Challenge
Islands was using a custom-built BI Solution that was extremely expensive to develop and costs continued to grow as changes were needed. Food costs were difficult to track and manage. As an expanding restaurant chain, Islands was looking for a Business Intelligence system that could handle several different POS systems and provide one unified reporting platform. To better manage their sales and labor, Islands began an extensive search to find the analytical reporting tool that would provide them with the insight and control into their operations that they needed.
Solution
After reviewing several restaurant management software options, Islands chose Ctuit Radar (now R365) for their flexible solutions to their unique needs. Now, every department and employee who needs immediate access to Islands data uses Compeat on a daily basis.
Results
Controlling Costs Compeat’s Inventory module is a critical piece of Islands’ daily management. The Inventory Activity page has allowed Islands to effectively isolate losses (or poor inventories) down to the item level. This has proven extremely helpful for their operators, so they can now focus their time on the root cause of the issue (i.e. theft, over portioning, etc.) and proactively make the appropriate changes. Islands does a daily inventory of high cost items and is able to identify any losses down to the ingredient every morning so they can follow-up with the staff immediately versus waiting for period end to see the trends.
Reducing Labor With the Compeat implementation, Islands is now able to build and manage labor schedules, comparing the scheduled vs. actual labor. They also use the labor module to track tardy employees, early employees, overtime, and employees approaching overtime. Even the smallest variances in labor save Islands immeasurable dollars to the bottom line.Making operations more efficient: Prior to using Compeat, Islands’ daily manager notes were under-utilized. The move to Compeat’s Manager Log was quickly embraced and has proven to be a vastly improved replacement and a key component to their day-to-day operations. This change has had an exponentially positive impact on store communication, resulting in more efficient management.
Increasing server productivity: Comparing promotions and specials among the servers gives Islands an accurate ROI on each server. The ability to track guest checks, tips, alcohol/beverage sales, and sales by server in an intuitive report gives them the tools they need to run a more streamlined operation. “For a reasonable amount of money, we have been able to customize the invaluable server productivity report even more for our operation,” states Trey Menz, IT Restaurant Systems Manager of Islands Restaurant.
“We have realized over a 50% savings from Compeat’s (now R365) configurable and robust solution.”
– Trey Menz Director of IT
