- When AI meets Menu Engineering meets Restaurant Operations: Polaris ERP.
- Featuring an intuitive interface to identify the best options for boosting profits, cutting costs, and simplifying operations.
- This restaurant-savvy solution is all set and ready to show why AI is the next big thing in the F&B industry.
Back in 2022, as the world was emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, Somun Restaurant was already making waves with its traditional Balkan dishes, brought to the UAE to create the second home for Balkans in Dubai.
However, some challenges remained in the way of Somun Restaurant achieving its maximum growth potential at that time. Having integrated front of the house with back-end data, real time visibility on their menu profitability or a smooth coordination between inventory, purchase and product selling and delivery integration were some of these challenges.
Two years after implementing Polaris ERP, this authentic and one-of-a-kind restaurant business is doubling its sales, while decreasing operational hassles and saving time to focus on delivering excellent customer experience.
An international study conducted by Harvard Business Review found that the implementation of ERP systems in restaurants has resulted in a 15-20% increase in operational efficiency. Another study, conducted by Aberdeen Strategy Research, shows that restaurants that use ERP systems make 15-25% higher profit margins compared to those that don’t.
Polaris Technology not only integrates the FOH with back-end operations (like inventory management, procurement management, Human Resource, or finance and accounting), it empowers restaurateurs to make informed decisions at any time of the day through accurate reporting, and most importantly, it provides a unique function that allows them to optimize menu profitability.
A Glance into the Future: AI-Powered Menu Engineering to Boost F&B Businesses Growth
This is the AI-Powered Menu Engineering feature: it looks at the business data that restaurant owners want to analyze, and answers their questions regarding menu profitability, cost optimization, or increased efficiency. Depending on the specific question or goal that it receives, this smart technology provides several options for restaurant owners to consider. All options are customized based on the data and specific profile of the F&B businesses onto which the AI-Powered Menu Engineering feature is implemented, so the recommendations are accurate and ready to be implemented. Decision makers will be assured of a higher result effectiveness as the recommendations are based on logic and facts about their business.
Polaris ERP’s AI-Powered Menu Engineering feature has been built for efficiency and is currently used by many of Polaris Technology’s clients.
The main pain point that Polaris ERP aims to solve for its clients, and F&B business owners, is optimizing menu profitability. It does that by providing clear insights into what items were bestsellers or were the least requested during a specific period, that the owner or restaurant manager is interested in, also considering the food cost and recipe management. Then, it provides suggestions on how to make the menu more profitable, through a menu engineering matrix, qualifying the menu items into: Star (high in both profitability and popularity), Plow Horse (low in profitability but high in popularity), Puzzle (high profitability and low popularity), and Dogs (low in both profitability and popularity).
These evaluations are done based on the data analyzed from the reports captured from the actual sales ledger, so there is no room for misinterpretation.
Based on this categorization, AI technology comes into play, providing various recommendations that restaurateurs can apply to boost profitability, or cut costs. For instance, it can suggest:
(1) Combining one menu item from the Puzzle category with one menu item from the Star category to make a combo.
(2) Promoting one menu item from the Dog category as Chef’s recommendation to boost its popularity and profitability.
(3) Offering a reward-based discount for the Puzzle menu items for loyal customers, and much more.
On average, Polaris Technology’s clients who are using this solution are experiencing increased profits by 16%, waste reduction by up to 20%, or cost optimization by 15%.
More Benefits for Restaurateurs with F&B ERP System
There are more benefits for F&B business owners from using this AI-Powered ERP solution. It helps save time by automating processes, replacing manual work, and reducing human error. The Point-Of-Sale (POS) communicates with the Kitchen Display System (KDS), and with the back office. In this way, the sales entries are sent directly to the accounting ledger that is included in the preparation of a financial statement from the accounting system, leaving no room for errors from manual inputs.
In addition, reducing cost is also one of the pain points that Polaris ERP helps F&B business managers and owners to overcome. This solution uses a logical and systematic approach in which the system learns from the business data itself and gives optimal recommendations to achieve the end goal of the business, which is increasing its profitability through cost reduction.
A common challenge that Polaris ERP system addresses is reducing waste, hence, optimizing production costs. The inventory management feature available in this system tells restaurateurs exactly what they need to order, in order to avoid overstocking and what they need to use from their stocks so that products and ingredients won’t go to waste due to expiration dates. It identifies slow-moving items and notifies users when specific products need to be used, with the first-in-first-out (FIFO) method.
The integration of its POS with online delivery apps allows F&B businesses that use Polaris ERP to reduce the order delivery time, hence optimizing business operations, while allowing more time for preparing new orders and serving more clients.
For F&B businesses that are expanding, Polaris ERP is well-positioned to coordinate and consolidate data across multi-branch restaurants, all on a unified platform. The core problem addressed with these features is saving time by collecting data from multiple locations and from different software and programs. This solution from Polaris Technology offers a quick and user-friendly approach to managing multiple F&B locations with an All-In-One platform, a single source of truth.
“One thing we know for sure is that the F&B industry will continue to evolve, and this will impact people’s behaviors on how they order, or how they pay for food and drinks, either on-site or from home. Currently, it is technology that tries to keep up with this evolution, but what we aim to do is continue to learn from the industry and predict future changes, developing the technology to support F&B businesses for the future of culinary mastery.” (Ali Payandenick, CEO of Polaris Technology).
Polaris Technology is currently working on this goal, developing new features, and integrating with multiple technologies, so that they can make life easier for restaurateurs. Polaris ERP’s user experience is pivotal to time optimization in the fast-moving scene of restaurant management. This is why the system has been redesigned to enable users to process tasks intuitively and save time.
Polaris Technology is a pioneering force in the world of ERP solutions, tailored exclusively for the dynamic realm of restaurant businesses. With a legacy spanning more than 8 years, the company doesn’t just create software but curates experiences that empower F&B establishments to thrive and flourish.
Also published on Medium.
