Background
Lessings, Inc. is a fast-growing, family-owned hospitality company that was founded in 1890 by Maxwell Lessing in Great River, New York. Lessings prides itself on being “the oldest family-owned, continuously operated, highly diverse food service company in the United States.” Today, the day-to-day company operations are still maintained by six generations of the Lessing family.
As of 2017, the company has over 100 locations across the U.S., representing a multitude of successful concepts from full-service restaurants and catering, to a franchisee agreement with Blaze Fast Fire’d Pizza to develop a chain of pizza restaurants. Lessings now has a hand in effectively every type of business in the restaurant and hospitality industries, including a small hotel.
Challenge
Lessings realized that they were spending too much time looking at data from the past when it was needed in the moment. Though they appreciate the value of information, Lessings needed increased speed of information and aggregation.
“To continue our 125-year tradition of innovation and excellence, we need to focus on the future. Having constant access to real-time data makes it easier for management to make quick, informed business decisions,” said Peter Lessing, Director of System Analytics at Lessings.
Solution
“Lessings, Inc. is very complicated. We have a myriad of technologies; sometimes savvy, sometimes a mechanical cash register. There is a little bit of everything in the mix,” says Lessing. “Having one set of analytics for all types of operations made a tremendous amount of sense.”
In their search for a restaurant management software solution, Compeat’s (now R365) name kept coming up. The speed of information, cost drivers and data aggregation immediately caught Lessings’ eye. Lessings has now been with the company since 2014, and continues to use their software in a myriad of ways.
Results
COGS Suites, Labor Scheduling, On the Fly, Event Management, Budgets, and custom reporting – Lessings makes use of just about every feature that Compeat offers. Moving forward, they plan to extend their Compeat usage in 2017 with Checkbooks and Invoice Imaging.
Prior to Compeat, Lessings was using excel spreadsheets for their accounts payable and inventory data. “The COGS modules have provided Lessings ten times more for the same amount of input, since Compeat polls information from the Point of Sale itself,” said Lessing. “With the inventory system, we can consolidate and compare data across the restaurant group as a whole. For example, if there are 150 bottles of a particular whiskey in the company that could possibly be moved around, then no one buy more.” In addition, Compeat’s product mix reporting provides comparisons of their locations to see what items are selling where, ultimately allowing them to analyze sales and introduce location-specific new items.
One the biggest results Lessings has witnessed with Compeat is through the Labor Scheduler. Compeat offers a single interface, unlike their previous scheduling platform outside of Compeat. To Lessing, the Compeat labor scheduling module, payroll tools, and labor reports, provide transparency of data – ultimately creating cost savings.
Recently, Lessings began using the Event Management module at some of their restaurant locations. “We have moved from sticky notes on the wall, to an integrated system where everyone can see what is going on. It’s has really streamlined our event procedures,” says Lessings when asked about his impression of the module. Now with a consolidated system each restaurant in the group is reporting in the same language.
“With the inventory system, we can consolidate and compare data across the restaurant group as a whole.”
– Peter Lessing, Director of System Analytics
With the company actively applying an array of Compeat’s features, Lessing has become a good friend and advocate for the client services team at Compeat. “The Client Services team is the reason all of this works,” replied Lessing, when asked about his customer service experience. The Lessings-Compeat partnership has cultivated much success for the Lessing industry. As Lessings’ future continues to grow, so will their relationship with Compeat.
