restaurant_labor_cost_controls.htm

2. Metcalfe, S. (n.d) Why Reputation Management Should Be Your Top Marketing Priority. Retrieved from:http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/why-reputation-management-should-be-your-top-marketing-priority/

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3. Fletcher, J. (n.d) Can anyone develop an app? Retrieved from:http://www.hostway.com/web-resources/find-web-hosting/can-anyone-develop-an-app/

4. Hamilton, B. (2013) New Website Shows How Anyone Can Create a Website, Even on a Shoe String Budget. Retrieved from:http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/28/idUSnHUGdl6D+71+ONE20131028

5. Avram, A. (2014, 31.01) IDC Study: How Many Software Developers Are Out There? Retrieved from:http://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/IDC-software-developers/

6. Prabu, K. (2013, 21.02) Tablets replacing paper menus in restaurants – a long-term trend or too problematic? Retrieved from:http://www.tnooz.com/Tablets-replacing-paper-menus-in-restaurants-Is-this-trend-going-to-work-or-backfire

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