Modern technologies and IT solutions are coming to almost all areas of activity. The catering segment is no exception. Today, more and more catering business owners are implementing automation programs at their enterprises. Accounting systems are gaining popularity by automating basic business processes – the sale of finished products and warehousing. They provide the opportunity to effectively control and manage resources, increase the company’s profit, retain its customer base, and help the company use its opportunities for further development.
The market today offers a number of software products that allow you to solve such problems, but they are aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. In addition, they do not have the ability to scale to the individual needs of a particular company. Large chains of food establishments and enterprises, as a rule, have programs of their own, although developing a software product from scratch is an expensive and time-consuming “pleasure.”
The NTS company, which produces and supplies to the Belarusian market the entire range of equipment for automation of trade and public catering establishments, IT solutions for retail, adapted to legal requirements, has developed a universal software package "NTS – BonAppetit" for recording the movement of goods, materials and finished products.
" NTS – BonAppetit" allows you to automate and maintain records in public catering facilities from small cafes and canteens to restaurant chains and factory canteens. You can keep records of prepared meals, semi-finished products and raw products. In addition, “NTS – BonAppetit” allows integration with external accounting systems, cash registers, weighing and other technological equipment.
A separate area of use of the accounting program " NTS – BonAppetit" is the automation and accounting of goods in the canteens of large industrial enterprises, in which a number of kitchens, buffets and canteens operate around the clock.
Roman Panchenko, Deputy Director of NTS, spoke about the capabilities of the NTS-BonAppetit software package and in which companies it has been implemented.
The NTS company is engaged in various projects. How did you come up with the idea of creating “NTS – BonAppetit”?
The main goal of creating the NTS – BonAppetit platform is the automation of public catering facilities to account for the necessary technological processes (receipt and write-off of inventory in the form of products, portion accounting, product cards, grams, etc.).
The idea of implementing such software appeared more than 10 years ago, when cloud accounting services did not yet exist. There were several restaurant solutions on the market that are still being used and modernized today.
The software package " NTS – BonAppetit" is a finished product, ready to be launched out of the box in the shortest possible time. If necessary, adapts to the needs and tasks of a specific customer in a short period of time.
The platform consists of two parts – the “back” part, that is, the accounting part, and the front part. The front part is an automated workstation for the bartender and waiter with linked cash register equipment for issuing preliminary checks and closing the settlement. Accounting is maintained according to various parameters and allows you to track revenue, for example, both by waiters and by each table separately.
The market does not stand still and today there are already many offers of cloud-based online solutions with similar functionality that are used in food establishments.
Such cloud solutions require lower implementation costs, and the set of functions they have is sufficient for small businesses – there is a gradation of “packages” of services – from basic to conditional “premium”, with a corresponding established monthly subscription fee. But such solutions also have disadvantages: there is no possibility of modification to suit individual “wants”, the data is stored on third-party servers, which does not allow control over the security and use of company data by third parties. There have been cases when access to Belarusian users was cut off, and the owner of a cafe or restaurant was left without the software and the data accumulated in it.
Large companies and enterprises prefer the local deployment of full-fledged accounting systems, which are located at the enterprise's facilities. “ NTS – BonAppetit” was developed as a licensed product installed on the customer’s equipment.
Workplace of the bartender, waiter (front part)
Accountant's workplace (back part)
What problems can be solved by large companies and enterprises that operate food outlets and stores?
About 5 years ago we began to feel competition with cloud services when they began to actively appear and develop. During this period, we paid attention to industrial catering – this is a vast and unexplored sector of the market, in contrast to “civilian” catering (cafes and restaurants), let’s call it that.
We are talking about enterprises – both large and medium-sized, which have their own food outlets, subordinate canteens, retail stores, delis, and buffets. On the NTS – BonAppetit platform, the following capabilities are implemented and operate in various industries:
– automation of retail trade and catering for employees with the possibility of payment on account of wages according to established controlled limits, incentive accruals. Accounts are kept of charges and write-offs, and there is the possibility of blocking if there are no “virtual funds” on the card. For example, accruals to an employee who was on vacation are taken into account, as well as tracking the dismissal and hiring of employees.
– purchase of goods and meals for employees without setting a limit , the so-called bill of exchange, information is recorded on an internal card (pass) and at the same time goes to the accounting department for accounting in the calculation of the employee’s wages.
– internal processing – necessary for accumulating, processing, storing large amounts of information about charges on internal cards of the enterprise, write-offs from cards, balances, processes information on orders (who orders what and where), information on packaging/containing, delivery, current prices , menu. Next, internal processing distributes information among departments of the enterprise (accounting, human resources, kitchens, internal Internet resources). The work of internal processing requires integration with different software environments of the enterprise. Among the working connections, we can note the working exchange with SAP.
– module for working with discounts – if there is a marketing program for the company’s employees, it supports the calculation of discounts.
– the module for picking and delivering orders reflects information about orders, the number of dishes to be prepared, previously completed orders, and other necessary data in the work.
And all this is interconnected with cash register equipment – any sale, even using internal cards (passes) of the enterprise, is a fiscal operation for which a fiscal receipt must be issued and provided to the buyer.
The development and implementation of such modules is a new stage in the development of our company and our services in the field of public catering.
I would like to note that the introduction of an accounting system in public catering at an enterprise, organizing catering or purchasing goods in its own stores is not only about money in the form of cost optimization, increasing revenue, etc., it is also a social project for the enterprise.
At what volume of tasks is it worth switching to using your platform?
In fact, there is no clear answer here. It is possible to evaluate all the pros and cons of our program only in practice, but the need to introduce automation in the public catering industry is obvious, starting from constant competition and ending with the desire of the owner to facilitate business management, because the larger the enterprise, the more difficult it becomes to achieve transparency and achieve an effective level work. The main evaluation criterion will be the owner’s vision and desire to receive a local product tailored to the needs of the business.
That is, today the target audience of the product is large industrial enterprises that require a custom solution to automate the power supply of all employees?
Yes, the main focus of the sales department is now on clients with industrial catering.
We have a ready-made solution that we can replicate to other enterprises with individual adjustments depending on needs.
However, at the same time, we satisfy the demand of the private restaurant business for local implementation.
How many people in your company are involved in these projects?
To implement projects, we have an IT department of 10 people, which is engaged in development, testing, subsequent implementation and technical support – of course, we further support the functionality of our clients’ software products.
There is also constant support – often requests to support are related specifically to improvements, so the support department works closely with the development department.
