Group items tagged

Food Trucks no longer have to worry about internet connections, cables and loss of power. This system is on the go and perfect for them and even has a way for them to reach out to customers when they are in a slow time. If food trucks are having a slow day they can just tweet to all of their followers special deals or locations even to attract more business.

Having the iPad POS system in the food trucks is a great idea because the owners no longer have to worry about lots of hardware in the truck just to be able to take payment from customers.

Technology continues to advance in every aspect of the hospitality field even for food trucks businesses. The Revel System has released a new iPad-based restaurant POS system. This system is very convenient for food truck employees. There is no longer need to worry about the hustle and bustle of loose cables and poor router connection. As social media plays an important role in today's day and age the new POS system is equip with Twitter. Food trucks owners can send a tweet out about promotions, discounts, and their current location. This is very much an innovation for food truck businesses.

While food trucks have become extremely popular these days, they have been around as early as the 1800's! Before the gourmet food trucks started to pop up, street vendors selling hot dogs, pretzels and lunch food for office workers have been around for decades. Now with more and more people out of work or people who want the ability to be more creative with their own food with a small budget, food trucks have become more popular.  However some cities have restrictions such as Chicago, where a food truck cannot be parked within 200 feet of a restaurant.  LA, the government limits the number of permits issued for mobile food vendors because of the street congestion it produces.  Permits are also limited because traditional restaurants don't want to compete with the low priced street vendors. 

Mobi Munch is an LA-based company that designs and builds food trucks. They have recently begun adapting and implementing digital age systems for their clients.  Among the innovations are POS systems built to survive the stresses of heavy transit, GPS systems for reporting of truck locations, and sophisticated video displays for customers. The Micros Simphony POS is now part of its food truck technology suite. Perhaps the most important upgrade is credit card authorization via the 4G/3G network because for many the norm was handwritten tickets.

This article introduces Revel System's new Ipad Point of Sale System designed specifically for food trucks. The system includes Revel Router, which allows customers to connect to the internet by using their iPad's built-in 3G or 4G connection. Another highlight of the system is that it intergrates with Twitter, allowing food truck owners to instantly send out location/price/sales updates to their followers. I immediately found this article to be interesting, because my research for this class will center around effective POS systems in food trucks. I feel it was an excellent move on Revel's part to create a system for this unique group. I think they really had food truck owners' best interest in mind, especially in intergrating Twitter with the system. This allows food trucks to communicate easily with their followers, and provides opportunites to boost sales and revenue. I look forward to seeing if any of the food trucks I visit are using this system.

This article in Mobile Cuisine magazine warns food truck owners about the importance of having a grip on their financials. With all the other hats the owner must wear: buyer, manager, janitor, etc. it's important to have an easy to use resource for managing every penny that goes in or out of the business.  The author recommends QuickBooks because of its simplicity and reliability. 

This article talks about one of the negative impacts of the current state of e-commerce: the detrimental impact on the environment. The article discusses how consumers have a need for their goods to be delivered quickly and conveniently. E-commerce ventures such as Amazon, Google Express, and Postmates provide customers with goods and services at the click of a button that can be delivered in as little as 10 minutes. However, these businesses have a heavy environmental cost, with an increasing use of cardboard being used in shipments and an increase in personalized freight services, which can lead to more greenhouse gas emissions. While some argue that these e-commerce services might lead to less consumers going out and shopping in physical stores, research shows that this is not the case, with consumers still going out and shopping even if they also shop online through these e-commerce businesses. Although much of the cardboard that is being used in these services is recyclable, recycling comes with its own downsides, as the process of taking things to the recycling centers uses a lot of water and energy. Overall, the new wave of e-commerce has spurred questions about its environmental impact.

Technology researcher, Greg Buzek is interviewed by Nation's Restaurant News about the future of Mobile POS among restaurants. He says that Mobile POS will be the fatsest penetration of any technology in the hospitality industry since the introduction of internet connectivity. We see that the fastest growing market for this technology are the smaller bussinesses such as food trucks and fast food restaurants where the speed of the transaction is critical, but eventually will find itself popular amongst larger restaurant chains. The appeal for smaller bussinesses is the price point, since it's cheaper than installing $2000.00 traditional POS.

New York Fiesah is an online marketplace that connect NYC event planners and all kinds of vendors in a much easier manner. The event planner signs into Fiestah"s dashboard, they input the items they need and then vendors place bids to fill in those needs. Fiestah generates revenue by taking a 10 percent cut of each transaction. Another thing Fiestah provides for both parties is that the payment is held in escrow until the vendor completesits task, meaning both sides need to get what they want first. This will make sure both parties can get what they want. Testah team has been hard at work building out the marketplace, introducing themselves to lots of NYC business, and trying to get traction. The next thins on the company's long to -do list is to create full merchant profiles with the ability to rate vendors some time in the next few months. Also Fiestah plans to bring its market place to a next city - San Francisco.

The article talks about an online company in New York that was designed by Nurul Yahya called Feistah. It's an online event planning that allow all kind of vendors in a much easier manner then what's described above. The event planner simply signs into Feistah dash board input what "item" they need for event and then vendors place bids to fill in those needs. The company generates revenue by 10 percent cut of each transaction. In the next thing on the company's long to-do list is to create full merchant profiles with the ability to rate vendors sometime in the next few months. Fiesta next expansion is to startup in San Francisco.

The quick-service industry will continue to evolve in 2013, and these five trends will have the biggest impact. Last year was marked by continued economic uncertainty, the rapid expansion of the fast-casual segment, a devastating drought, and innovative new menu items and promotions. The five top trends that will affect restaurants in 2013 are: 1. Competing with Fast Casual: The Quick-Serve Empires Try to Strike Back 2. Labor Costs: Uncertainties Create New Opportunities 3. Pricing: The Conflict Continues 4. Mobile: It's More Than Following Food Trucks 5. Technology: Ordering in HD While this article does not only talk about POS systems, it addresses the topic, as well as, the trend of mobile apps.

This article is focussed on the risk involved if the proper impact study is not undertaken prior to implementation of extensive IT projects. Several multinational companies were referenced in the article, highlighting failures with smooth implementation resulting in the loss of millions and sometimes billions. Below is a summary of some companies referenced in article and the impact of IT implementation gone wrong: 1. Levi Strauss: In 2003 Levi Strauss examined its technological capabilities and concluded that its systems were inadequate for its multi-national corporation operation within 110 countries. A budget of US$5 million was created for a system upgrade. Many challenges along the way resulted in the inability to sufficiently report financials resulted in three distribution canters in the USA closing for a week. As a result of this, the company lost US$200 million and the termination of the chief information officer in 2008. 2. Hong Kong Airport: IT problems resulting in glitches in flight information system and database for tracking cargo shipment resulted in a US$600 million loss between 1998 and 1999. 3. Hershey: About 10 years ago Hershey wanted to implement a new order taking system. Problems with implementation resulted in the inability of the company shipping US$100 million worth of candy in time for Halloween thus impacting the company's bottom-line of an 18.6% loss in earnings during the quarter. 4. Kmart: in 2000 Kmart embarked on aUS$1.4 billon IT modernization project. In the midst of the project Kmart discovered that the project had too many customized application which would result in an exorbitant maintenance costs. An additional US$600m was spent on integrating a supply chain management system. Failure of this project led to bankruptcy filing by Kmart in 2002. This resulted in the closure of 600 stores and the loss of over 60,000 jobs in the USA. 5. Auto windshield (UK): Auto windshield was considered to be the second largest auto glass c

The term known as a Point of Sale (POS) has evolved greatly in the past couple decades. From an actual human being in a ticket window, to instant mobile ticket sales, we've come quite a long way. Technology has given us the ability to purchase things on both a leisure and business level instantly. From a business standpoint, POS helps optimize inventory, cash flow, expenses, and revenue. And from a leisure standpoint, it just gets consumers what they want faster. This article focuses on the importance of today's POS in small businesses. Stripe, Venmo, and Square are just a few POS applications that help small businesses. This allows the company user-friendly access to invoices, billing, taxes, inventory, payroll, purchase history, etc, etc. Venmo, for example, allows instant payments to either individuals or companies with a few touches of a mobile device, without the presence of the actual card. This third-party POS system verifies and then stores your account information. Prior to these tools, many companies had to resort to only taking cash, or incurring overwhelming credit-card transaction fees. Although evolving POS systems are an asset to small business, there is still a risk of compromising confidential information. For example, WingStop had four locations' POS systems compromised. This results in a lot of bad press and a lot of upset customers.

Summer is wedding season. Celebrities aren't the only one spending a ton of money willing to spend on their honeymoons. Billionaires have honeymoons almost as extravagant as their wedding itself. With all that money, but tends to be complicated. Ovation Vacations have become experts at planning honeymoons for billionaires. This company is known for planning leisure travel consulting for 'ultra-high net worth' people. This team consists of 30 employees which plan nearly 200 honeymoons per year, averaging about $50,000 each trip. This results in $1 million in revenue per month. The CEO is considered to be the Olivia Pope of the travel industry. An interesting request of travelers who book with Ovation is that they like specific cuts of meat during traveling. It's very common to have meat sent from the U.S. to where ever they are vacationing. This is very interesting to me because you would expect one of the main attractions of traveling is to try new cuisines. Seems a little over the top. It gets a little more extreme -- one guest even requested an al dente pasta cooked for a certain amount of minutes. A celebrity requested dragon fruit for their "pink smoothie". This gets tricky when other countries have rules when it comes to importation. JLo wanted Ovation to pick our green M&Ms for her. In addition, another guest wanted a crate of Fiji water bottles delivered nightly. It gets even better, one guest paid $40,000 for her 5-night stay in order to have her sink filled 7 inches in order to not bend over to wash their face. Another husband spent $80,000 to have a yacht carpeted so his wife can wear her stilettos instead of being barefoot. Sometimes inevitable things happen such as natural disasters. Not a problem for Ovation. They spend $50,000 for one couple to still enjoy the beach, which had been destroyed due to weather. What they did was hire a truck to move sand from one part of the island to the other for them to enjoy a private beach. Something simple, yet

This article talks about how there are new technology systems that are altering how restaurants of all sizes operate from food trucks to five-star dining. There is a tremendous upside for restaurant owners to capitalize on the latest trend capabilities to run their business better. An example of new technologies in how to revamp your business is to have immersive customer technology in which using tablets and smart-screens can help interact with customers more effectively. Using POS systems directly, browsing menus, ordering food and drinks, and entertainment are examples of immersive strategies. Also, a new concept is the reservation and pre-payment technology which enables the customer to do pre-paid or pay for table reservations to sell non-refundable seats to a dining experience. Mobile payment technology is fast and convenient, and consumers are now becoming accustomed to the idea of paying online or through a mobile service. Finally, restaurant management are using cloud operated based technology in which not only cloud POS systems reduce costs, but offer many benefits over traditional hardware based systems.

Although this is not an article per se, I wanted to post this link on here anyways because in recent years I've noticed that more and more places I go to (specifically restaurants and food trucks) I find that they use Square as their POS. After looking through their website I can see why this POS has become so popular. Square is super easy to use, it offers options when it comes to receiving the receipt (as the customer) and you are able to manage your inventory in real time. Additionally, you can create customer profiles, have more than 1 location and create different customer profiles. Basically, this system does everything a traditional POS system does but it is more modern, user friendly and versatile.

This article presents suggestions on POS selection for companies sized from small to large. I found this article really interesting and reiterates that the selection of the POS is going to be based on company needs/culture. Their research was extensive and conducted market research repeatedly, before suggestions were made. It also touched on the different pricing options, in addition to any special features the POS may offer.

This article talks about the best POS systems for 2020. What I found interesting is that the majority of these systems are cloud-based and offer integrated information services for a variety of industries, not just hospitality. A lot of the systems also are ipad based and work well with third-party POS hardware. They also have automated payment options integrated, for people who like to process payments electronically (i.e. Apple Pay). I think its important to know about these POS systems and what they can accomplish for hospitality companies.

In this article, they talk about the best pos systems to use for 2020. They list each pos system name and then summarize the benefits and give a full review. The first system they talk about is lightspeed, which Ipad pos system has solutions for retail stores, restaurants, and online businesses. It's fully mobile, so you can check inventory from anywhere in the store, show customers product images and descriptions, and ring up orders and accept payments on the sales floor or, for restaurants, tableside. The next system is Vend that has real-time reports, inventory management features, and access to various integrations that can help you run your business, save time, and boost sales. This POS software is suitable for nearly every type of retailer. Whether you run a clothing store, a sporting goods store, or a specialty service-based business such as a car wash or computer shop, Vend has the features you need. Touch Bistro is a simple and affordable POS system that focuses on the unique needs of restaurant owners, with tables, reservations, and delivery management features. It's suitable for all types of food establishments - fine dining, casual eateries, cafes, pubs, food trucks, and more. Lastly, there is eposnow has both retail and hospitality versions of the software are available, each with a robust selection of features to help you run your business. It also has more than 80 integrations, so you can add extra capabilities and connect to the business programs you already use.

This article describes the top technology trend in 2020 that everyone must be prepared for. The first trend is Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most transformative tech evolutions of our times. Most companies have started to explore how they can use AI to improve customer experience and to streamline their business operations. Next is 5g data networks which are mobile internet connectivity is going to give us super-fast download and upload speeds as well as more stable connections.2020 is likely to be the year when 5G starts to fly, with more affordable data plans as well as much improved coverage, meaning that everyone can join in the fun. The following trend is autonomous driving, which won't just be cars. Of course, trucking and shipping are becoming more autonomous, and breakthroughs in this space are likely to continue to hit the headlines throughout 2020. Lastly, the extended reality is a catch-all term that covers several new and emerging technologies being used to create more immersive digital experiences. More specifically, it refers to virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. Virtual reality (VR) provides an entirely digitally immersive experience where you enter a computer-generated world using headsets that blend out the real world.

This article reviews Mobile POS systems and unattended POS systems and provides key features of each.

According to the article Artificial intelligence is evolving all by itself, researchers have created software that borrows concepts from Darwinian evolution, including "survival of the fittest," to build AI programs that improve generation after generation without human input. In recent years, scientists have sped up the process by automating some steps. But these programs still rely on stitching together ready-made circuits designed by humans. That means the output is still limited by engineers' imaginations and their existing biases. The program discovers algorithms using a loose approximation of evolution. It starts by creating a population of 100 candidate algorithms by randomly combining mathematical operations. It then tests them on a simple task, such as an image recognition problem where it has to decide whether a picture shows a cat or a truck. This article was very informative and shows lots technological advances towards artificial intelligence.

Food buffets will change, the amount of spacing required will change & social distancing will be in play; this will definitely play out in the events planning industry, as well.

This article is about Virtual Restaurants, Ghost Kitchens, and the differences between the two. To be honest, I was not really familiar with either of these concepts before today, though I can see the appeal of both and why they are increasing in popularity. It's obvious that the pandemic played a large role in accelerating the popularity and significance of these kinds of services but I do not think things will slow down. It is evident that people like the ability to order a wide variety of food and get it in a timely manner while still retaining its quality. I think that ghost kitchens are a great opportunity for people to test out their restaurant concepts without committing to a long term lease, a large investment in equipment, etc. I think that it will lend to more diversity in delivery food and potentially even higher quality.

Ghost kitchens is such an interesting concept and the name just grabs you! I skimmed through this article and will definitely go back to properly read it once I have the brain capacity to do so haha. Judging from your review on it these are becoming popular and significant in our day in age.