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Oracle Food and Beverage

Stop the Drain on Profits: Manage Kitchen Waste

No one in business intentionally wants to be wasteful. After all, it’s the surest way of draining profits. But reducing waste – especially in a trouble spot like a restaurant kitchen – isn’t easy. By taking a holistic approach to tackling the problem and sticking with it, however, you can control one of the major factors of restaurant success. And waste management is more important than ever, especially considering the growing consumer backlash against businesses, in general, that are considered wasteful. According to our research, 50% of restaurant operators are not tracking prepared waste. Using an Inventory Management system with waste tracking, like Oracle’s, is vital. It can help lower your food cost by identifying problems, such as staff using incorrect portions, yield issues and even theft. Here are some other helpful tips for managing waste (and preserving profits!): Only buy the food you need: Don’t buy food in bulk just to save money up front. Chances are, you will waste money in the long run when the food that you do not use in time goes bad. An Inventory Management software solution can help determine when and how much to buy. Control portions: Monitor staff to ensure they are using the right utensils – scoops, for example. It’s an important practice to make sure correct portions are being measured per dish. Track how much food you throw away: A good way to do this is by using clear bins. This helps determine how much less of an item to buy, but also raises staff awareness of the amount of food that is being wasted. Clear bins, unlike black trash bags, enables them to actually see the waste. Store food properly: Using air tight containers and putting items in the refrigerator, when necessary, delays spoiling. Provide proper training: Educate staff about food preparation and confirm that they can properly make the dishes on your restaurant’s menu. Taking such proactive steps reduces the likelihood of customers sending dishes back, which is key to curbing waste. Remember, it’s essential to regularly evaluate your waste management efforts because circumstances change: dishes can fall out of fashion, and staff members move on leaving you with new employees to train. Consistent monitoring is the key to spotting inefficiencies and making necessary changes! For more information, feel free to reach out to us at oracle-foodandbev_ww@oracle.com.

Innovation

How will voice recognition be used in restaurants?

In 1996, I had a holiday job in an office working for the government. A woman called Julie had somehow managed to get her hands on a whizzy new gadget that allowed her to talk into a microphone and, through the power of voice recognition, the words would appear on her computer. This was massive news - there was no e-mail in those days of yore, so a huge amount of letters had to be written and posted every day. To cut a very, very long story short, I spent an afternoon listening to poor old Julie. “Dear <long pause> Mrs. <long pause> Peters. No. Delete. Peters. PETERS. No, not potatoes. Why is it writing potatoes?” and so on, for four long hours. She could have typed 50 letters in the time it took to dictate one paragraph. It certainly put me off. And for years voice recognition seemed to struggle to find its way – the pain of trying to call up for train times or other information and having to use voice recognition remains all too clear to me. But then Google voice search arrived – the hassle of typing on a mobile phone meant that it was easier for people to try and search for things using their voices – and then Siri, Alexa, Google Home. Today voice recognition is everywhere. So how will it be used in the restaurant industry? In our Restaurant 2025 research, we asked operators and consumers to tell us which uses of voice recognition and activation they would most like to see. Download the full Restaurant 2025 report. Voice recognition for gathering guest feedback? The most popular use of voice recognition among our restaurant operator survey participants was for gathering guest feedback. 50% of operators liked the idea. However, a fifth were not so convinced about it. Voice recognition to allow guests to ask questions about the menu? The second most popular use of voice recognition/activation was for allowing guests to ask questions about the menu; 49% of operators liked this idea, while only 17% though it was unappealing. Voice recognition to allow guests to order? 45% of operators were keen on allowing guests to place their orders using voice recognition. I suspect that the growth of kiosk technology in quick-service restaurants has paved the way for this in many ways, as it proves that personal service is not always necessary to a portion of your customer base. However, 25% of operators thought it was an unappealing idea. Voice recognition to allow guests to pay? 39% of operators liked the idea of allowing guests to pay using voice recognition/activation. However, 32% were not keen, which is quite surprising - speeding up the payment process is an area of focus for many operators and I’d have expected more of them to be willing to try it. Voice recognition for guests controlling heat and light – the operator view: 38% of operators liked the idea of allowing guests to control heat and light with their voices. However, 36% didn’t like the idea. Voice recognition for guests controlling heat and light – the consumer view: 22% of consumers said they would visit a restaurant more often if they could change heat and light using voice activation. 13% said it would put them off visiting. Voice recognition to allow restaurant staff to recognise guests? 39% of operators liked the idea of recognising guests by their voices. 32% were not keen. Download the Restaurant 2025 report if you would like to read more about other emerging technologies that will impact on the food and beverage industry: robotics, wearable technology, artificial intelligence, biometrics, facial recognition, 3D imaging, virtual reality, drones, and 3D printing.

Mobility

How to Create a Mobile-Savvy Restaurant

Two-thirds of people check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up in the morning. It’s an eye-opening finding from a recent Google survey that shows how indispensable mobile devices have become. Which raises the question: Are you taking advantage of all they have to offer to boost your restaurant’s success? Our on-demand webcast highlights the array of services and benefits Oracle Food and Beverage’s mobile solutions can deliver to restaurant businesses. Among them: Customize reports for mobile viewing Manage labor from anywhere at anytime Check and track inventory with paperless efficiency Improve guest experience and staff productivity with the Oracle MICROS 700 Series Tablet Now’s your chance to really take your restaurant mobile. Watch our on-demand webcast to learn how!

Innovation

How will wearable technology be used in restaurants?

I got a Fitbit in 2014. It was my first experience of a wearable device – before that I’d seen fashion shows featuring outlandish spacesuits or t-shirts that would one day allow you to walk through the London Underground system like some sort of wizard, with ticket gates flying open as you approached. Much as I loved the idea, it didn’t seem very likely. But the Fitbit changed everything for me. Along with the Apple Watch, it proved that a device on your wrist could do more than tell the time – it could let you know that you hadn’t had enough exercise, or that you’d hadn’t slept properly. In fact, the restaurant industry was quick to give the Apple Watch a purpose – in 2016, Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group announced that they intended to use Apple Watches for alerting managers that a customer had arrived or that a sommelier was required. But when we did our Restaurant 2025 research, the appetite for using wearables was relatively muted in some areas. It would be interesting to see if this has changed as wearables have become more mainstream. Download the Restaurant 2025 report Wearable technology for ordering and payment – the operator view: Surprisingly, considering that the Apple Watch was readily available when the research for this report was done, only half (51%) of operators liked the idea of being able to accept orders and/or payment from guests using their wearable devices: Wearable technology for ordering and payment – the guest view: Consumers were slightly more enthusiastic about ordering and paying using a wearable device. 18% said they’d definitely use wearable technology to order or pay for food and drink and 41% said they’d like the option, but 41% said it would not improve their experience and they’d find it invasive. However, this is in line with other research we have carried out – (for example Is Cash Dead in Hospitality?) – which suggests that while half of consumers would readily embrace mobile payment, half tend to want to stick to traditional cards and cash. Wearable technology for marketing to guests? The most popular use of wearable technology among restaurants operators was being able to send promotions or other marketing messages to guests on their wearable devices. 58% of restaurant operators found this appealing. Whether consumers would welcome this, however, needs to be explored. Wearable technology for staff check-in? Also popular was the use of wearable technology for allowing staff to clock in to their shifts/to the POS. 53% of operators thought this was appealing: Wearable technology for monitoring staff activity? 48% of operators liked the idea of monitoring staff activity using wearable technology. However, 30% of operators found this idea unappealing, making it the least popular use of wearables among restaurants. Wearable technology for tailoring menus to customers? Personally, I quite like the idea of setting my wearable device to say “nothing over 400 calories for me today, thank you” – admittedly I’d probably just override it 99% of the time but I like the idea of it. Only 46% of operators thought it was an appealing idea, however: 7. Wearable technology for recognising guests? The most significant finding in our Restaurant 2025 report was that consumers liked the idea of technology allowing them to be recognised in a restaurant without having to show a loyalty card. 51% of operators liked the idea of using wearables to do this – for example a device buzzing to let the manager know that the party of 10 celebrating a birthday had arrived, or alerting a server to let them know that this customer was a regular, or the host being able to tell that a guest was approaching thanks to the guest’s wearable. These are just some of the ideas for how wearables could be used in a restaurant to improve guests service and efficiency. Let us know if you’ve seen any others. It will be very interesting to see if uptake and desire increase as wearables become more mainstream. Download the Restaurant 2025 report if you would like to read more about other emerging technologies that will impact on the food and beverage industry: robotics, artificial intelligence, biometrics, facial recognition, 3D imaging, voice activation, virtual reality, drones, and 3D printing.

I got a Fitbit in 2014. It was my first experience of a wearable device – before that I’d seen fashion shows featuring outlandish spacesuits or t-shirts that would one day allow you to walk...

Innovation

Robots in Restaurants by 2025?

When I think about robots in restaurants, I tend to picture R2-D2 bumping into tables and running out of power with my pizza. But there are numerous of ways in which food service establishments are using robotics now, or could be in future, to manage labor costs and improve efficiency. In our Restaurant 2025 report, we surveyed both consumers and operators to find out whether they have an appetite for robots and when we might expect to see robotics entering the mainstream of food service. Download the Restaurant 2025 report Robots Serving Guests? 49% of the operators that we spoke to thought that robots greeting guests was an appealing concept, with 29% saying it would improve the guest experience. However, consumers weren’t so sure. 38% said they’d actually visit a restaurant less often if it started using robots to greet guests. Only 10% seemed to suggest that it would be an actual draw to bring them in more often. Robots Cleaning Restaurants? The use of robots behind the scenes got the operators more excited. 64% of operators told us that the idea of robots doing the cleaning was appealing to them. 3. Food Preparation Restaurants where robots flip the burgers already exist today, and our research showed that 49% of operators liked the idea of using robotics for food preparation. Food Quality Checking 47% of operators liked the idea of robots doing quality control on food before it left the kitchen. Operators were asked two other questions, which cast an interesting light on the possible uptake of robotics: When asked what was stopping them from implementing robotic technology, cost was the main reason in every scenario, followed by staff adoption. 23% of the operators indicated that there were certain emerging technologies that they would absolutely not allow in their restaurants – robots came out top of that list, with nearly half (44%) of that 23% saying they would not entertain their use. Download the Restaurant 2025 report if you would like to read more about other emerging technologies that will impact on the food and beverage industry; artificial intelligence, biometrics, facial recognition, 3D imaging, voice activation, wearable technology, virtual reality, drones, and 3D printing.

Customer Success

MASH Continues European Expansion with Oracle Food and Beverage Cloud

Oracle Food and Beverage announced that Modern American Steak House (MASH), a high-end Danish restaurant chain, has chosen Oracle Simphony Cloud to power its steak house restaurants across Europe. With 13 restaurant locations across Denmark, Germany and the UK, and plans for additional international growth, MASH needed a technology platform that could support the strategic expansion of its business at scale. In addition, the restaurant needed a solution that would help reduce the complexity of its IT infrastructure and streamline both front and back-office operations across all of its restaurant locations. “Our biggest challenge was scalability – since opening MASH in 2009, our expansion into other countries proved to be a very difficult and complex undertaking due to obstacles around IT infrastructure, regulations, taxes, language and currency, so finding a technology solution that would help us manoeuvre around these obstacles and enable us to grow at scale was a top priority,” said Mirek Nørkjær, Assistant COO, Copenhagen Concepts, the parent company of MASH restaurants. “Implementing Oracle Simphony Cloud has enabled us to minimize IT complexity through one centralized system, streamline front and back-office operations with real-time data and localization capabilities, and support our vision for expansion, all at scale.” Oracle Simphony Cloud provides MASH with one centralized system to manage operations across all 13 of its restaurants, reducing the cost and complexity of IT, ensuring high performance scalability and allowing for more business efficiency and agility. In addition, Oracle Simphony Cloud enables MASH to maintain brand standards across its restaurants globally by enforcing brand, menu and employee management standards and allowing for localization. It also ensures menu and pricing consistency, within a country, a region, or a single location, and offers multilanguage and currency support. “Both large restaurant chains and independent restaurants need to be able to remove obstacles in their IT infrastructure that prevent them from creating a positive foundation for growth,” said Chris Adams, vice president strategy and solutions management, Oracle Food and Beverage. “MASH demonstrates the value and potential of Oracle Simphony Cloud to transform IT processes, streamline operations and drive growth at scale.”

Oracle Food and Beverage announced that Modern American Steak House (MASH), a high-end Danish restaurant chain, has chosen Oracle Simphony Cloud to power its steak house restaurants across Europe....

Innovation

Restaurant 2025: the future of food service technology

Artificial intelligence, biometrics, facial recognition, 3D imaging, robotics, voice activation, wearable technology, virtual reality, drones, and 3D printing. These are just some of the emerging technologies that could be having a significant impact on the food and beverage industry over the next few years. But which of these technologies are most appealing to consumers and to restaurant operators? Which will we be seeing in restaurants first? In our Restaurant 2025 report, we surveyed both consumers and operators so that we could test their appetites for these concepts. Download the report Here are some of the top findings: Restaurants using facial/biometric recognition 78% of consumers said that being recognised via facial or biometric data in a restaurant and receiving personalised treatment would improve their experience, or at least they’d like the option – the swift delivery of the first round of drinks based on being recognised was one key benefit Only 42% of restaurant operators thought that guest recognition by facial or biometrics would be mainstream by 2025, however Restaurant using drones 48% of restaurant operators thought that drones would be in mainstream use for delivery to guests’ homes by 2025 62% of consumers said that drones for home delivery would improve their experience, or they’d at least like the option. But 38% said they’d find it invasive. Restaurants using wearable technology 66% of operators thought that guests ordering and paying by wearable technology would be in mainstream use by 2025. 59% of consumers agreed that it would improve their experience, or they’d like the option. 62% of operators thought restaurant staff would be checking in via wearables by 2025, while 52% could see staff activity monitoring via wearable being mainstream by then. Download the report for more on artificial intelligence and robotics and other technologies. Keep informed about our technology developments here at Oracle Food and Beverage – follow us on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.

Artificial intelligence, biometrics, facial recognition, 3D imaging, robotics, voice activation, wearable technology, virtual reality, drones, and 3D printing. These are just some of the emerging...

Innovation

Should Restaurants and Hotels Invest in Mobile Apps?

We live in a mobile centric world where smartphones and tablets are a part of our everyday lives. The information that we are looking for is made readily available at our fingertips anywhere, anytime. With thousands of apps for consumers to download, there really is an app for everything. Restaurant operators often ask, “should I invest in a branded app?” Creating an app can be expensive and time consuming, and with so many apps available, do restaurant guests even use them? The answer is yes, they do. 70% of consumers that have a restaurant or hotel mobile app say that they use that app at least once a week. Our latest report, Get Appy: Do Consumers Use Restaurant & Hotel Branded Apps? shows that a quarter of consumers have at least one restaurant or hotel app, and actually prefer to download a restaurant’s branded mobile app, as opposed to an online food ordering app. Mobile innovation is a great way to engage with customers and boost return visits. However, before you invest in a mobile app, you should make sure that your POS has the right integration capabilities. Integration plays an important role in food and beverage technology, and having a POS that allows for multiple integrations is key. The API interfaces offered by Simphony Cloud allow restaurants to extend their POS. From mobile apps that enable loyalty or ordering flexibility, to back office applications that facilitate smoother operational efficiencies, the open nature of the Simphony Cloud platform supports business growth and innovation. For more information, send us an email at oracle-foodandbev_ww@oracle.com.

Customer Success

Foodation Selects Oracle Simphony Cloud to Drive International Growth and Innovation

Foodation, an Italian company that specializes in designing and developing fast-casual restaurants across Europe, has chosen Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud for its restaurants, including the popular Briscola Pizza Society, Polpa Burger Trattoria and Mariù Italian Kebab. With 10 restaurants and plans for international expansion, Foodation needed a technology platform that could support the strategic growth of its business and offer a single view of operations across all of its restaurants. Additionally, the company wanted to increase operational efficiency through centralization, improve functionality and modernize the customer experience. “Over the next five years, we not only plan to expand our business internationally, but we also want to position our brands as the go-to restaurants across Europe, and Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud is helping us to achieve this goal,” said Riccardo Cortese, CEO of Foodation. “Oracle Simphony Cloud provides us with a reliable and trusted foundation for growth and enables us to streamline our operations with one single view of business. Before the implementation, we only had insight into business operations data on a weekly basis, but now, using the simple, easy-to-use Oracle Micros InMotion app, we have a single view of all of our restaurants that we can view as frequently as we like.” Oracle Simphony Cloud provides Foodation with one centralized system to manage operations across all six brands, allowing centralized reporting and auditing for the management team, together with drill-down capabilities to real-time order-specific information. This minute-by-minute detail enables maximized revenue and profitability. In addition, Oracle Simphony Cloud integrates all digital channels, such as mobile payment, mobile ordering and mobile applications, for one centralized view of the customer, helping to accelerate speed of service and enhance the overall customer experience. “In today’s competitive market, restaurants are challenged to operate not only faster, but smarter, in order to meet customer’s rising expectations,” said Chris Adams, vice president strategy, Oracle Food and Beverage. “Oracle Simphony Cloud enables business operations to flow more cohesively, efficiently and profitably while greatly enhancing the overall customer experience.” Watch the story from Foodation themselves here.

Foodation, an Italian company that specializes in designing and developing fast-casual restaurants across Europe, has chosen Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud for its restaurants, including the...

Oracle Food and Beverage

Oracle Food and Beverage – New Global Business Unit for Oracle’s Food Service Customers

In 2014, Oracle acquired MICROS to create Oracle Hospitality, a business unit dedicated to the food and beverage and hotel industries. As we continue on this journey, we are excited today to announce the creation of Oracle Food and Beverage. Through strengthening our investment in this dynamic industry, our customers in food service will enjoy even greater focus and additional resources to help them develop their businesses and take advantage of new technology opportunities at an exciting time for the sector. Watch the video A huge amount has been achieved in the four years since the acquisition of MICROS. Customers have benefited from product developments, particularly in reporting and data science, the expansion of our hardware portfolio, and the growth of the partner network. Food and beverage customers that have been innovating with Oracle over the past four years include Indian Wells Tennis Garden, HMSHost, SticksnSushi, Outback Steakhouse, Andiamo, TGI Fridays, Barclaycard Arena, MoschMosch, Margaritas, Miami Marlins, wagamama, and MAX Burger. Oracle Food and Beverage will build on over 40 years of food service experience to provide: Commitment to the food and beverage industry and to the thousands of customers that use Oracle Food and Beverage point of sale technology Focus on the specific opportunities and challenges that exist within the food and beverage industry, whether managing labour and food costs, improving customer retention, attracting new customers, or handling competition and disruption while delivering consistently excellent guest experiences on a day to day basis Dedication to technology innovation that delivers business value Increased focus on the partner network Further development and sharing of global industry expertise Expansion of the service and delivery portfolio for independent restaurants Continued focus on technology services and products to support the sports and entertainment market Oracle Hospitality will continue to serve the hotel, casino, and cruise markets under the leadership of Greg Webb as reported in June. Chris Adams, VP of Strategy at Oracle Food and Beverage, who has himself worked at MICROS and Oracle for 18 years, said; “Oracle Food and Beverage is about our commitment to this industry and to our customers. With additional focus and resources, we can accelerate the pace of development across our products and services, from Simphony POS to hardware to our back-office suite for reporting and management. With such a strong product portfolio in place, we can continue to deliver the services that our customers and partners need. The future is very bright and we are very excited.”

In 2014, Oracle acquired MICROS to create Oracle Hospitality, a business unit dedicated to the food and beverage and hotel industries. As we continue on this journey, we are excited today to...

Oracle Food and Beverage

Follow Oracle Food and Beverage on Social Media

Looking for the latest and greatest insights on restaurant technology trends, customer successes, and best practices? Well, look no further! Follow Oracle Food and Beverage on social media to stay in tune and in touch: Facebook Twitter Instagram And don’t forget to subscribe to our blog, The Menu Give us a like, leave a comment, or send us a message – happy socializing!

Data and Analytics

How Many Hot Dogs Will Be Sold at the World Cup?

The FIFA World Cup is a global extravaganza, and the numbers prove it: 12 stadiums, 32 teams, 65 matches, 736 players, 2.4 million tickets sold and 3 billion spectators worldwide. My favourite World Cup statistic so far? 100,000 crayfish have been sent to Russia to meet the demand of Chinese fans, according to the South China Morning Post. It’s all the more fascinating when you consider that China isn’t even playing. The data will be especially important to the food and beverage managers within the stadiums. If your venue is hosting five games and each has a capacity of 50,000, and half of the fans who attend buy a hotdog, then you’re going to need an awful lot of buns. On that basis, by my calculations, a total of 1,624,924 hotdogs will be sold across all matches at the World Cup this year. But rough approximations are just that – rough. And they don’t allow you to change the outcome in your favour; they just tell you what might happen. Oracle Food and Beverage, however, helps stadium operators effectively use data to their advantage: Data Science - Our Data Science services are driven by expert analysts using the latest machine learning technologies. They work in two ways: Data Science allows F&B operations directors to look for patterns in fan behavior. If hotdogs sell well with coffee for an early kick-off, for example, but fans prefer to couple them with a cold drink later on, Oracle Data Science will not only spot that trend, but will serve it up live on the POS so that your staff know to make the right cross-sell. It can deliver extra revenue, and it’s easier than trying to train a lot of concession staff to do one thing at 12 pm and something else at 7pm. Data Science offers forecasting capabilities. If you approximate that you’re going to sell 125,000 hotdogs and you actually only sell 60,000, you’re left with a lot of buns and a lot of waste. Data Science can help you pinpoint exactly what you need, thus generating significant savings. Read more about Data Science. InMotion mobile reporting – Thanks to our InMotion mobile app, food and beverage managers can see exactly what is selling across the stadium in real-time on their mobile phones. If one concession seems to be selling less than the others, managers can go investigate why – no need to wait until they can view their reports on their PC, by which time it’s too late. What’s selling, where is it selling, who’s selling it – the answers to these key questions are available at the swipe of a screen that you have in your pocket. Read more about InMotion. Inventory Management - We understand the importance of being able to tightly manage your food and beverage inventory. It starts way before fans begin purchasing the 1.6 million hotdogs. Simphony Venue Management helps to control food costs by enabling you to track inventory from receipt to transaction. The system offers numerous features to help you keep your stands properly stocked, which helps prevent any missed revenue opportunities due to unavailable items and makes your concessions operations more efficient. Read more about Simphony Venue Management. Reporting and Analytics – Once the game is over, our powerful Reporting and Analytics solution allows managers to dig deeper. They can see if a concession has been under-performing at every event or just in isolated situations. They can evaluate if one member of the staff is slower than the rest or if sub-standard performance is a collective issue that requires review of the concession layout. Issues can be identified and fixed, resulting in sales increases at the next game. Read more about Reporting and Analytics. The challenge for football stadium food and beverage managers is capitalizing on the 3 hours they have to serve 45,000 fans, who are spending half that time watching the action. Knowing what to sell them and maximizing sales opportunities efficiently depend on access to great data. Contact us if you’d like to know more. Trademarks Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners

Innovation

On The Road With Oracle Food and Beverage: Restaurant Innovation

The Oracle Food and Beverage strategy team has been hitting the road to meet with customers and hold discussions on the future of food service technology. The F&B team recently headed to Stockholm in Sweden to spend time together in workshops and site visits. Kiosks and digital have been top of the agenda at MAX Burgers for many years now, and Johnny Bröms, their CIO, showed us round their newest locations that are 100% kiosk and digital ordering. Watching the process at work, and how staff and customers engage, was extremely insightful for everyone. Other discussion subjects included master data management, AI, and loyalty. In the evening, the group gathered in the bar to watch England v Tunisia in the World Cup. In true English style, the game ended and the call went up for a post-match celebratory burger – luckily our hero Johnny was on hand to lead everyone to the nearest MAX.

Product Knowledge

How to get your food costs under control with Enterprise Menu Management

Food costs account for 30%+ of a restaurant’s outgoings, which means that being profitable depends on having control of what you’re buying, what’s on the shelves, and what you’re selling. The good news is that an inventory solution can help. By implementing Oracle Hospitality Inventory Management, you can reduce variances from 7% - 8% to under 3% within 4 weeks, giving you far better visibility of where your money is going. The even better news is that Oracle’s Enterprise Menu Management service (EMM) can run your inventory management for you. Expert analysts at Oracle will work with you to ensure overall accuracy in your stock control, allowing you as a business to make key decisions to improve your overall margins. Our stringent configuration processes mean reliable and accurate inventory data, resulting in confidence and trust in stock analysis which can lead to a reduction in site level checking. Some ways in which you can improve your inventory control: Ensure Menu Items are linked Menu Item Linking allows your menu items to deplete inventory definitions. If this module is not correctly set you might find several issues in stock depletion. A great way to deal with this is using the Menu Item Auto Link module which enables automatic synching of sales definitions to inventory definitions. Process and Structure Getting your internal communication in place is key to organising how and when your configuration updates are configured.So often, detail is missed or not completed in time due to simple lack of process.Make sure you have firm methodology in place to not allow this to have an impact on your inventory results. Keep it simple Inventory Management offers a number of approaches to achieve any goal. Choose the one that fits your business and avoid complications, especially if you are a global organization. Avoid duplicating effort Inventory Management comes with several interfaces which are standard for the industry – great news, as you don’t need to duplicate all of your manual receiving. If you would like to speak to a consultant about introducing EMM configuration into your business and taking back control of your inventory – contact oracle-foodandbev_ww@oracle.com.

Indian Wells Tennis Garden Innovates With Oracle Hospitality

Want to know how Indian Wells Tennis Garden feeds over 400,000 fans from over 35 different food and beverage outlets during the BNP Paribas tournament? Watch this video and find out! This task seems nearly impossible given that the venue is able to do this in an only two-week long tournament period. Just ask Philippe Dore, Media and Marketing Director at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, home of the world famous BNP Paribas Open. By working with Oracle Hospitality to implement a custom solution, the immense 54-acre venue was able to serve more guests at once, cut down on wait times and improve overall efficiency. “Oracle is a key partner of ours, which allows us to serve the fans better. We can get them what they need fast,” says Dore of the partnership. One of the products that increased speed of service for Indian Wells was the new Oracle MICROS Compact Workstation 310. The sleek, compact 10-inch designs of the point-of-sale device allowed concessionaires in the stadium to serve more guests in a smaller space. By increasing the amount of fans able to order at once, queues and wait times are reduced and sales are increased. “The 310 is really a game changer for the stadium and arena market. It’s smaller form factor and easy to use and integrate, which gets the fans through and back out into the action,” explains Dan Bell, Oracle Hospitality’s Vice President of Sports & Entertainment. Another key aspect that Indian Wells focused on was creating a solution to serve players and media personnel quickly. The bustling tournament fills the venue with hundreds of thousands of fans, which can make it difficult for media and players to quickly dine between matches. The Oracle Self-Service Kiosk was the perfect solution to install in the media lounge to streamline service. “Media as you can imagine is important to us. There’s a ton of media coming from all over the world, they’re busy, they’re on a deadline and they have to move fast. So the Kiosk is key”, explains Dore. The sleek, modern Kiosks reduce order and wait times by allowing guests to easily complete an entire transaction virtually, without the need for labor. “They can go type in what they want, and the order is waiting for them at the restaurant,” says Dore. Just as serving fans quickly and efficiently is crucial to stadium experience, maintaining a fully integrated venue is equally as important. By using Oracle Hospitality Simphony Point-of-Sale, Indian Wells is able to run all operations, from concessions to suite-level service to full-service restaurants, from the Cloud. “Being on the Cloud server, we’re built to adjust as we go. If there’s a change in the menu somewhere, everything is in the Cloud so we can make the adjustment without interrupting service and efficiency,” says Dore of the solution. Not only does Simphony Cloud react to new innovations in payment and service with faster deployment, it also is totally customizable to venues of every size. Bell explains, “It’s very scalable, it can scale from two workstations up to a full-size stadium and arena like this with over 300 devices and workstations.” Managing a venue of Indian Wells’ size may seem daunting, but the easy and scalable Simphony Cloud POS greatly simplifies this for stadium operators. Ultimately, Oracle Hospitality has enabled Indian Wells to create a unique solution that keeps their amazing venue running smoothly. With new innovations focused specifically on the sports industry, venue operators don’t have to worry about the IT portion of their business, making it much easier to manage events and focus on what really matters – hosting a successful event and taking care of the fans. Submit a product inquiry to set up a meeting with one of our representatives and visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Join Oracle for a Summer of Sports & Entertainment!

As a market leader in the Sports & Entertainment space, Oracle Hospitality is always looking for new ways to engage with venues and share our latest technology with the industry. We are excited to be participating in three upcoming tradeshows, and would love to see you there! National Association of Collegiate Concessionaires: The only conference and trade show exclusively for university stadium, arena and special event concessions, the NACC Conference is a great opportunity to directly engage with college venues all across the US. This year’s event will be held June 11th-14th at the University of Arizona in Tucson. We will be displaying a variety of solutions, including the newest addition to our hardware family, the Workstation 310. Perfect for smaller spaces, like college concessions stands, the 310 is our most compact, rugged and versatile solution yet. Stop by Booth #1 to check it out! Association of Luxury Suite Directors: Taking place June 24th-27th at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, the ALSD Conference and Tradeshow brings together a community of premium seating professionals for a weekend of education and networking. In addition to the trade show, ALSD’s Design & Build Forum includes tours of sports venues and exclusive professional programming on a variety of industry trends and topics. Come see our team at Booth #905 to see what Oracle Food & Beverage is doing in the suite-level space. Sports & Entertainment Alliance in Technology: One of the largest sports technology conferences, the SEAT Conference will be held from July 21st-24th at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Dallas, and will feature a tour of AT&T Stadium. With a variety of strategy sessions, networking events and more, SEAT is the perfect opportunity to see what’s new in the world of sports technology. Oracle Food & Beverage will be displaying a variety of innovative product solutions, all hosted on our cloud-based Simphony Point of Sale platform at Booth #41.

3 Reasons to Switch to Simphony Cloud Point-of-Sale

Delivering personalized experiences to guests with ever-changing needs is one of the great challenges faced in hotels today. You need to continuously, transform your business to keep pace with the guests’ needs, which requires a platform that enables and accelerates your business’ evolution. Oracle Hospitality’s Simphony Cloud Service, is an enterprise, point of sale platform that enables the innovations necessary to create new guest experiences. Simphony increases operational efficiency with centralized menu management and mobile ordering while simplifying integrations to the latest technologies. With Simphony, you can manage properties anywhere in the world from a single enterprise – ensuring that each location delivers a consist experience wherever you service a guest. A globalized configuration eliminates the need to locally manage the system, allow the team to focus on the guest and create the best possible experience. Here are just 3 reasons why you should move to Simphony Cloud today: 1) “Always-on” Operating global enterprises mean being ready for almost any network condition imaginable. Simphony’s architecture ensures each property’s operations run without interruption when an Internet disruption occurs. Using locally deployed services for property operations ensure that the Simphony Point of Sale client running on our Oracle MICROS Tablet 700 Series, the Workstation Compact 310 and 310 R, or Workstation 6 Series devices never skips a beat. The Oracle Hospitality hardware is elegant, durable, and purpose-built to withstand the environmental requirements of the hospitality industry. 2) Powerful Analytics Help You Run a Smarter Business Simphony’s Reporting and Analytics capabilities are powered by Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE), which enables you to create dashboards and visualizations that highlight your operation’s key metrics. Using the operational insights provided by OBIEE, you can make faster, smarter decisions that improve your bottom line. Oracle MICROS InMotion Mobile app extends Simphony’s reporting capability to a manager’s mobile device, providing real-time sales information anytime, anywhere so they can always keep pace with what is happening. 3) Increased Speed of Service The Simphony POS client user interface is easy to navigate and quick to learn. Taking orders tableside with a Tablet 700 series enables servers to quickly get drinks to the bar and food to the kitchen accurately and efficiently. Using the Engagement feature, servers can quickly access information about specials and events going on around the property that might interest the guest. Simphony’s Table Management and Kitchen Display System servers and hosts real-time data on table and kitchen status, ensuring orders are delivered to your customers accurately and quickly. Now is the perfect time to make the move you’ve been thinking about – modernize your business by moving to Oracle Hospitality’s Simphony Cloud. Transforming your business will not only revolutionize the way you do business to best serve customers today, it will also anticipate their needs for tomorrow. Contact Us to learn more about Simphony Cloud.

Delivering personalized experiences to guests with ever-changing needs is one of the great challenges faced in hotels today. You need to continuously, transform your business to keep pace with the...

Events

Windy City Wrap Up: Cloud, Mobile, and Best of Breed POS Tech at NRA 2018

The Oracle Hospitality team just wrapped up four days at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. Day one of the show kicked off with great enthusiasm around cloud technology. Our Simphony Cloud POS solution was displayed throughout the booth, to demonstrate the greater operational efficiency that cloud technology provides to restaurant operators; such as lower IT costs, centralized management, and access to real time operational data. On day two of the show we found ourselves talking a lot about kiosk. Self-service kiosks provide restaurant operators with significant advantages: revenue growth opportunities, lower costs, and innovation. Kiosk software powered by Oracle Hospitality’s Simphony Cloud POS platform allows operators to collect data about consumer behavior, enabling delivery of targeted promotions. Day three was all about tablets. A great way to increase speed of service, tablets have become paramount to restaurant operations. The Oracle MICROS Tablet 721 provides a ruggedized solution built to withstand harsh hospitality environments. To bring the show to a close, day four focused on the Oracle MICROS Compact Workstation 310. The newest addition to our hardware portfolio provides a perfect choice for operations with a limited menu and counter space. These all-in-one units are not only portable with a small 10-inch footprint, but are durable enough to withstand the harshest of temperatures. Submit a product inquiry to set up a meeting with one of our representatives and visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Sizzling Success for Outback Steakhouse’s Transition to Cloud

Outback Steakhouse is an international restaurant chain with eight locations around Australia and through utilizing a cloud solution, it’s improving customer experience, freeing staff to spend more time interacting with guests. But the benefits of cloud hardly stop there. It has made the business more scalable and provides Outback Steakhouse’s decision makers with faster and better access to data, enabling them to react nimbly to changing market dynamics. In an industry where customer satisfaction and loyalty are paramount, such innovation and a willingness to change are what keeps Outback Steakhouse ahead of rivals. The restaurant chain approached Oracle in early 2017 because it wanted to implement a cloud solution that could help it achieve various operational objectives, from reducing labor costs at front-of-house to ensuring better customer experiences. Outback Steakhouse also was concerned about the risks associated with maintaining a physical server, considering that it was potentially more vulnerable to security issues such as data breaches. Overall, the restaurant’s management team wanted to streamline office and personnel processes given its high volume of payroll, accounting, and operations-based activities. Furthermore, a cloud-based system would make back-ups easier because it doesn’t need to run applications over a desktop; it just requires an internet connection. Since June, the implementation of Oracle Hospitality cloud solutions and mobile point-of-service has greatly reduced up-front and cash flow costs, while the Simphony platform has simplified the opening of multiple sites. The use of tablets for ordering at the table also has accelerated service; it may be a small change, but it’s an important one as this allows the kitchen to receive tickets quicker and enables servers to handle more tables. It also addresses one of the industry’s biggest challenges: labour cost. In addition, these cloud solutions have enhanced the customer experience. The bottom line: Greater efficiency yields more time for staff to engage in more meaningful conversations with guests. The company also launched an app and delivery system with its own drivers. Online ordering is integrated into the point-of-sale, making the process almost seamless for the customer. The transition to cloud and associated technology has led to a transformation benefiting the company, its staff and its customers. But for Outback Steakhouse, the long-term impact of cloud is the true reward: With greater ability to scale faster, access data, and reduce risk, it’s ready to compete regardless of the challenges tomorrow may bring.

Turn Your Data into Profit: Data Science at Oracle Industry Connect

This year’s Oracle Industry Connect in NYC brought together a lineup of tech leaders who shared their knowledge on innovations and digital transformations to solve challenges in their hospitality businesses. Controlling costs while enhancing guest experience is a challenge that is constantly top of mind for hospitality operators. That’s why they’re increasingly turning to data – and data science – to help inform their decisions, with the goal of reducing cost and delivering quality service. In a panel session moderated by Oracle’s Saraswati Yagnavajhala, director of cloud and data science strategy, this important topic was explored by two technology experts and Oracle customers, Sandeep Satish, Director of Partner Strategy at Levy’s E15 Group, and Greg Clore, vice president of information technology at Dave & Buster’s. Market Drivers Saras kicked off the discussion with a broad question to the panelists: “There needs to be an impetus for change, a need to try something different for a major change to take place. What are some of those drivers in the market place?” Greg Clore noted that Dave & Buster’s is focusing on young adults as a key market. They are measuring analytics to see what this demographic is doing when they visit a D&B location. Using data science they have learned that this group prefers sharing appetizers rather than having sit-down meals, and they enjoy local brews and craft cocktails over nationally available drinks. Knowing this, Dave & Buster’s is able to tailor its menus to delight guests. Sandeep Satish discussed a more astute stadium goer. Fans are no longer happy with the traditional hot dog or waiting in a queue to pay for their order. They want the same options that are available outside of the sports and entertainment setting: a wide variety of food and beverages and a fast, easy, high-tech way to order and pay for them. Loyalty The next key topic discussed was loyalty. Dave & Buster’s offers a loyalty card that guests can use each time they visit to earn rewards. The company can then leverage data science to analyze the buying habits of this group and then deliver targeted marketing and personalization based upon that data. E15 is looking at specific ticket holders and their preferences as well as general audience demographics for various shows and events. By using data science, E15 can better determine audience preferences well before the crowds arrive. Predictions for the Future Saras posed a fun question to the panelists: “What is one prediction over the next 5 years in this space?” Clore said, “The power is in your smart phone.” He discussed a frictionless guest experience that is enabled by the mobile device. Rather than buying a Dave & Buster’s power card from a kiosk, the guest can do that from their phone. The next step is then eliminating the card and using the phone in lieu of the card, pushing targeted marketing offers to the phone, and identifying guests by their phone using beacons. Satish agreed with Clore but extended the thought further noting that in the near future, biometric technology will likely enable an even smoother experience for consumers: your fingerprint will become your ticket to enter and your method of payment. With wage increases, rising food costs and growing staffing needs, how can hospitality operators lower costs while enhancing the guest experience? Data science can help industry leaders make data-driven decisions to steer company initiatives. Learn more about data science here, or speak with an Oracle data science expert today.

OIC 2018: Top Strategies for F&B Innovation

Innovation. Innovation. Innovation. It’s the buzz word for restaurant success, and with so many new technologies to embrace there are myriad ways to pursue it. But it’s crucial to understand what should be the true impetus behind it: Enhancing the guest experience. “It’s very much about putting the customer in the center of the business – it’s your key driver for innovation,” said Geoff Holton, general manager of information systems at Restaurant Brands, which operates approximately 300 Pizza Huts, Hardees and KFCs across Australia and New Zealand. It’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy to experiment with new technologies, but food and beverage operators need to be disciplined and make sure innovation initiatives tie in directly to business goals. And few, if any, are more important than creating connections with customers. That was the driving message shared by Holton and other industry leaders, who participated as panelists in a F&B innovation discussion at Oracle Industry Connect. The session explored identifying solutions that truly improve customer service, from creating more personalized experiences to minimizing waiting. And new technologies are needed because optimizing service has never been more difficult, especially considering industry challenges such as labor shortages and the rise of “disrupters,” including delivery companies that are hurting restaurant profitability. “Delivery companies in the United Kingdom are eating market share,” said Tim Brown – Oracle Hospitality’s senior director of strategic accounts, food and beverage – who moderated the discussion. Delivery companies, which collect a significant portion of a restaurant’s check value, are impacting the industry much like the way online travel agencies disrupted the hotel sector. In the context of such a volatile market environment, panelists were asked to cite technology solutions worth pursuing. A unanimous choice? Kiosks. Todd Sasala, vice president of information technology at Cedar Fair – which has a portfolio of 11 theme parks and caters to an audience of 25 million guests – said kiosks provide a variety of benefits, including: accelerating the ordering process, increasing average ticket revenue and redeploying labor for “more productive situations.” The autonomy and empowerment that kiosks provide guests also shouldn’t be discounted, he added. Cedar Fair strives to provide customers “more utility… throughout their stay to help them navigate our properties, transact easier, minimize waiting,” Sasala said. “It’s not ideal if you have to wait in line; it’s even worse if you have to wait while you’re hungry.” Giving customers greater control of their restaurant experience also inspired TGI Fridays UK’s latest innovation: Bar Tab. Launched last year, Bar Tab is a new function within Mastercard’s Qkr! payment app that enables consumers to set up, manage and pay bar tabs using their smartphones. The application is integrated into Oracle Hospitality’s restaurant management platform and Masterpass, the digital payment service. Jeremy Dunderdale, the restaurant chain’s head of business solutions, offered sage advice for the execution of any innovation adoption, whether it’s a payment platform, drone delivery or sophisticated voice ordering. “You can be innovative as much as you like,” he said, “but unless you get buy-in from operations and the people on the shop floor – however brilliant it is, it won’t work.” And one final insight from the panelists focused on the rising importance of integration, especially as operators strive to manage their brands across multiple channels. Holton of Restaurant Brands urged operators to achieve “consistency between your different touch points to your customers – your digital menu boards, kiosks, websites and so on.” He added: “That’s actually quite powerful.”

A Look Inside the Hospitality Connect Zone at Oracle Industry Connect

The Oracle Hospitality team recently wrapped up spending three days in New York City for Oracle Industry Connect, Oracle’s premier event for industries. Filled with sessions about industry trends, breakthrough innovations, the journey to the cloud, and much more, Oracle Industry Connect provided attendees with the opportunity to network with Oracle executive leadership team, strategists, developers, key partners, and peers. The Connect Zone was an interactive area where attendees were able to network and make those connections. We had a display of Oracle Hospitality products including the Oracle MICROS Tablet 720 Series, Simphony Cloud Point of Sale, OPERA Hotel Property Management Solution, and the Oracle MICROS Workstation 310 Series. Attendees were welcomed to engage in product demonstrations with our staff. In addition to displaying our products in the Connect Zone, we also had stations set up for 14 of our key partners to display their innovative hospitality solutions. The partners included: Deloitte 3C Payment Epson FreedomPay Mastercard Vantiv Duetto Eigen Elavon IDeaS Merchant Link QikServe SmartHOTEL Verifone Our partners also sponsored roundtables during lunch on both days of the event. The roundtables focused on various industry topics like kiosk evolution, credit card security, and EMV. They were a great way for attendees to network with peers and our partners, as well as share ideas around key industry subjects. At Oracle Hospitality, we take pride in our partnerships. Our partner portfolio is very diverse and includes companies that offer solutions for every aspect of a restaurant or hotel operation. We have recently moved to an open platform strategy across our hospitality solutions portfolio. The most important step in this paradigm shift is making all our API documentation for Simphony, our Enterprise Back Office, and Opera easily obtainable through simple web search engine query making integration to our products more straightforward, simple, and accessible. This allows our partners to build the innovative integrations that our restaurant and hotel customers want, promptly and efficiently. Combining the Oracle Hospitality open API strategy with our strong partner portfolio, we can offer a one stop shop for our customers and ensure that they have the means to build the technology solution that is right for their business. If you have not heard of the partners listed above, we encourage you to reach out to them, or drop us a line at OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com.

Europa-Park Continues to Drive Growth Using Oracle Simphony Cloud and Suite 8

Europa-Park lies at the very heart of Europe between the Black Forest and the Vosges, and is commonly referred to as one of the world’s most beautiful resorts. Their journey began back in 1995, and since then more than 90 million people from all over the world visit the park to enjoy the 100+ attractions, and five (almost 6) award winning, themed hotels. Europa-Park is so much more than a theme park & resort for families, the Ammolite restaurant for example, found just next to the hotel Bell Rock, holds two Michelin stars – the first theme park restaurant in the world to achieve this accolade. The Europa-Park resort is spread out over almost 100 hectares, and with plans to open a brand new waterpark, as well as a Scandinavian inspired hotel boasting a 650 seater dining room, it is essential that their operating solution can keep up. The park currently uses Oracle Hospitality Simphony Point of Sale Solution and *Suite 8 (*only available in EMEA and JAPAC) because of their ability to seamlessly integrate with one another. Arne Weinmann, the Beverage Director of Europa-Park explains, “We needed a purer system that fits to our size and is able to manage several revenue centres”. Arne goes on to explain that they particularly love the benefits of the Multi Property function of Oracle Cloud, where Europa-Park can manage their five hotels with 4500 beds, and over 1000 employee records all on one central data base. A key component of a successful business is the ability to gather rich and valuable data across all their activities, no matter how diverse they are. Thanks to Oracle Hospitality Reporting and Analytics, Arne explains that “it’s become really easy and fast to track our sales and track our data.” With over 19 restaurants and bars across the resort, and plans to open up a brand new 650 seated restaurant, Europa-Park naturally faces many challenges. Arne explained to us how they have started to use the Oracle MICROS 720 tablet, he especially liked the powerful battery, than can easily be switched during service - perfect for any busy restaurant. Using the Tablet 720, the service team are able to make the order at the table, which is then sent electronically through to the kitchen for the chefs to start working on straight away, eliminating the need for staff to re-enter any orders at a separate POS. Europa-Park uses 120 Oracle workstations and 20 Tablet’s, but thanks to Oracle technology, saleability is not a problem as Arne explains, “After we changed to Oracle Simphony we had no more worries for further expanding, Oracle Simphony is built for growing businesses.” Europa-Park also use Oracle Suite 8, a tool that combines all hotel processes onto a single software solution. Michaela Doll-Lämmer explains to us that Suite 8 “really helps us to focus on our guests”. Michaela goes on to explain how they used to struggle to manage all five hotels in one system, but thanks to Suite 8 this is no longer a problem. Europa-Parks various seasonal decorations and the large number of diverse and colourful events throughout the year, makes them a one-of-a-kind destination, and so the importance of a positive and personalised customer journey to match this experience is paramount. Luckily, Oracle Suite 8 helps Europa-Park achieve this, covering reservations to housekeeping all the way to sales and marketing – Happy Holiday’s from Oracle! If you enjoyed reading this blog about the fantastic Europa-Park resort, watch the full video customer story, or alternatively, place an inquiry or email oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com if you would like to start your Oracle journey.

Sticks ‘n’ Sushi: Orchestrating Digital Transformation and Growth with Simphony Cloud from Oracle Hospitality

Oracle Hospitality were delighted to welcome Martin Garbrecht Damm, digital director for Sticks ‘n’ Sushi to the stage today at Oracle Industry Connect. Martin was keen to stress that at Sticks ’n’ Sushi the guest experience is everything. He also shared how using Oracle Hospitality’s Simphony Cloud solution is helping his company undergo simultaneous digital transformation and physical growth. Walking into the newest site of Sticks ‘n’ Sushi at the historic Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, you are hit by the meeting of two cultures: Japanese and Danish. An odd combination, many may think, but the pairing is making Sticks ‘n’ Sushi one of the most popular emerging restaurant chains in Denmark and is propelling its expansion across Europe. Sticks ‘n’ Sushi was founded 22 years ago by brothers Jens and Kim Rahbek, and Thor Andersen. Taking inspiration from their half-Japanese, half-Danish background, they created a unique cuisine that combines two culinary traditions. Known for its great food and exemplary service, Sticks ‘n’ Sushi is constantly striving to be one of the most innovative restaurants in the industry – setting new standards for training staff, communication, corporate responsibility, and advertising and design. That drive for innovation led Sticks ‘n’ Sushi to embrace Oracle Hospitality’s Simphony Cloud point-of-sale solution. The Oracle Hospitality video team recently traveled to Copenhagen to capture the restaurant’s digital transformation, including its app-driven takeaway service. “The guest experience is everything,” says Martin Garbrecht Damm, digital director for Sticks ‘n’ Sushi. “I’m trying to replicate that into the digital space, making a restaurant in the sky that people experience the same quality as if you were at an actual restaurant.” Watch the video to see how Sticks ‘n’ Sushi makes that happen – and understand why Damm describes Oracle Hospitality as “our extended software family.” The video also illustrates how Simphony: Provides centralized control of an ever-growing enterprise Helps make on-premise and off-premise ordering a universal brand experience Helps accelerate international expansion with plug-and-play simplicity Providing innovative technology that delivers such objectives is Oracle Hospitality’s mission, which Damm sums up best: “They’re helping us figure it out, and it gives us simplicity into our IT organization.” Learn more about Simphony point of sale on our website, and request more information here.

Restaurant Loyalty Programs: What Keeps Guests Coming Back?

For restaurant operators today, loyalty programs are essential. After all, keeping existing customers is far less costly than attracting new ones. But do you really know if yours is effective? Operating successful loyalty initiatives is more complex than it seems, and knowing the correct answers to important questions is a must. Do you know if your rewards are relevant? Are loyalty programs going to become obsolete if millennials are less loyal than baby boomers? What role does technology play in loyalty? Providing insights for these queries was the main objective of Oracle Hospitality’s just-published global study, The Loyalty Divide – Operator and Consumer Perspectives, Restaurants 2018. Oracle Hospitality commissioned Morar HPI, an independent UK-based consultancy, to survey more than 13,000 consumers and 500 businesses across retail, hotels and restaurants in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, UK and US. The findings are designed to help restaurant operators refine loyalty initiatives and better understand the new levels of personalization they’ll require to be effective. The report – which was released at Oracle Industry Connect, an innovation and technology summit held April 10-11 in New York City – shows there is a significant “disconnect” between operators and consumers when it comes to their perceptions of loyalty. For example: 50% of restaurant operators believe guests would enroll in every loyalty program made available to them, but only 27% of consumers say they actually do. Furthermore, 23% say they rarely join programs. 47% of operators believe their loyalty program offerings are mostly relevant. By comparison, only 27% of consumers share that opinion. Closing these “perception” gaps will be crucial in gaining consumers’ allegiance. “Hospitality is an industry that celebrates personal interactions and a rich knowledge of guest behaviors,” said Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Hospitality. “World-class operators are now leveraging adaptive intelligence to deliver unique connections based on guest preferences as they move beyond simple loyalty and discount schemes. The result is greater engagement and social advocacy for new dining connections.” The Loyalty Divide addresses several key topics – including differences in generational behavior and technology’s role in nurturing loyalty – to help restaurant operators develop effective strategies. One of the more surprising revelations is that younger consumers profess to be more loyal today, contradicting society’s typical portrayal of them: 44% of millennials (25-34) say they are more loyal to restaurant brands than before. And 30% of millennials plan to sign up for every loyalty program, while 48% of baby boomers (55+) say they will only enroll in select, relevant programs. It’s also an imperative for operators to realize that building loyalty today is no longer a task they can handle exclusively by themselves – especially in the age of social media. According to the survey, 51% of guests are likely to research brands on social media before buying, and 48% are likely to share photos of restaurant experiences on social media. And it’s noteworthy that 38% agree that restaurant recommendations made by social media influencers are more trustworthy than those made by celebrities. Perhaps, most importantly, operators need to understand the motivations that drive consumer loyalty. To help with that pursuit, the report identifies four “personas” that consumers adopt – The Broadcaster (41% would submit a YouTube review in exchange for a reward), The Enthusiast (50% want to engage in new and exciting menu items), The Lazy Loyal (72% like programs where points are automatically redeemed) and The Seeker (58% would exchange personal details for personalized promotions) – when making restaurant choices. Discover more about these consumer archetypes and learn how to win their loyalty by reading The Loyalty Divide. Download your copy here.

Pret A Manger honored for Business Agility at Oracle Customer Excellence Awards

Oracle UK hosted its annual Customer Excellence Awards at The London Edition hotel on March 22, 2018. The night was all about recognizing Oracle customers’ business achievements and supporting charities that enrich our communities. The evening began with a cocktail and canapes reception, providing an intimate networking environment for all the participants. Five major awards were presented by Dermot O’Kelly, senior vice president for UK and Ireland. Pret A Manger honored with the 2018 Business Agility award Oracle recognized Pret A Manger for its innovative and adaptive business, as well as its commitment to technology to continuously improve operations and the customer experience. Pret A Manager always strives to do the right thing in terms of sustainability, animal welfare and its efforts to alleviate homelessness through its charity work. This includes giving unsold food to shelters at the end of each day and providing jobs for ex-homeless and ex-offenders. Oracle was delighted to support Pret A Manger’s efforts with a £10,000 donation to a select charity of its choice. Richard Price, EPOS system manager, accepted the award and passed the charitable donation onto Shelter in support of its mission of providing housing for the homeless. It’s an honor for Oracle to be able to recognize outstanding business performance, and even more of a privilege to applaud corporate citizenship. Well done, Pret A Manger.

Oracle UK hosted its annual Customer Excellence Awards at The London Edition hotel on March 22, 2018. The night was all about recognizing Oracle customers’ business achievements and...

Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 Customers: Increase Security with the Biometric Fingerprint Reader

A swipe card is easily lost, a pin code is often forgotten, but your fingerprint is always handy. Best of all, it is uniquely yours, making it an accurate and reliable identity verification method. That’s why fingerprint biometrics is being embraced in the hospitality industry. It’s the new key to business security. Check out Oracle Hospitality’s John Nicewick, senior director hardware, demonstrating the Biometric Fingerprint Reader here. Customers using the Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 Series can easily increase POS security by installing the new Oracle Biometric Fingerprint Reader. With this device you can: Simplify accessibility and improve security simultaneously Reduce fraud in your environment Eliminate magnetic strip card and employee PIN log in Add up to 50 users unlike a consumer fingerprint reader Easily manage and modify users depending on staff changes Prevent identity impersonation Says Nicewick: “Sub-dermal technology reads below the skin level, thus (making it) more resilient to contamination of food or grease, giving a larger percentage of positive IDs upon first read.” The Biometric Fingerprint Reader is field installable, making greater security and enhanced employee management easily attainable. So, what are you waiting for? Submit a product inquiry or email us with questions.

Indian Wells Tennis Garden Serves Up Excellence On and Off the Court

Ask any avid tennis fan and they’ll tell you – Indian Wells Tennis Garden is an incredible venue. Best known for hosting the annual BNP Paribas Open, one of professional tennis’ premier events, the 54-acre compound features 29 tennis courts and the main stadium can hold up to 16,100 guests – making it the second-largest tennis stadium in the U.S. This year’s tournament, which ended March 18, culminated with victories by Naomi Osaki and Juan Martin del Potro. But what many may not know about Indian Wells is this: It’s a foodie’s paradise. With five, full-service restaurants, including gourmet options like Nobu, Wolfgang Puck’s Spago, and several Moet & Chandon champagne lounges, there is an impressive offering of world-class dining. Additionally, there are 30 other concessions stands, and casual food and beverage outlets offering everything from kabobs and sushi to poke and acai bowls. So how does Indian Wells quickly serve all the hungry fans, players and media personnel in attendance? The entire venue relies on Oracle Hospitality, which delivers fast, reliable service – so no one misses a blistering ace or a smashing backhand down the line! The new Oracle Hospitality Compact Workstation 310 and self-service kiosks combine to create custom solutions for every restaurant, concession and vendor at Indian Wells. And by running on Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud, these different operations are easily connected and able to seamlessly integrate with each other. I was lucky to attend this year’s tournament and joined a film crew to produce a video showcasing all the Oracle Hospitality solutions at work throughout the grounds. In addition to the courts, Indian Wells is also a gorgeous outdoor “garden-style” venue. Nestled in the Coachella Valley, it’s a lush oasis of local flowers, plants and palm trees, with stunning mountain views everywhere you look. An ode to the venue’s natural beauty, the tournament’s theme this year was “In Full Bloom,” and thousands of new flowers were planted all over the grounds for the occasion. It’s no wonder then that the BNP Paribas tournament is so popular. In fact, it draws more than 400,000 fans a year during a two-week period. Revenue generated at and around the venue because of this event topped $406 million last year alone. With spectacular tennis, stunning scenery and sunny, 80-degree weather, I’m already planning my trip back next year! In the meanwhile, stay tuned for our upcoming video to find out more about Indian Wells – and how Oracle Hospitality is helping it create the ultimate fan experience!

In and out of wagamama quicker than you can say, “Teriyaki Soba!”

The new wagamamago app allows diners to select, order and pay all via an app – and Oracle Hospitality was quick to head down to our nearest wagamama to trial it. It’s Thursday 22nd March 2018, fellow waga-lover Matt and I are first in line; as millennials, we’re excited to test the new online payment app, especially because our generation typically never carries cash. But it’s also perfect for busy office workers who want a quick dining experience during their lunch break. We were seated at 12:04 p.m. and out by 12:26 p.m. with a tummy full of noodles all paid for. How you ask? It was all made possible with the app, which was designed in partnership with Qkr! by MasterCard and integrated seamlessly into Simphony from Oracle Hospitality restaurant management platform – already implemented in wagamama restaurants across the country. Research indicated the app could knock off an additional 12 minutes of waiting time at the restaurant, already acclaimed for its quick table service. Matt and I were seated, opened a unique table number via the app and showed it to our server. The menu loaded and there was all the Asian and Japanese food I could ever want at my fingertips. At this point, I definitely had eyes bigger than my stomach. I ordered all my wagamama favourites via the app and, as promised, my dishes arrived before I had time to finish my green tea! I could even order an extra side of yasai gyoza to my unique table number – without help from a server. My request translated seamlessly through the wagagamago app to the Oracle Hospitality Kitchen Display System in the kitchen. Payment was just as quick and hassle free. My card was already linked up to masterpass, so paying simply required a click of a button. I could even split the bill and leave a tip all via the app. Digital ordering + digital payment = great customer experience! Already on my way back to the office, I marvelled about my entire lunch experience: No waiting. No headaches. No hassles. And I was confident leaving wagamama, knowing my transaction would process securely because of smart Oracle Hospitality technology. It’s just another example of Oracle Hospitality innovation that makes Oracle a brand you can trust. So, will cash-less, frictionless experiences become the norm for restaurants? Who knows for sure, but I got a glimpse of the future – and I loved it! If you’re interested in how Oracle Hospitality can help you embrace innovation and grow as a business through our hospitality solutions, contact us today on oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com or visit our website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Top 5 Reasons to Attend Oracle Industry Connect with Oracle Hospitality

Oracle Industry Connect, our annual innovation summit, brings together hospitality leaders to share deep domain expertise and best practices to solve the most complex issues in the industry. Among this year’s agenda, featured topics include: Moving to the cloud to accelerate innovation and reduce IT complexity Mining data to gain insights and competitive advantages Capitalizing on mobility to empower staff and serve guests Still not registered to attend Oracle Industry Connect in New York City, April 10-11? Read on to discover why you need to register now. Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Attend Oracle Industry Connect: 1. Network with industry leaders and Oracle experts 73% of hospitality attendees are directors, vice presidents, and C-level executives – making it the perfect place to network. As always, this year’s program is designed and focused on providing connections and building relationships – come and explore our new ConnectZone. 2. Develop business opportunities with more than 2000 executives Oracle Industry Connect is a global event and draws attendees from a variety of hospitality sectors, including food and beverage, hotel, sports and entertainment, and cruise. It’s also a cross-industry event, providing you the opportunity to promote your brand to leaders from other key industries such as retail, financial services, and communications. 3. Learn how to capitalize on key trends and overcome top challenges Anticipating consumer trends and delivering innovations are vital to win in the hospitality industry. See how companies are using technology innovations to achieve these goals as well as reduce costs and improve productivity. 4. Test and experience our latest solutions Try it and you will love it! For two days, you will have the opportunity to test and trial our solutions in the Customer Experience Center. Some of our featured products include the new Compact Workstation 310, designed to serve more people in a small space, and the Oracle MICROS Tablet 700 Series, mobility designed and built for hospitality. 5. Explore New York New York is the 5th-most visited city in the world and a hotbed of hospitality innovation. Explore the city that never sleeps with the Oracle Hospitality community, and stay tuned to see what city activities we have planned for attendees. Don’t just take our word for it; read what our customers who attended last year have to say about the innovation summit – and why they continue to participate in it year after year. Register and secure your place at Oracle Industry Connect. We hope to see you in New York City, April 10-11!

A Cooking Masterclass with a Pinch of Oracle Hospitality Technology

Just imagine the scenario: Cooking a delicious, three-course Vietnamese curry dish, including simmering spring rolls to perfection in a fryer. Best of all, envision orchestrating the entire meal to delight guests, using an array of Oracle Hospitality’s latest solutions. That’s exactly what happened as Oracle Hospitality in the UK hosted an exclusive, invitation-only, Cooking Masterclass with Europe’s award-winning cooking school, School of Wok, to showcase the new Compact Workstation 310 to new and existing food and beverage customers. The Oracle Hospitality event also featured the Workstation 6 and Tablet 720, enabling attendees to understand the ease and efficiency of how the Oracle Hospitality Workstation Family works together in a restaurant environment. It was the latest example of Oracle Hospitality customer-focused events, which are designed to engage attendees in an innovative fashion with our hardware. This event followed the TGI Friday’s BarTab cocktail evening, and more informative – and entertaining – sessions soon will be scheduled. Oracle Hospitality is invested in our customers in the food and beverage industry and makes a conscious effort to tailor events to suit customers’ restaurant needs. We believe this approach is an invaluable way to demonstrate how our food and beverage solutions can assist a variety of restaurant types – multi-site or individual – and underscore their flexibility and adaptability. Attendees enjoyed the interactive session as they could run through the menu just cooked through the Tablet, POS and KDS process. Once the final finishes were added to the dishes, attendees sat down and enjoyed their culinary creation, washed down with some traditional beverages. And we were delighted to share the experience with members of our Oracle Hospitality community. If you’re interested in how Oracle Hospitality can help you embrace innovation and grow as a business through our hospitality solutions, contact us today on oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com or visit our website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and Compact Workstation 310.

2018 Dealer Summit Underscores Oracle Hospitality’s Commitment to Strengthen Position in SMB/Independent Restaurant Market

Oracle Hospitality just wrapped up its Dealer Sales Summit for U.S. channel partners, underscoring its commitment to strengthen and expand its partners position in the SMB/independent restaurant market. The Summit, held in Columbia, Md., began with a welcome reception hosted at The Ale House Columbia. The team spent some time unwinding with our partners while enjoying fabulous food and drinks, before kicking off the first day of sessions. The fully packed agenda covered various topics, such as Simphony Cloud, Go-to-Market Strategy, and technical deep dives. The sessions concluded with hands-on demos in the Columbia office’s new Customer Experience Center. Our partners were able to see Simphony Cloud, Simphony Kiosk, Reporting and Analytics, the Oracle MICROS 310 Series, Tablet 700 Series, and the Workstation 6 Series in action! Day 1 concluded with an Awards Ceremony, which recognized our top-performing dealers and celebrated service milestones: The second day of sessions ran for a half day and covered key topics, including Marketing, Enablement, and Payment Strategy. It was great to get together and celebrate our longstanding partnerships. As evidenced by the list above, many of our dealer partners have sold Oracle | MICROS solutions for decades. We are thankful for their dedication and expertise, and are looking forward to better serving the SMB/independent restaurant market together!

Oracle Hospitality just wrapped up its Dealer Sales Summit for U.S. channel partners, underscoring its commitment to strengthen and expand its partners position in the SMB/independent...

Oracle MICROS InMotion Mobile Gets a New Look

We’ve started our Spring cleaning early here at Oracle Hospitality – we’ve just released the latest version of the Oracle MICROS InMotion Mobile app, complete with a fresh new look: Oracle MICROS InMotion Mobile brings actionable data directly into the hands of restaurant and hotel operators. Thanks to fresh new colors and updated screens, InMotion Mobile now has a clean, more modern appearance, making it even easier for users to access critical performance data. The new look is in keeping with recent changes to the rest of the Oracle Hospitality Enterprise Back Office suite. By moving the back office suite to the Oracle Alta UI design system, we have given our customers access to simpler, uncluttered reporting and management applications that support increased productivity through faster, more efficient task completion. CEOs, restaurant and hotel owners, finance, marketing, operations, regional managers, general managers, restaurant managers can all use Oracle MICROS InMotion to access actionable data: Up-to-the-minute statistics on daily restaurant operations—including sales, labor, discounts, and guest count Up-to-the-minute data on hotel properties—including arrivals, departures, and housekeeping data Ability to track forecasts against actual, real-time performance Monitoring of kitchen ticket times, allowing proactive response to issues Tracking of employee productivity Operational alerts that enable swift response to issues Read more about InMotion Mobile or download the new version of the app from the Google Play and iTunes app stores today!

Thwaites Hotels: Maximizing Efficiency with Enterprise Menu Management Service from Oracle

For Thwaites Hotels, the four-star chain renowned for making guests feel like they are at a “home away from home,” preserving first-class service is priority No. 1. The hotelier’s commitment to its hospitality culture is evident everywhere, manifesting even in its growth strategy. “There is a long-established tradition of investing for the future, sacrificing a short-term gain for the longer-term benefit of the company,” said Chris Hill, Operations Director for Thwaites Hotels. The hotelier, for example, focuses on building properties, rather than growing through acquisitions. A new hotel means all its elements are in the right place and designed specifically to meet guests’ needs, promising an exceptional stay. Customized building also enables Thwaites to better integrate its newer concepts, including spa treatment rooms and conference cafes. So, when the time came to select the best way to manage its food and beverage menu configuration, it came as no surprise that Thwaites sought a solution that would keep it unencumbered from the task’s challenges – and let it stay focused on its guest-service mission. That’s why Thwaites, which has six hotel and spa venues using the Simphony POS platform in its portfolio, partnered with the Oracle Hospitality Enterprise Menu Management team. The service offering, available to hotel and restaurant operators, eliminates in-house programming and improves operations by optimizing POS configuration, employing centralized reporting and enhancing inventory management. Since handing over the task to EMM in 2015, Thwaites has reaped other benefits, too, that it doesn’t want to relinquish. “We recently looked at taking the menu maintenance in-house, but after consideration of factoring in cost of in-house maintenance, balanced with the high level of service, expertise and coverage year-round we get from EMM, we took the decision to remain with the service,” Hill said. “We are reassured that our menu configuration is in the best of hands, plus we have the confidence that we have a team at our disposal who are experts in their field and always aware of new functionality that is relevant to our needs.” Though it honors its heritage, Thwaites’ dedication to continuously modernize operations has defined its hotels and spas, which have operated successfully for more than 30 years and is part of the Daniel Thwaites Group. Founded in Blackburn in 1807, Daniel Thwaites still uses its famous Shire horses to deliver locally – a nod to tradition and service values that are revered across the entire company. To continue to protect its brand reputation, both to customers and the trade, Thwaites relies on EMM to identify best practices and maximize performance of its Simphony POS platform. Critical to these efforts, EMM efficiently handles all menu and pricing updates, allowing for fast responses to changes in local markets. Said Hill: “Oracle Hospitality has not only provided us with a system that does the job we need, but their EMM team have held our hand to guide us through the process. We have learned so much from their years of experience, and they have been proactive in helping us establish best practices and ensure we get the best out of the system.”

Tip Pooling and Your Point of Sale

If you’re a restaurant owner in the United States, you know that the compensation disparity between tipped Front of House (FOH) employees and nontipped Back of House (BOH) employees has been creating headaches for years. To the point where it makes it difficult to find BOH staff right? Well, the US Department of Labor just proposed new rules that would allow restaurants to undertake tip pooling. What is tip pooling? Tip Pool is defined as the collection of a portion of earned tips from a directly tipped employee (i.e. server/bartender) that is then distributed to indirectly tipped employees (bus boy, host, etc). Typically, the collection of tips normally occurs at the end of each shift and distribution of those tips occurs either the next day as cash or is paid out cumulatively on a paycheck. If the DOL’s new rule is passed, restaurants will be permitted to distribute tips amongst all employees. Now you’re thinking “that’s great, but now I have another headache to figure out: how to distribute tips fairly!” This is where a superior restaurant point of sale and labor management systems come into play. Oracle Hospitality’s Simphony Cloud Point of Sale, which includes Oracle Hospitality Labor Management, provides the tools to make tip pool management seamless, easy, and accurate. The system has different configuration options to help you determine the best collection method, whether that’s automatic or manual. The automatic configuration makes the point of sale system determine tip amounts based on a pre-set percentage based on different parameters. For example, bus boys will get 5% of sales, and the bartenders will get 8% of liquor sales. The manual configuration divides tips based on percentages pre-configured by Managers. With Simphony Cloud Point of Sale and Labor Management, you can also determine tip amounts based on sales. For example, if you make $5,000 in sales one day, your pool amount can be X%, whereas if you make $10,000 the pool amount can be Y%. Tip pooling can improve work relations and improve staff morale. After all, earning tips becomes a team effort and gets everyone in the spirit of upselling! The chefs make sure food comes out hot, servers make sure glasses are full, and busboys make sure tables are cleaned. All of this of course benefits the restaurant and fosters repeat visits. Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS, or reach out by sending us an email at OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com or calling us at 866-287-4736.

Oracle Food and Beverage

How to Increase Sales and Serve More People in the Same Space

At NRF 2018: Retail’s Big Show in New York City, Oracle Hospitality unveiled today the Oracle MICROS Compact Workstation 310 and 310R with one goal in mind: Help you increase sales and serve more people in the same space. For operators in hospitality, sports and entertainment, and retail – with a limited menu offering and serving a high volume of customers in short durations – the Compact Workstation 310 is a “game changer.” Check it out here. Smarter and more robust, the Workstation 310’s transformative power lies in its name – Compact. Register for the on-demand webcast to discover more benefits of a smaller, sleeker workstation. Envision your current layout: You may have 6 or 7 (or even more) point-of-sale devices side by side. Your staff works tirelessly to process hundreds of orders within a short time span, keeping lines moving and ensuring customers are served and satisfied in quick fashion. But as good as your staff may be, your enterprise’s success is constrained by space – or the lack of it. However, what if you could double the number of point-of-sale systems in that same space? Imagine a bank of 12 or 14 POS and consider the possibilities: How much faster could you serve customers? How much shorter would lines be? The answers lead to better service and greater revenue and reveal the benefits of deploying the Compact Workstation 310 – a POS truly built and designed with hospitality in mind. Although the Compact Workstation 310 may be smaller, rest assured that it has been engineered to the same exacting standards of performance and reliability that define all Oracle Hospitality hardware. The device offers a long lifecycle (vs. 12 months for consumer grade tablets) and lower meantime before failure, resulting in far fewer failures and refresh cycles. The 310R is designed for rugged dependability – delivering durability well beyond just a tablet with a protective sleeve. All these benefits come included in the 310’s affordable price. Our customers told us they wanted to increase volume without sacrificing quality. The Compact Workstation 310 and 310R help make that goal a reality.

Step into the Future and Join Oracle Hospitality at the New England Food Show

Oracle Hospitality will be attending the New England Food Show in Boston Massachusetts, February 25th – 27th, 2018. The New England Food Show is the largest regional trade event serving buyers and suppliers in the New England food service and retail markets. This year the event will be full of networking opportunities including; culinary demos, educational sessions, exhibitors and products, and key note speakers; all offering exclusive insight into the food and beverage industry. On Sunday, February 25th from 2:30-3:00 PM, Oracle Hospitality will have the pleasure of presenting an educational session about Restaurant 2025, providing research and insights into how emerging technologies are destined to reshape the future food and beverage industry. Help ensure your business has success tomorrow and join us to learn how anticipating consumer trends and seeking innovations, that enhance guest experience, can improve your future business. We will also be showcasing our innovative food and beverage solutions. Join us in booth 806 to learn more about: Simphony Cloud a premiere cloud and mobile hospitality management platform, that looks beyond traditional point-of-sale (POS). With Oracle Hospitality’s innovation, the platform provides POS and back-office functionality, to support a wide range of food and beverage operations. Workstation 6 Family contains three sleek yet rugged POS terminals deliver superior performance and maximum efficiency with style. Tablet 720 is an intuitive and easy-to-use tablet, designed specifically for hospitality. The mobile application allows staff to maintain and manage operations off site. Kiosk is an interactive, self-service station that enable today’s on-the-go consumer to enjoy “zero-friction” shopping experiences and encourage impulse purchasing. Join us at the largest regional trade event in the New England food service and retail markets – see you in Boston!

Join us at SportTechie State of the Industry 2018

How can stadiums and arenas use the latest technologies to improve the fan experience? Come to the SportTechie State of the Industry event on 13 February and find out! SportTechie, one of the industry’s leading business resources, is hosting this premier conference on sports technology and innovation. Leaders from across the industry will be in attendance to find out what we can expect to see in sports technology in 2018. Join us on February 13 at Barclays Center in New York City for this unique experience! Oracle Hospitality is proud to be a sponsor of this event and will be hosting exciting discussions on several subjects, including: Data Science: How can stadium operators maximize sales through cross- and up-sells? How can stock availability be optimized while reducing waste? Data Science is the answer to both – we’ll explain how access to the latest machine learning technologies, combined with expert analyst support, can help you significantly increase revenues. Modernizing the Fan Experience: Fan experience is every stadium’s number one priority – but how can operators ensure that each fan has an enjoyable game-day? With a complete technology solution for venue management, Oracle Hospitality allows operators to deliver a quality product consistently and efficiently. Learn how to ensure accuracy of orders, timely delivery, and minimal wait time in order to provide the superior game-day experience that customers deserve. Driving Revenue Growth: Grow your profit margins by enhancing overall fan experience and driving repeat business. We’ll explain how to customize a simplified, cost-effective system for your venue. Take advantage of the latest technology to find new sales and cost-cutting opportunities. Forecasting the Future: What’s coming next? How can venue operators stay up to date on technological advancements to ensure a great game-day for fans and maximum revenues for the business? Find out on 13 February. The event is invitation only, so drop an email to OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com if you’re interested in attending. We look forward to seeing you there!

How can stadiums and arenas use the latest technologies to improve the fan experience? Come to the SportTechie State of the Industry event on 13 February and find out! SportTechie, one of...

Oracle Food and Beverage

Simphony and RES 3700 Users: Enhance Point-of-Sale Configuration with Oracle Hospitality Enterprise Menu Management

Enterprise Menu Management (EMM) is a service offering from Oracle Hospitality to aid hospitality operators with restaurant POS configuration. EMM manages centralized and consistent data, therefore eliminating in-house programming and streamlining managerial tasks. EMM provides accuracy and efficiency on all menu and pricing updates across the business, ensuring a cohesive structure is maintained in a fast-paced environment. It is essential to have a well-conceived POS configuration in your restaurant operations. With the help of EMM and Simphony / RES 3700, Oracle Hospitality solutions can ensure you get the most out of your POS. EMM: Top Tips for Simphony / RES 3700 Users Plan, Schedule and Plan Again! – Planning is key to good POS configuration. If you are consistent with your planning, administration processes are made easier and more efficient. Oracle Hospitality EMM service offers consultancy advise on ‘best practices’ gained through years of experience to ensure on-going success in your enterprise management. Menu Grouping – EMM structures menu grouping to ensure accurate reporting, consistent programming and ease of finding items. For example, EMM can group your menu by type – starters, mains, desserts, beverages. EMM can also plan further grouping in these types. For example, white wine can be split into dry, sweet, sparkling, etc. Menu grouping benefits the restaurant floor, as staff save time as they can easily locate products on the POS terminals. Zone Management (Simphony only) – Keep your master records at your enterprise level. This will reduce the duplications of items - a six-ounce glass of Coke is the same no matter where it is sold / a bottle of San Miguel is the same no matter where it is sold – and you can link different recipes in inventory if needed. Managing regional pricing through price tiers will also help POS configuration. All of these points are critical to on-going, accurate data analysis, which is vital in managing the growth of your business. Test Terminal – Having a test terminal means you can test changes you are making before they go live on your estate, and will help in trying to replicate reported errors. Structure and Process – It can’t be emphasised enough how important it is to approach all aspects of your menu and inventory configuration with an organised approach. This reduces customer facing error and leads to accuracy in the all-important analysis. Get this area right, and you reduce customer frustration and increase profit. Join the Oracle Hospitality team on January 17th, 2018 and find out more about where the Enterprise Menu Maintenance service offering can help your business. Watch the on-demand webcast here.

Innovation

Is Cash Dead in the Hospitality Sector?

The burger chain Shake Shack recently made headlines when it announced plans to open its first completely cashless restaurant in New York. Many other coffee shops, restaurants, and other hospitality operations around the world are making the same move. Cash brings a number of challenges to food service outlets; the cost of cashing up and banking every day, the lack of personalization options (as cash is anonymous), hygiene, and theft. However, the biggest issue for food service operators is speed. Guests want to be able to pay for food and drink quickly, and cash has become the slowest payment option thanks to the arrival of mobile payment and the simplification of EMV/Chip & PIN/contactless card processing. So is cash dead for hospitality operators? Are we getting close to the day when we can move exclusively to electronic payment methods? In our new report, Is Cash Dead In the Hospitality Sector? We asked over 15,000 consumers around the world about their use of cash and other payment methods in restaurants and other food service outlets. The key takeaways: Only a third of global consumers think that cash will definitely still be used in restaurants and other hospitality outlets by 2022 54% of consumers expect to use cash less themselves over the next 5 years 47% of consumers expect to use mobile payment and digital wallets more The overall conclusion, according to Stuart Taylor, Senior Director of Global Payments at Oracle Hospitality, is that flexibility is key. “At Oracle Hospitality, we aim to deliver two key things to our customers: payment flexibility and payment security.” “Flexibility is essential. The hospitality sector isn’t the only industry facing the eventual disappearance of cash – economists and governments have been assessing the option for many years for reasons relating to crime and other drivers. So there are macro-environmental factors at play.” “But what this report shows is that while guests of all ages are planning to use more mobile payment and less cash in coffee shops and restaurants and hotels over the next few years, plenty of millennials and pre-millennials still think that cash will be accepted in 2022.” “So the conclusion for any hospitality operator is: Retain flexibility so you can adopt the payment mechanisms that work for you in your countries, and keep things simple as you move towards more electronic payment methods by reducing your PCI scope with a POS partner like Oracle Hospitality.” Read the report Is Cash Dead In the Hospitality Sector? Or contact us at OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com for more information.

The burger chain Shake Shack recently made headlines when it announced plans to open its first completely cashless restaurant in New York. Many other coffee shops, restaurants, and other...

Events

Restaurant Leaders of the Future

Maintaining a strong hospitality workforce in the United States has been a concern for many years, and we all know that one of the keys to a restaurant’s success is talented staff. To help reverse the workforce decline, The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation created its cornerstone program, ProStart. For two years now, Oracle Hospitality has been a dedicated partner to the NRAEF. We believe in the ProStart program and the value it brings to our industry: developing hospitality superstars of the future. I recently had the privilege of interviewing two ProStart standouts: Christopher Mendez and Skylee Ennis. This year, the NRAEF asked Oracle Hospitality to judge a Technology Competition that it organized for ProStart students and alumni. Students were encouraged to submit their ideas for the next big restaurant technology. You can read more about the competition and judging process here. Christopher and Skylee, both alumni of Moody High School in Moody, Alabama, were the competition winners! They submitted an idea for a "tap-and-go" travel cup. Designed for consumers on the go and only interested in buying a drink, the idea creates a fast, easy, and convenient way for restaurants to keep lines moving while making quick money/generating greater revenue. The travel mug is double insulated to keep drinks hot or cold for several hours and features an embedded sensor. The sensor is tied back to the restaurant’s POS system. When the sensor in the cup touches the beverage system sensor, your beverage dispenses while charging your credit card. By allowing customers to purchase beverages without waiting or receiving assistance, employees gain time to tackle more important tasks. By making buying easier, the concept also encourages customers to spend more. When asked how they came up with their technology competition idea, Christopher said: “We were in a restaurant after eating lunch and wanted to purchase another drink. The line at the cashier was very long, so we started thinking, ‘What if there was a tap-and-go system so we didn’t have to wait in line for one drink?’ And that’s when we started thinking about the technology behind it.” Christopher and Skylee went home and began researching the technology that would bring their invention to life. They even did field research – going out in the community and polling consumers about their idea – determining that beverage sales would increase roughly 26% for restaurants that adopted their travel mug. Christopher said the importance of technology lies in its ability to simplify and accelerate guest service. “Restaurants have to stay with the latest technology in order to stay current with the industry, or else they will lose out to their competition,” he said. Added Skylee: “Technology keeps us moving forward. Restaurants need new ideas to keep growing and technology keeps them on the cutting edge.” Christopher and Skylee are prime examples of the quality talent that the ProStart program is producing. Christopher is currently a Foodservice Management major at Jefferson State Community College and works at a local fine dining restaurant. Ultimately, Christopher would like to open his own restaurant; he already has some details. “My restaurant would be a fusion-style restaurant that features multi-cultural food... food and flavors from different cultures all in one place.” He would also like to open a food truck or a bar later in life. “My passion for food came from my mom,” Christopher said. “She always says that food is a language that needs no form of understanding or translation... You don’t need to understand what you’re eating, you just need to enjoy it! I love to cook and explore different flavors, and I want to inspire people with my food.” Skylee wants to go into the pastry side of the business by opening her own bakery with a cake decorating shop attached. She is currently a cake decorator at her local grocery store and loves the creative and artistic aspects of cake decorating. “I love cooking,” Skylee said. “It’s something that will never go out of style.” ProStart is the reason that Christopher is going to college. In his junior year of high school, he won the Alabama state competition in both Culinary and Management, sending him to the National Competition where he also placed and won a scholarship. “ProStart has enhanced my passion for the industry,” Christopher said. “On the culinary side, I have been able to learn everything from basic cooking skills to how to plate, and even developing my pallet. On the management side, I have learned things like public speaking, leadership, and how to network and market myself.” For Skylee, the biggest skill that she has learned from her involvement with ProStart is public speaking. “I was never someone who could get up in front of an audience and speak, but ProStart changed that,” she said. “It’s a skill that I will use the rest of my life!” Christopher is still involved with the ProStart program at his former high school and loves mentoring the next wave of high school ProStart Program graduates. “The program really prepares you for a career in this industry,” he added. “You are exposed to so many things.” The work that the NRAEF has done through its ProStart program is impressive. These students have been given an opportunity of a lifetime, and in some cases, the means to attend college. ProStart graduates truly are the hospitality industry’s next generation. They are dedicated, highly qualified, and innovative. Every restaurant operator should be watching them. They are destined to be your future employees – and quite possibly, your next competitors. Read our report “A Look Inside the National ProStart Invitational” to learn more about this innovative and vital hospitality career initiative.

The Role of Operations Director in the Restaurant Industry – How Is It Changing?

People, performance, and profits - these are the key responsibilities of the operations director within a restaurant or other food and beverage enterprise. Everything from ordering supplies to managing staff schedules to handling guest complaints can fall under the remit of the operations team. Read: How is the role of the Operations Director changing in the food and beverage industry? But guest and staff expectations are changing: Speed is key to the guest experience – whether it’s paying by mobile, ordering via a kiosk, or getting a response to a complaint, guests expect service to be faster than ever Guests want to use more technology when visiting restaurants/bars/coffee shops - our Millennials in Hospitality Report showed that 39% of millennials have already paid for food and drink using their mobile phones A third of millennials working in hospitality think that their employers could do more with technology, according to the same report So is the role of the operations director changing in line with guest and staff expectations? We worked with Technomic, the food service research experts, to carry out a number of interviews with operations directors and COOs at some of the top restaurant chains. The full findings of our research can be found in How is the role of the Operations Director changing in the food and beverage industry? The key findings: Technology is now a strategic focus for operations – as guests expect to pay by mobile phone or kiosk, and staff expect to manage their schedules online, the operations director is having to adapt to new service models. As one of our interviews put it; “the role of operations director has changed because if you’re not tech savvy, you’re behind. You have to be more open to change than people once were.” Operations directors are leading the way to keep pace with guest expectations - today’s guests want the best food at the best price and they want it fast – and it’s up to the operations director to lead the way in delivering that consistently, every day in every location. And when service standards aren’t met, guests expect a fast response to feedback, too. More time is being spent on people... The focus on relationships, with both guests and staff, is greater than ever for the operations director. Finding ways to attract, train and retain staff is a major priority, and investing more time in these efforts is a must. …but profit and performance remain priorities The ability to measure performance and profits is still critical for the operations director and having access to the right data remains key. If you’re an operations director in the hospitality industry and would like more information on how technology can help you to modernize the guest experience and increase efficiency, giving you more time for people and performance management, contact us at OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com Read the report: How is the role of the Operations Director changing in the food and beverage industry?

People, performance, and profits - these are the key responsibilities of the operations director within a restaurant or other food and beverage enterprise. Everything from ordering supplies to...

Andiamo Achieves Strategic Growth with Simphony Cloud Point of Sale from Oracle Hospitality

Written By: Emmanuelle Olliveaud, Field Marketing Specialist, Oracle Hospitality, Latin America, Food and Beverage I’m always curious about how our restaurant customers start their businesses especially family businesses who often tell strong stories. Andiamo is a 25-year-old Italian restaurant chain located in Sao Paulo’s best Shopping Centers. A family-run business, Andiamo serves home style dishes in a welcoming and relaxed environment. And so, the family is preserving a tradition that began around their grandmother’s table where they met together for Sunday meals. With ten locations, Andiamo is still growing and, naturally, faces challenges at many levels. For example, how do you maintain a family culture with ten restaurants? How do you insure quality while controlling costs? Creating a video that tells their story was great opportunity to discover Andiamo’s reality. In the day I spent with the Andiamo team, I came to better understand their history and culture, and I saw first-hand how Andiamo is achieving its objectives with the Simphony Cloud POS platform from Oracle Hospitality. In the video Andiamo explains how: Oracle Hospitality Simphony POS is making life easier for guests and staff Decision-making, especially around menus, is much faster thanks to cloud reporting Inventory, costs, losses, and especially waste are all better controlled thanks to Oracle Hospitality Inventory Management The cost of raw materials is reduced by approximately 4%, a very important achievement for the business Watch the full customer story video in English here (or view it in Portuguese or Spanish languages).

Written By: Emmanuelle Olliveaud, Field Marketing Specialist, Oracle Hospitality, Latin America, Food and Beverage I’m always curious about how our restaurant customers start their businesses...

National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation and Oracle Hospitality Empower Students to Get Creative about Future of Hospitality

New report highlights innovative culinary and restaurant management concepts developed by students participating in the national ProStart Invitational Redwood Shores, Calif.—Nov 2, 2017 The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) and Oracle Hospitality present “A Look Inside the National ProStart Invitational.” The report showcases the innovative restaurant and culinary concepts developed by high school students who are enrolled in ProStart®, a two-year career and technical education program in secondary schools nationwide that teaches culinary arts and restaurant management skills and fundamentals. “Oracle Hospitality is extremely proud to be supporting the 2017 National ProStart Invitational—it gives the students a life-changing opportunity to find a career in this exciting industry of ours, while simultaneously helping our customers, restaurant operators, in finding new talent for them to recruit,” said Brett R. Smith, Senior Director, Food and Beverage Solutions Management, Oracle Hospitality. “This report offers us a glimpse into the creative innovative minds of the next generation foodservice industry.” Nearly 400 students who participated in this year’s National ProStart Invitational presented concepts to a panel of industry judges. Based on qualitative data collected from the students’ submitted materials, the NRAEF tracked methods, ingredients used, restaurant concepts and students inclusion of technology and innovation to determine the core themes of the competition and ultimately the report findings. This year’s report unveils themes of sustainability, philanthropy and efficiency. It also showcases innovation, not only with food ingredients and various culinary concepts, but students’ desire to use technology to enhance the food service experience overall. “Once again, we’re proud to partner with Oracle to highlight insights from students at our National ProStart Invitational,” said Rob Gifford, Executive Vice President, NRAEF. “The report showcases how much students learn from ProStart, and the students’ dedication to coming up with new and creative concepts and possible trends in the restaurant and foodservice industry.” Report highlights include: Students incorporated innovative technology into their restaurant concepts: Students used restaurant floor planning software to design a layout of their concepts, designed websites as a marketing technique, created social media campaigns, ideated smartphone applications, and allowed ordering through tablets Teams employed different point-of-sale systems, allowing customers to place orders through tablets, kiosks, or mobile applications The use of technology was not simply limited to the customer and employee experiences—teams leveraged solar panels, biogas generator, and geothermal energy to sustain restaurant operations Students showcased their culinary skills through new techniques: Seafood was the overwhelming favorite ingredient used for appetizers Standout ingredients included wakame seaweed, quail eggs and game meats Teams exercised pickling techniques across starters, entrees and desserts—from chicken wings to lemon curd Required to showcase certain knife skills, students chose chiffonade, julienne, small dice, brunoise and rondelle Students promoted sustainability, philanthropy and efficiency across concepts: Concepts centered on locally-sourced, health-conscious and fusion cuisine; more than half of the menus featured gluten free, vegan and vegetarian options Concepts presented were classified as either casual dining, quick casual/fast casual or quick service, which illustrated a critical trend in the industry—a shift away from traditional, sit-down, in-restaurant dining Nearly 50 percent of management teams’ concepts promoted community engagement and contained a philanthropic component, such as a culinary internship for at-risk youth, a book donation drop, a pay-it-forward giving model, and a weekly fundraising night for local non-profits Concepts also incorporated unique food delivery services at popular on-the-go venues, such as the airport or gym, to effectively reach target audiences “A Look Inside the National ProStart Invitational” and an accompanying infographic can be found here: https://go.oracle.com/LP=60748?elqcampaignid=104070. As a sponsor of the ProStart program Oracle Hospitality is actively taking a role in empowering the next generation of hospitality. Oracle Hospitality provides comprehensive solutions that elevate guest experiences while streamlining operations with point of sale, kitchen and back office management and mobile technologies. Oracle Hospitality tools ensure that food and beverage operations with thousands of workstations or single property locations have the same ability to deliver brand loyalty and customer loyalty. Reaching nearly 140,000 students annually, ProStart is offered in more than 1,800 high schools and career and technical education centers in all states, Guam and Department of Defense Education Activity schools in Europe and the Pacific. For more information on the ProStart program, visit ChooseRestaurants.org/ProStart or find us on Twitter or Facebook. Contact Info Matt Torres Oracle PR +1.415.595.1584 matt.torres@oracle.com Patty Oien Blanc & Otus +1.510.303.7289 patty.oien@blancandotus.com Jasmine Jones NRAEF 202-315-4101 jajones@nraef.org About the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation As the philanthropic foundation of the National Restaurant Association, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s mission of service to the public is dedicated to enhancing the industry’s training and education, career development and community engagement efforts. The NRAEF and its programs work to Attract, Empower and Advance today’s and tomorrow’s restaurant and foodservice workforce. NRAEF programs include: ProStart®—a high-school career and technical education program; Restaurant Ready—partnering with community based organizations to provide “opportunity youth” with skills training and job opportunities; Military—helping military servicemen and women transition their skills to restaurant and foodservice careers; Scholarships—financial assistance for students pursuing restaurant, foodservice and hospitality degrees; and, the Hospitality Sector Registered Apprenticeship Project—a partnership with the American Hotel & Lodging Association providing a hospitality apprenticeship program for the industry. For more information on the NRAEF, visit ChooseRestaurants.org. About Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality brings 35 years of experience in providing technology solutions to food and beverage operators. We provide hardware, software, and services that allow our customers to deliver exceptional guest experiences while maximizing profitability. Our solutions include integrated point-of-sale, loyalty, reporting and analytics, inventory and labor management, all delivered from the cloud to lower IT cost and maximize business agility. For more information about Oracle Hospitality, please visit www.Oracle.com/Hospitality. About Oracle The Oracle Cloud delivers hundreds of SaaS applications and enterprise-class PaaS and IaaS services to customers in more than 195 countries and territories while processing 55 billion transactions a day. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com. Trademarks Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Oracle Hospitality Ushers Sports and Entertainment Marketplace to the Cloud

Fan Experience Taken To a Whole New Level Thanks to Next Generation Point-of-Sale, Venue Management Software and Strategic Relationships and Integrations Redwood Shores, Calif – October 25, 2017 – With advanced and powerful new products and services ranging from next generation POS technology to integrated loss prevention and data science cloud services, major companies across the sports and entertainment marketplace continue to find a foundation for innovation with Oracle Hospitality. The combination of cloud-based food and beverage management software and ruggedized mobile POS from Oracle Hospitality enables sports and entertainment venues, such as stadiums and theme parks, to increase speed of service, maximize operational efficiency, and manage loyalty and season-ticket holder programs – all while receiving detailed real-time reporting and analytics. “Oracle Hospitality’s proven track record and commitment to the sports and entertainment marketplace is evident by our progress in product innovation,” said Dan Bell, Vice President, Sports & Entertainment, Oracle Hospitality. “Oracle is investing millions in R&D and support to enable venue operators to deliver the service that fans want and expect. Our food and beverage platform scales to support the largest sporting and entertainment venues and offers the ability to conduct iterative innovation through cloud deployment to improve the overall fan experience.” Research conducted by Oracle Hospitality makes it abundantly clear what fans want: speed and reliability. Forty-five percent of fans around the world had abandoned lines at events because the wait was too long. The Simphony Cloud platform can reduce waiting time with high-performance cloud POS delivered on integrated hardware for kiosks and mobility. Oracle Hospitality’s flexible Gift & Loyalty solution integrates with the POS to support fan recognition and personalization. An integrated back office suite offers cloud solutions designed to minimize costs, waste, and theft while delivering extensive reporting capabilities. In addition to driving more personalized fan experiences, Oracle Hospitality also provides stadiums with tools to optimize event-day operations from beginning to end through Simphony Venue Management, which can track inventory and food costs, and Simphony Suites Management, which can help streamline production of advance food orders, pantries and the timed distribution of orders to event suites. Product and service innovation Oracle Hospitality also continues to release significant new products and services to support ongoing customer innovation and fan engagement, including: The launch of the Oracle MICROS 720 tablets – durable and rugged mobile POS engineered for hospitality and large venue environments; The launch and integration of Oracle Hospitality Data Science Cloud Services – on-demand data mining services that give operators access to the latest machine-learning tools to help improve forecasting and deliver up- and cross-selling insights directly on the POS terminals; Powerful new reporting capabilities with Oracle Hospitality Reporting and Analytics 9.0 – operators can take advantage of an extended reporting platform, from KPIs via dashboards on mobile devices to comprehensive pivot tables and drill-down analysis. Reporting and Analytics offers the power of Oracle Business Intelligence at no charge for users of Simphony Premium; The launch of Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud 2.9 – extending the core functionality of the Simphony food and beverage management platform with new events management enhanced functionality that is optimized for the sports and entertainment industry. Industry-wide domain expertise and insight With more than 35 years of experience in the sports and entertainment space, Oracle Hospitality understands the complexities that comprise this unique environment. We share this insight through providing original research to our customers, partners and the industry, to shed light on fan and guest trends and opportunities. Recent reports include the Oracle Hospitality Fan Experience Report, which details how consumers want technology to fuel their experience at sporting and concert venues, and the Oracle Hospitality Restaurant 2025 Report which outlines how consumers expect new and innovative technologies to reinvent their hospitality experience by the year 2025. From stadiums to theme parks, the cloud-based delivery of the Simphony platform combined with extensibility and integration capabilities, allow the sports and entertainment industry to continuously innovate the experience for fans and guests at events and concerts. The inclusion of new apps and trends is key. In the past 12 months, Oracle Hospitality has added additional value to the Simphony platform through a variety of strategic relationships and integrations, including with QikServe and FreedomPay. About Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality brings 35 years of experience in providing technology solutions to food and beverage operators. We provide hardware, software, and services that allow our customers to deliver exceptional guest experiences while maximizing profitability. Our solutions include integrated point-of-sale, loyalty, reporting and analytics, inventory and labor management, all delivered from the cloud to lower IT cost and maximize business agility. For more information about Oracle Hospitality, please visit www.Oracle.com/Hospitality About Oracle The Oracle Cloud offers complete SaaS application suites for ERP, HCM and CX, plus best-in-class database Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from data centers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com. Trademarks Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.# # # Contact: Judi Palmer Oracle PR Judi.Palmer@oracle.com +1.650.784.7901 Patty Oien Blanc & Otus Patty.Oien@blancandotus.com +1.510.303.7289

40 Reasons Why Restaurant Owners Should Choose Oracle Hospitality Technology

If you’re a restaurant owner, choosing the right technology partner can be a challenge. There’s so much to think about – features and capabilities, cost, training…you can find a full checklist here. However, two factors that every restaurant owner needs to have on their list are: Stability of the technology vendor Vendor’s industry expertise Oracle Hospitality celebrates its double 40th birthday this year: in 1977, MICROS was founded to bring technology innovation to the hospitality industry, working with restaurants and hotels to change the way that guest service is delivered across the globe. Oracle was also created in 1977, becoming the world’s second largest software vendor and a world leader in cloud technology. Oracle acquired MICROS in 2014. To mark those years of technology and hospitality expertise, we thought we would summarize the 40 reasons why restaurant owners should choose Oracle Hospitality as their technology partner: 1) Company stability: You don’t have to worry about your technology vendor going out of business and leaving you high and dry with Oracle Hospitality – we’ve been around for 40 years and we’re not going anywhere. 2) Product stability: Get reliability and dependability from software and hardware developed from years of experience and knowledge. We have restaurant customers who choose our solutions time and time again to stay current with their technology. 3) Industry expertise: We have 40 years’ experience of working with restaurants, bars, coffee shops, hotels, stadiums, theme parks – we know your industry and we design technology that is tailored to your needs, whether you are opening your first location or ten thousandth! 4) Local resources: We have a network of local sales representatives who know your market and can help your business to excel. 5) Leader in cloud technology: More and more restaurants are moving POS to the cloud to take advantage of the many benefits. With Oracle you get some of the best cloud POS solutions on Oracle’s own cloud infrastructure. We own all of the parts including the datacenter, meaning that you only have to call one vendor! 6) High security standards: Help protect your data and increase your ability to avoid the fall-out of a cyber-attack. Backed by 19 data centers, an army of Oracle-badged cloud security experts, and around-the-clock monitoring and support, Oracle Cloud security features help safeguard your data (and your customers’ data). 7) Innovation through partner services: Take advantage of a whole range of services from trusted third-party technology vendors that are integrated into our platforms. Looking for an Online Ordering solution or to upgrade to EMV? Explore new revenue channels thanks to innovation through integration. 8) R&D dollars: We want our customers to have the latest and greatest (and most advanced) technology solutions. Oracle has and will continue to invest millions of R&D dollars into building the best technology for the hospitality industry. Don’t believe it? We publish our quarterly reports here. Take comfort that you are utilizing the best technology out there! 9) Always looking towards the future of your business: Stay ahead of your competition with us. Food service is an ever-changing industry and we are always thinking about future needs and developing technology to meet those demands. 10) We own and operate our own cloud: Operating our own cloud (and not using a cloud run by a third party) allows us to provide greater flexibility and enhanced security features to you. 11) Investing in future F&B talent: Staff recruitment and retention are big challenges for our industry and we are actively helping to train the talent of tomorrow. We are proud supporters of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation and its ProStart Program, which educates 140,000 students every year to prepare them for the restaurant industry. 12) Global distribution network: Get what you need, when you need it. With a global distribution network, we can ship products and parts quickly and efficiently. 13) 24/7 phone support: With support centers all over the globe, we can help when you need it. We know that a restaurant doesn’t operate only Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm. 14) Web support: We know that you’re busy and may not be able to sit on a phone with a support technician, so online support is also available. 15) Investment in industry research: Stay in the know with Oracle Hospitality! We’ve invested in industry research every year, both to help us understand changing guest preferences and needs, and to help you. Recent reports cover topics like loyalty, millennials, and cost control! 16) One-stop shop: Get everything you need from one technology supplier - software, hardware and peripherals - all designed to work seamlessly together. 17) Purpose-built products: Hardware that is built to withstand some of the hottest kitchens and coldest stadiums, with software that is designed to make training of recruits as fast and easy as possible in an industry with high staff turnover – everything we do is built with you in mind. 18) A full product range for your needs: We have you covered with a product portfolio that encompasses every type of technology that would be needed in a restaurant operation, from front-of-house POS to reporting to workstations and tablets...all designed to make and save you more money! 19) On-premises and cloud solutions: Not ready for the cloud? We offer traditional on-premises solutions for your restaurant, too. And when you are ready to move to a modern cloud solution, you can leverage the investment in your existing system to get there. 20) Scalable: Whether you operate one location or a multi-national brand, we can support your needs today and as you grow. We know the challenges of growing from one location to two, or two to five, and our solutions are ready to support you. 21) Payment choice: You can pick the payment vendor that best suits your business. With some POS providers you are not given this choice, which means they are ultimately taking more money from you in the long run. 22) Configured to your needs: We understand that every business is unique and our solutions are designed to be configured to fit your restaurant’s needs. 23) Get access to eLearning for staff and manager training: Get more out of your technology solution with our low-cost eLearning subscription program. Turnover in the restaurant industry is high so we make our training available on demand! 24) Gift & Loyalty: Extend your POS solution when the time is right with a loyalty solution that is fully integrated. 73% of guests say that loyalty program rewards must be relevant. Our Gift & Loyalty solution allows you to get to know your guests and tailor your promotional offers for specific audiences. 25) Reservations Management: Let your guests see real-time availability and request reservations directly from your website. Convenience and simplicity boost customer satisfaction. 26) Reports on your phone: The InMotion app available on the Apple and Google App stores, gives you access to sales KPIs and other data anytime, anywhere, allowing you to keep an eye on performance even when you’re not on site. InMotion is included with the purchase of our Reporting & Analytics package and brings a modern cloud tool to those still using an on-premises POS. 27) Go mobile with the Tablet 720: Line bust and reduce wait times for your guests by modernizing your operation with our 7” tablet POS solution. The Tablet 720 also helps boost upsell to ultimately sell more product. 28) Or go mobile with the Tablet R-Series: The flexible 10” tablet can either lock into a fixed base for full workstation functionality and peripheral connectivity – or be used as a mobile tablet for on-the-go hospitality. 29) Integrated kiosks for guest self-service: Kiosks offer unmatched versatility. They can be deployed in virtually any kind of grab-and-go setting. Restaurants are increasingly relying on kiosks to decrease labor costs, speed up the order process and reduce wait times for guests. 30) Control labor costs: Labor costs account for a quarter of a restaurant’s revenue. Help forecast and control your labor costs and optimize staffing levels with our labor cloud solution. It also helps you keep up with changing government labor legislation. 31) Control inventory costs: Food cost accounts for 25% or more of revenue. Help forecast and optimize your stock with a system that provides a look at full recipe and product-costing capabilities at a single property or across an enterprise. 32) Intelligence at your fingertips with Reporting & Analytics: Improve operational visibility with a cloud solution that organizes and consolidates data from every location in real-time into easy-to-view reports. 33) Monitor potential fraud with XBRi Loss Prevention: Help combat fraud and better protect your assets with the ability to quickly identify fraud incidents and collect evidence. XBRi is also a great tool to help provide fraud training. 34) Maximize kitchen performance with Kitchen Display Systems: Help reduce chef errors, enhance food quality and increase speed of service! The optimal solution for increasing kitchen efficiency, fully integrated with your POS. 35) Increase margins with Data Science: Want to dig into your data and find patterns for cross- and up-selling and forecasting? Oracle Hospitality offers access to the latest machine learning technology and expert analysts to find simple ways to increase your margins. 36) Utilize best in class hardware with the Workstation 6 Series: The latest model from our durable, resilient workstation series. Choose from three types of sleek yet rugged POS terminals that deliver superior performance and maximum efficiency. No more bulky terminals! 37) Automate with Venue Management: For sports and entertainment venues, Venue Management automates and makes inventory and cash management more efficient. 38) Manage your suites better: Specifically designed for sporting and event venues, Suites Management enables you to manage suite operations, stay in contact with your customers and optimize workflow. 39) Venues can go portable with our Mobile POS Client: Cut wait times, line bust or provide in-seat ordering in a stadium operation with a battery optimized mobile device. 40) Great team of people committed to be your partner: Our knowledgeable and caring team will help ensure your business success – we’re always here to help! For more information send an email to OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com or call us at (866)-287-4736!

The Founder: What 1954 Can Teach us about Growing a Global Restaurant Chain

If you’re in the hospitality industry and you haven’t yet watched The Founder, a film about the history of McDonald's starring Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, then I highly recommend it to you. It’s a thoroughly entertaining retelling of the McDonalds story; Kroc/Keaton is the epitome of the persistent salesman, driving round America in 1954 trying to persuade restaurant owners to buy his multi-spindle milkshake maker. When an order comes in for 6 milkshake machines, Kroc thinks it’s a mistake – what kind of restaurant would need to make 30 milkshakes at a time? The answer of course is a new kind of restaurant run by the McDonald brothers in San Bernardino. Kroc goes to see it for himself, falls in love with the Speedee System that the brothers have invented, and the rest is history. Kroc takes the ideas behind the operation, builds up a hugely successful franchise business, and then falls out with the more cautious brothers before taking the company global without them. There are sequences in the film that any lover of the hospitality sector will absolutely adore – the dinner where Dick and Mac McDonald tell the story of the company is a must-see joy, as is the scene on the tennis court. But three ‘lessons’ really stuck out for me in how relevant they still are today: 1. “Speed – that’s the name of the game”. Ray Kroc hears these words from Mac McDonald on his first tour of their kitchen in 1954. The McDonalds had completely changed the game with their Speedee system, which allowed them to get a hamburger from grill to guest in 30 seconds. And yet it’s still true today; I was at FSTEC this September and one of the speakers said that the winners in hospitality would be those that can maximize speed throughout their business. Over 60 years on and speed is still the name of the game. 2. Data has the answer. The brothers explain to Kroc how the traditional drive-in model wasn’t working for them – too many overheads, the wrong clientele – when Dick McDonald spotted the answer in the books. 87% of their sales came from just three items; burgers, fries, and soft drinks. “What the heck are we doing monkeying around with all this other stuff?” they asked before totally remodelling the building to deliver a new kind of counter service. Dick then having to walk around the car lot explaining to baffled guests that they need to actually leave their cars to get their food is very funny, but the McDonalds got the message across eventually. Again – data is still the answer to revenues and profitability today, even if we’ve swapped “the books” for a cloud-based reporting system. 3. “A symphony of efficiency” in the kitchen. There’s a lovely scene where the brothers take their bemused young staff to a tennis court and ask them to pretend to grill burgers and make fries for six hours so Dick can chalk out the perfect kitchen design to create his “crazy burger ballet”. Getting the food from grill to guest in 30 seconds relies on having an operation that is perfectly tuned and he stops at nothing to achieve it. Today, the efficiency of the kitchen is more important than ever, as more restaurants choose to balance delivery and take-out orders with serving sit-in guests. The brothers didn’t have the kitchen display systems that Oracle Hospitality provides today, but there is no doubt they’d have used them had they been available. 4. It’s about the whole guest experience; food, service, brand. The word ‘brand’ isn’t actually used in the film in this sense, but it is at the heart of the story. When his early McDonalds franchisees start selling fried chicken and attracting hoodlums with loud music, Kroc knows that he is losing the ‘family-friendly’ reputation that is so important to the business. This is why he turns to a different type of franchisee that is better able to embody the McDonalds values. It even comes down to a name - when the brothers are forced to sell out to Kroc, he tells Dick that it wasn’t the Speedee system that he loved, nor the food – it was the name McDonalds and everything it stood for: wholesome, American, successful. And that holds true more than ever. Competition for restaurants today comes from a much wider source – supermarkets, convenience stores – and every restaurant needs to hone an offering that delivers value on many levels, targeting the right audience with the right food and service, and then delivering on that promise consistently. There are countless other hospitality ‘lessons’ in the film – about franchising, knowing what business you’re in, persistence, story-telling and more – but it is first and foremost a very enjoyable film. I highly recommend it.

5 Reasons Why Restaurant CEOs and CFOs Love Oracle Hospitality

5 Reasons Why Restaurant CEOs and CFOs Love Oracle Hospitality The Restaurant Finance and Development Conference, taking place in Las Vegas from November 13-15, is one of the highlights of our calendar here at Oracle Hospitality – a great opportunity to meet with over 200 owners, operators and executives of multi-unit restaurant companies, including leaders in finance, accounting, development, legal, real estate and franchising. These executives are tasked with balancing all aspects of the restaurant business, from managing profitability and costs to accelerating growth and maximizing revenue – that’s why they need a technology partner that can do it all: Oracle Hospitality. Here are five reasons why restaurant CEOs and CFOs love Oracle Hospitality: A single supplier for POS software, hardware, loyalty, reporting, labor, reservations, inventory, loss prevention, kitchen systems, data science and more Oracle Hospitality provides a comprehensive product suite that helps restaurant operators to grow sales and minimize costs. Sales are maximized through feature-rich POS and our integrated hardware and software offering that enables seamless mobility and kiosk opportunities. Costs are controlled and profits protected through integrated Labor, Inventory, Kitchen, and Loss Prevention solutions. Reporting and Analytics and our new Data Science services support sales growth and cost management. All through one technology partner. Cloud technology to cut IT costs and complexity Cloud-based solutions enable centralized enterprise management, with lower upfront costs and a smaller footprint. Businesses are able to avoid purchasing and maintaining expensive servers, thus cutting IT costs and making it fast and simple to open new locations. Cloud keeps restaurant technology current and easy to use, allowing operators to shift greater focus on delivering exceptional guest experience and spend less time and budget on a complex IT environment. Global supplier to support your expansion at home and internationally Our solutions allow you to expand your business quickly and with minimum risk. Cloud technology minimizes the amount of IT hardware cost and installation time that is needed to open a new location, while centralized management and reporting ensure that you always have full control and visibility of your estate, whether at home or internationally, company-owned or franchise. Our systems offer full multi-language, multi-currency support and we have offices and happy customers in over one hundred countries globally. Advanced reporting and analytics package included free of charge with Simphony POS Oracle Hospitality’s Reporting and Analytics is an enterprise cloud solution, powered by Oracle’s OBI analytics engine, which allows operators to organize and consolidate critical data into user-friendly reports and dashboards. This tool improves operational visibility by providing access to data that allows businesses to identify cost-cutting and revenue-generating opportunities. The best part? It’s included at no cost when installed with Simphony Cloud POS Premium. Data Science services to improve forecasts and increase sales through cross and up-sells Our new Data Science services allow you to find new sales or cost-cutting opportunities by taking advantage of the latest machine-learning technologies and expert data analysts. You don’t need to invest in a data processing infrastructure of your own – we provide the skills and powerful technology to help you mine your data and deliver cross and up-sell recommendations directly to your POS terminals. Come and visit us at booth #924 or contact us at OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com for more information.

The Next Big Restaurant Technology: As Seen by the Hospitality Leaders of Tomorrow

In mid-September, the NRAEF (National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation) ran a competition for high school students enrolled in their ProStart program, asking them to submit their ideas for the next big restaurant technology. The students had to think about a problem in the restaurant industry and come up with a technology solution that would address that problem. Students were tasked with not only coming up with the solution, but also thinking about the marketing message behind the solution. Oracle Hospitality was asked to judge the submissions. Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting in on the judging session of the technology competition submissions. The judges consisted of five Oracle Hospitality employees: three on our Product Strategy team, and two from our Pre-Sales team, all with extensive knowledge of the restaurant industry. Narrowing the submissions to the top three was difficult for the team! The submissions were all unique, well thought out, and extremely creative. The team reviewed each submission, then evaluated them based on the follow criteria: Urgency: Does the solution address a problem which fixes a broken business process, address one of the top challenges in the industry, save significant time and money, and increase sales? Extensiveness: Does the solution address a problem which is found in the larger parts of the food service industry? Market Viability: Will restaurant operators purchase this product? Will it impact users positively? Technology: Is it a realistic technology? Does the technology exist now or in the very near future in its primitive or fully developed form? Uniqueness: Is the solution unique? Are there companies or projects in the mainstream that solve this problem in a similar fashion? The solutions ranged from bacteria-proof fabric for chef coats to an electronic travel mug with sensors that automatically charges for refills – how cool! My favorite parts of the submissions were the marketing messages. It was a lot of fun looking at the way these students think of marketing – my own career field. Not only did they show a proficient understanding of the restaurant industry and how technology plays into it, but they also showed and understanding of marketing and how it relates to a restaurant. On behalf of everyone at Oracle Hospitality, I offer applause for all of the students who participated in the technology competition. Vote for your favorite finalist and stay tuned for the official announcement of the winners! Also make sure to look out for our report that summarizes the trends found in the restaurant plans from the students who attended the 2017 ProStart National Invitational!

Growth. Leadership. Innovation. Join us @ Fast Casual Executive Summit, 22- 24 Oct in Nashville

Oracle Hospitality will be attending the 12th annual Fast Casual Executive Summit, in Nashville October 22-24, 2017. The Fast Casual Executive Summit is an exclusive event reserved for top-level restaurant executives, leaders and innovators of the fast casual industry. Oracle Hospitality has the pleasure to sponsor it for a 2nd year in a row as a gold sponsor. With interactive sessions to delve deep into topics of the food and beverage industry, the Fast Casual Summit is not just another trade show, but a unique opportunity that brings together an experienced group of restaurant professionals. The event will explore subjects such as; customer experience, digital menu boards, menu innovation, mobile payments and customer relationship management. Oracle Hospitality will be contributing to the Fast Casual Executive Summit with an interactive talk - ‘Ask a Millennial’, presented by Jeff Grossman, Vice President of Global Pre-Sales in Oracle Hospitality’s Food & Beverage business unit. Millennials will spend more than $200 billion annually starting in 2017, and $10 trillion in their lifetimes. This session will explore the thoughts and opinions of this generation, by interviewing them live on stage. Visit us at 1:00pm to learn why Millennials are top targets for all restaurants. Oracle Hospitality will also be showcasing how we can provide technology solutions to the POS industry and improve the operating efficiency of food and beverage processes with: Simphony: a premiere cloud and mobile hospitality management platform, providing a modern POS and back office user experience. Tablet 720: an intuitive and easy-to-use tablet, designed specifically for restaurants. The mobile application is great for line busting to increase speed of service. Join us during your refreshment breaks to learn how our solutions can improve your businesses bottom line and experience the competitive features of Tablet 720. You can read more about our Food and Beverage solutions on our website, and don’t forget to book your agenda for 1:00pm Day 3 (Tuesday, 10/24) to learn why you should be focusing on the Millennial market – see you in Nashville!

Oracle Hospitality will be attending the 12th annual Fast Casual Executive Summit, in Nashville October 22-24, 2017. The Fast Casual Executive Summit is an exclusive event reserved for top-level...

Oracle Food and Beverage

Self-Service Kiosks: Ushering in a New Era of Customer Service and Loyalty

The benefits of self-service kiosks have long been touted: Lower labor costs. Greater check average. More transactions. Increased revenue. Yet, many food and beverage operators who stood to gain the most – from concessionaires to quick-service restaurants – shied away from kiosks, reluctant to send customers to faceless ordering stations. But now, thanks to emerging technologies, kiosks aren’t regarded as impersonal bastions. To the contrary, some of the biggest brands in food and beverage, such as McDonald’s and Panera, are recognizing them for what they truly can be: pillars of personalization. Professional sports teams, too, are using them in their stadiums, ushering in a new era of customer service. For those still on the fence, it’s time to take another look at kiosks – or risk getting lapped by the competition. Indeed, kiosks are the centerpieces of a major remodeling initiative underway at McDonald’s. In an effort to create the “experience of the future,” the world’s largest burger chain is incorporating kiosk ordering and Bluetooth-enabled table service. According to a Chicago Tribune article, McDonald’s expects to remodel 650 restaurants this year alone, raising its total of kiosk-enhanced, U.S. restaurants to 2,400. It plans to equip all of its more than 14,000 domestic locations with kiosks by 2020. According to the company, upgraded restaurants are generating sales gains of 4 to 8 percent, and the kiosks are contributing to higher average customer spending. But one of the main reasons driving McDonald’s digital investment is the opportunity to offer more personalization. The company anticipates kiosks will be able to recognize or track the following: a personal profile from a customer’s mobile app storing favorite meals; different orders depending on time of day; and loyalty points. Such advancements are a far cry from the early days of kiosks, which, like many new technologies, were shadowed by uncertainty. “You’re directing people to an interaction that is non-personal, and you’ve just sacrificed the inconsistency of the human with the design of the machine,” said Ned Rowland, Oracle Hospitality’s sales consulting director for food and beverage. “And so, in doing that, you have to carefully think through all the after effects of what you’ve just done. And that’s what scared so many people from using it.” But as innovations such as facial recognition (biometrics) and artificial intelligence accelerate kiosk enhancements, food and beverage operators can’t afford not to capitalize on the competitive advantages they will deliver. It’s just as important to realize that kiosks cater to contemporary buying behavior, especially among millennials, who covet “zero-friction” shopping experiences. In other words, providing them the opportunity to buy on demand: No waiting. No headaches. No hassles. “It becomes a great opportunity for loyalty and for guest recognition and for measuring who is your customer – are they a core customer or are they new trial?” Rowland said. “What’s their demographic, psychographic, geographic (profile). Learning all of these things becomes possible with kiosks.” He added: “You can get messages across that you’d never be able to get through servers or cashiers. It’s a platform, a medium, that’s an extension of everything you do. It becomes a place for eye balls to be connected to things other than what they’re ordering. It’s a huge opportunity for brand expansion, product suggestions, new offers.” Such a comprehensive outlook is exactly what Panera had in mind when the restaurant chain launched its “Panera 2.0” initiative – a series of integrated technologies, including kiosks, to enhance the guest experience. “Panera 2.0 is an investment in the customer enabled by technology and powered by operational excellence,” said Ron Shaich, Panera’s chairman and CEO, when the initiative was unveiled. “It’s more than a mobile-payment system or simply a digital-ordering process. It’s an integrated, comprehensive, end-to-end solution that we believe will reduce friction such as wait times, improve order accuracy, and minimize or eliminate crowding – all while creating a platform for an ever more personalized experience.” Panera made kiosks available in addition to cashier stations to reduce wait time for guests. The highly visual stations feature a “product builder” to assist with order accuracy and customization, and the kiosks are capable of saving customizations, past orders and “favorites” for easy ordering on subsequent visits. Nowhere is minimizing wait time more important, arguably, than in sports stadiums; fans repeatedly say they’ll abandon long concession lines for fear of missing game action. That’s one reason why Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins participated in a kiosk initiative, featuring Oracle Hospitality’s Simphony point-of-sale platform and Workstation 620. The deployment may generate other benefits as well. According to a major Oracle study (The Fan Experience: Changing the Game with Food & Beverage), U.S. fans, on average, reported they would spend an additional $20 for food and beverage if wait times were cut in half – representing a 43% increase in typical spend per party. But for food and beverage operators to achieve maximum value, it’s imperative that kiosks be part of an integrated solution. For example, pairing Oracle Hospitality hardware – kiosks and Kitchen Display System – not only improves operational efficiency but generates invaluable business insights. “KDS provides work screens that are digitized, which will separate an online order from a kiosk order from an in-house order from a phone order – and it’s going to track all of those and make sure you don’t lose any of them,” Rowland said. “It’s going to collate and collect them and report on them, and tell you which channel is giving you what amount of revenue at what time and with what products.” The ability to gain such intelligence is just another reason why the adoption of kiosks has passed the tipping point. Major brands – from food and beverage to sports and entertainment – are confident now that they’ll reap a healthy return on investment. “If you’re looking for a reference point, all you need to do is take a look at the big boys,” Rowland said. “If you haven’t moved toward kiosks yet, it’s time to pay attention.”

Dynamic Hardware Delivers Speed and Performance for The Boiling Crab

Since 2004, The Boiling Crab has been serving the best Cajun seafood in California. Founded by Dada Ngo and her husband, Sinh, the restaurant shares their passion for excellent seafood and warm hospitality, which led them to bring traditional Gulf Coast cuisine to Orange County, California. Specializing in “peel and eat with your hands” seafood, The Boiling Crab allows you to choose your catch, then select a delicious flavor for seasoning. Your food is delivered to you in a bag to preserve the flavors, and you are given a plastic bib to wear – thankfully! After witnessing success with their first location, the Boiling Crab team decided to expand. Today, The Boiling Crab is opening its 20th location in October 2017 – their 4th opening in less than a year. With extensive growth plans, how do they keep operations running smoothly? Daniel Thornhill, IT Manager for The Boiling Crab, says that “technology helps create success in all aspects of our operation, from front of house to back of house. Technology is the backbone of a successful restaurant operation.” From purchasing to tech support, Daniel is a one-man band and manages everything IT related for the operation. For him, implementing Oracle Hospitality’s Workstation 6 hardware was a no brainer. “We were using Oracle Hospitality RES 3700 software with third-party hardware,” Daniel says. “Before implementing the Workstation 6, we had to write custom scripts in RES for the third-party hardware to operate properly. It was difficult and time consuming to make sure the software and hardware were working together, especially as we were growing and adding new locations.” Impressed with their current Oracle Hospitality software, Daniel decided the best option was to utilize the same platform – one provider for both POS hardware and software. “Another benefit was that the Workstation 6 had two ports for cash drawers,” he says. “Our previous hardware only had one port, and in some of our larger restaurants we really needed two.” The Boiling Crab now has 40 Workstation 6 terminals throughout its operation. Its new location opening in Hawaii in October will have 11 workstations alone. The Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 has provided The Boiling Crab with a sleek, reliable and flexible hardware solution. Says Daniel: “One of the things that I love about the Workstation 6 is that it is flexible. The workstation can be hung on a wall or mounted on a swivel arm easily. If you want a traditional set up, the base isn’t big or bulky so it doesn’t take up a lot of counter space.” Aside from its modern aesthetics, the Workstation 6 also is energy efficient. “We have the workstations hooked up to backup batteries in case the power goes out in the restaurants,” he says. “They will be able to run on those batteries for about two hours, because they do not use as much power as other hardware.” When it comes to hardware success in restaurants, purchasing hardware that is purpose-built for hospitality environments is key. According to Daniel, “you want something that will last a long time and can take damage... employees do not care about the technology; it is not theirs so they do not feel responsible for it. But your hardware must last at least 5 years to see ROI.” To learn more about the Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 please visit our website.

Since 2004, The Boiling Crab has been serving the best Cajun seafood in California. Founded by Dada Ngo and her husband, Sinh, the restaurant shares their passion for excellent seafood and...

Enhance Fan Experience with Oracle Hospitality: Join us @ Stadia & Arena Asia Pacific 2017

Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment is getting ready for the Stadia & Arena Asia Pacific show hosted in Chiba City, Japan September 12-14th. Due to last year’s success, this year’s conference is bigger and better and Oracle Hospitality Sports and Entertainments is excited to be part of the three-day experience. Hosted in Japan, home of 2020 Tokyo Olympics, we’re anticipating an electric atmosphere – what better place to host a sports venue event? Oracle Hospitality Sports and Entertainment will be thriving off this experience and showcasing our Simphony EPOS platform, tailored to a Sports and Entertainment venue environment. Going beyond traditional point of sale, the Simphony EPOS platform enables sports and entertainment operators to deliver a fast, efficient fan experience throughout their venues. Through translated data, fans receive a more personalised and relevant experience – so you know when your fans are craving a hot dog, before they do! Watch our animated video and visit us at booth F12 to chat all things Sports and Entertainment and venue technology. Join us at the largest gathering in the APAC region and understand how Oracle Hospitality Sports and Entertainments can transform your venue with one platform: Simphony EPOS. Tweet us @OracleHosp and let us know you are coming – see you in Japan!

Food & Beverage Operators: Is Your Data Secure in the Cloud?

There is no doubt that food and beverage operators can gain much from moving their POS to the cloud: Lower IT costs. Reduce IT complexity. Centralize menu changes, promotions and reporting. Respond faster to business changes. You can read the full list of benefits in our Power of Cloud whitepaper. Greater data security is one of those advantages. Yet, it remains a concern for many F&B operators who are used to managing their systems and data in-house. “Will my enterprise information, as well as my customers’ identity and payment methods, be safe in the cloud?” they wonder. But the real question they should be asking instead is this: “Do I have the in-house resources to keep up with a rapidly evolving threat landscape?” Here are some considerations: The frequency and scale of data breaches is increasing, as news headlines remind us daily. As cybercrime escalates well beyond identity theft to devastating “ransom-ware” that encrypts companies’ data and cripples operations, security experts recommend partnering with top cloud-service providers – who have the resources and commitment to employ world-class security measures and continuously update them. Employing cloud means transferring day-to-day headaches of managing security to 24/7 experts and freeing restaurant operators and their IT team to focus on what matters most: Accelerating innovations that boost sales, reduce costs and enhance the guest experience. At Oracle Industry Connect in 2016 – a major cross-industry conference on innovation technology – Richard Clarke, the former U.S. counterterrorism czar and renowned cybersecurity expert, said: “This is a little counterintuitive, but think about putting more of yourself in the cloud, because you can configure things more easily, more securely in the cloud. Get someone to do that for you rather than you (operating your own servers) and trying to protect them.” The rising complexity of cyberattacks make transferring security management to dedicated cloud providers an imperative – especially considering the escalating risks. Beyond enduring a paralyzed business with lost revenue opportunities, a restaurant could suffer unimaginable damage to its reputation, not to mention costly litigation and regulatory action. But not all cloud service providers are the same and their security assurances differ. After all, it means nothing if software is secure, but physical premises or access protocols are left vulnerable. That’s where Oracle cloud distinguishes itself. It practices “defense in depth,” which delivers comprehensive security by layering security strategy, security technologies, security services and governance. From software security involving secure coding standards and architectural risk analysis to operational procedures such as firewall reviews and vulnerability scanning, data security is practiced end-to-end with Oracle Cloud. Access – whether it’s physical (video surveillance and badge entry with multiple checkpoints) or logical (encryption protocols and role-based privileged access) – is guarded diligently. The adoption of these security measures and more are designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data that belong to your business and your customers. With such peace of mind, restaurant operators can return to the task at hand: Creating a flourishing enterprise. Find out more about Oracle Hospitality’s cloud technology for restaurants.

Events

Oracle Hospitality is bringing the innovation to FSTEC – join us!

Oracle Hospitality is ready for a three-day insight into food service technology at FSTEC, September 17-19, at the Anaheim Marriott, in sunny California. The conference showcases the latest innovations of technology in the food and beverage industry. This year’s FSTEC event will see 1,000+ attendees attend inspiring keynotes and workshops tailored to restaurant operators both big and small. Oracle Hospitality will be contributing to FSTEC with an innovation session on Data Science. Our Data Science services allow operators to analyze data to increase sales and improve profitability. Book your agenda for 2:30 pm, Day 2 (Monday, 9/18), to learn how Oracle Hospitality can maximize your sales through up-selling and crossing-selling. YOU are sitting on a goldmine of data and WE can turn it into profit! Data Science isn’t the only innovation we are bringing to FSTEC. Join us at booth 708-710 to talk about: POS in the cloud Kitchen management Loyalty Inventory management Labor management Mobile tablets Workstations Kiosk Reporting & Analytics 9.0 Finally, don’t forget to catch Nick Low, Senior Solution Director from Oracle Hospitality, talking all things POS in the ‘Restaurant of the Future’ session. You can also pick up your copy of our Restaurant 2025 report from our booth. Follow us on Twitter @OracleHosp, to get live updates on Nick Low’s talk. Join us at THE tech conference for food service and restaurant operators – see you in California!

Customer Success

HMSHost International: A Glance into Schiphol Airport, One of the Largest Simphony Point-of-Sale Sites in the World

Everyone has their own routine when flying and most include a pre-flight snack, meal, coffee or beer. Airports have to cater to all tastes, resulting in large variety of outlets within the average airport. Each operation is unique in their own way – whether that’s sit down service, quick service with Kiosks, or a relaxed coffee shop. Did you know that in most train stations and airports, all of these food and beverage operations are managed by just one company? In Schiphol Airport and many of the busiest transport hubs in the world, that company is HMS Host International. In Schiphol alone HMSHost International have over 80+ different F&B concepts, over 1000 POS devices and 50 million transactions a year? How do they do it, you ask? That’s where we step in! Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud Point of Sale is a hospitality management platform, providing enterprise point-of-sale (POS) and back-office functionality. “When we enter a new country or a new airport or a new train station, for us, it's really easy because we have the whole setup ready to go and it's just adding another location.” –Erik Wouterson, IT Manager EMEA, HMSHost International Oracle Hospitality helps HMS Host International with their unique set of challenges such as: Managing hundreds of food and beverage brands, the staff, the IT and supply chain Providing the traveller with the best experience possible. Ensuring fast and efficient service so the on-the-go guests are able to enjoy their services without being late for their travel arrangements. Want to learn more? Watch our interview with Erik Wouterson, IT Manager EMEA, HMSHost International here. Email us at oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com to set up a meeting with one of our representatives and visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Everyone has their own routine when flying and most include a pre-flight snack, meal, coffee or beer. Airports have to cater to all tastes, resulting in large variety of outlets within the average...

Data and Analytics

5 Reasons Why Your Restaurant Needs Data Science

By Christopher Adams, VP Sales Food & Beverage, APAC at Oracle Hospitality Safe Harbor Statement: The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle's products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. Restaurant operators have a constant stream of data flowing into their POS terminals – from in-store transactions, to mobile apps and online ordering, many restaurateurs are sitting on a goldmine of data. The question is, how can meaningful insights be extracted from all that data and turned into profit? This is where data science comes into play. Knowing more about what affects your business, and being able to analyse the factors that affect sales and efficiency, presents many opportunities for operators to enhance the customer experience, streamline business operations and boost the bottom line. That’s the power of data science. Here are five reasons why your restaurant should consider data science. 1. Increase overall revenue. By having access to your business data and, more importantly, knowing how to interpret the metrics, you can significantly impact your overall revenue. There are many ways restaurateurs can leverage their data to boost the bottom line: Provide targeted menu recommendations at time of transaction Identify which products, store layouts and locations drive revenue and replicate this across other stores Look at specific employee behavior and identify those generating higher revenue – then encourage other employees to replicate this behavior Sell more products with higher margins. Data science represents a huge opportunity for operators to know their customers more intimately and provide them with personalized service that will not only bring them back time and time again, but increase the probability of generating a larger purchase, by moving customers to a higher margin up-sell or cross-sell. The concepts of ‘up-sell’ or ‘cross-sell’ are not new to the industry – ‘would you like fries with that’ has been around since the 60’s. However, as restaurateurs continue to collect more and more data, and customers demand a more personalized experience, we can know ahead of time that not everyone wants fries with that. For example a burger restaurant can provide personalized combos based on customer preferences, such as the addition of bacon, or extra cheese, to drive higher margins. Reduce costs. By identifying exactly how much stock to hold to avoid wastage or overstocking, or being able to identify labor scheduling challenges, operators can significantly reduce their operating costs. Being able to extract this data and analyse it to provide actionable business insights means being able to adjust inventory and staffing to increase savings and reduce waste. Improve customer satisfaction. Being able to provide a personalized service is paramount to a successful food service business and is often what will set your business apart from the rest. Personalization requires an in-depth knowledge about your customers – what items do they, what time of day, what extras do they like. This type of analytics is available today using many BI tools, however data science lets you find the dimensions you aren’t looking for. Data science to drive customer purchases with menu recommendations is a key area – think of the likes of amazon with ‘people who bought X also bought Y’ or ‘last time you purchased Z, would you like this again?’ By using both transactional data and unstructured data (e.g. weather patterns, demographics, local event information) timely recommendations can be provided to restaurant operators, to maximize every sales opportunity. This in turn improves customer satisfaction and keeps customers engaged with your brand. Increase customer return. If your business has happy customers, chances are they will return. To keep customers happy your business needs to continually evolve and innovate, and data plays a vital role in this. By tapping into your business data and knowing what to look for, your customers will benefit and will keep coming back. For example, you’ll have better knowledge about what new products to offer, allow your customers to re-order from previous times, keep track of customers’ purchase history so you can personalize their experience and offer appealing cross-sells and up-sells that actually get accepted. The demand for personalized service will only continue, so data science will be fundamental to gaining a competitive edge. The key is to use it in a meaningful and timely way so that the benefits are tangible. This will include applying the science to all customer touch points – be it online, through the POS terminal, through 3rd party devices such as kiosk and digital menu boards. Data science is going to open up a lot of opportunities for innovation and will quicken the pace of the food service industry even further.

By Christopher Adams, VP Sales Food & Beverage, APAC at Oracle Hospitality Safe Harbor Statement: The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for...

Data and Analytics

I’m a Food and Beverage Operator: What Do I Get from Oracle Hospitality Data Science?

Safe Harbor Statement: The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle's products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. Yesterday we launched the Oracle Hospitality Data Science service for food and beverage operators. For our customers, it’s an incredibly exciting opportunity to do some serious digging into the data that pours in through their point of sale terminals and put that data to work in generating greater profits – how we can increase sales? How can we reduce costs? So what does an Oracle Hospitality food and beverage customer get when they sign up for the Data Science service? We asked Saras Yagnavajhala to tell us more about what’s included; Saras leads Science Strategy for Oracle Hospitality and works closely with customers during the onboarding process and to ensure success. Prior to joining Oracle Hospitality, she spent 12+ years in Oracle Retail, on its various Data Science offerings in the areas of Price Optimization, Forecasting, Inventory Optimization and Merchandise Optimization. Saras, tell us: what happens when a restaurant operator signs up for Data Science – what are they getting in terms of data expertise? Brain power! They’re getting access to some of the very best data scientists in the world. Everyone on the team has an advanced degree from a leading university. Our lead scientists have a minimum of 5 years’ industry experience, applying advanced Data Science techniques to solve industry problems. For example, Suming has a PhD in Mathematics and 10+ years’ experience in Price Optimization, Inventory Optimization and Forecasting. Setareh is from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with focus on machine learning and specializes in attribute mining, forecasting and sentiment analysis. Kiran has a PhD In Operations Management with 6+ years of industry experience in Promotion Optimization, Recommender Systems, Targeted Offers and was a visiting associate professor at University of California at Irvine before joining Oracle. The team also works closely with Oracle Labs, which is Oracle’s central science team specializing in machine learning and in-database data mining. There’s been a huge investment into Oracle Labs and F&B customers benefit from that, as OL develops reusable assets that can be plugged into hospitality specific science solutions. And in terms of technology – what are customers getting? They’re getting access to the world’s leading data processing technology without having to invest in any technology for themselves. At the platform level, we have Oracle Hospitality Advanced Science Engine – this is a cloud solution that has been built specifically for this industry. It houses reusable libraries for data cleansing, modelling, machine learning and integration services. At the infrastructure layer, the customer is leveraging Oracle DB Advanced Analytics. This enables extremely fast processing of millions of transactions for data mining within the database itself. Then the application layer houses several purpose-built industry specific solutions, such as Menu Recommendations, Customer Segmentation, Location Clustering, Forecasting, Targeted Offers. The Science Engine is a platform for rapid innovation – it allows us to quickly apply learnings from other industries such as Retail for Hospitality. It is built to perform and scale to handle larger data volumes. Years of detailed transaction history can be quickly analyzed to tease out patterns and trends in customer behavior and make recommendations to optimize your business. So I’m a customer and I’m interested - how does the process work? A customer starts off with our Professional Services team. There’s a Data Discovery where our consultants and data scientists work with you on data inputs and outputs, business process impact and change management. Once data is loaded into our Science Engine, it is available for rapid insights. Science engine thresholds and configuration parameters are tuned based on your unique data characteristics and results are quickly made available via reports and recommendations. In addition, our Professional Services team will work with you to interface the science outputs so you can operationalize the results to maximize your specific business objectives. What kinds of things can I analyze? We’ve just launched two Data Science services for the F&B industry; Menu Recommendations and Adaptive Forecasts. Menu Recommendations mines customer transaction data to recommend the best up-sells to offer customers. Recommendations dynamically update during the ordering process and are tailored to the location and time of day. Recommendations can also be fed into data warehouses or third party systems to drive promotions and offers. Adaptive Forecasts take into account several factors such as weather, time of day, local events, seasonality and generate item/location specific granular forecasts. These can be used to drive production quantities, order quantities, labor schedules. Built to handle large retail data volumes, the solution can scale and perform to your growing needs. And what can I expect to get at the end of the process? Our customers can expect to see an immediate increase in top line from our Menu Recommendations. Expected benefits are a 3-5% increase in revenue, with increase in average ticket values and increased customer satisfaction. Adaptive Forecasts deliver 10-15% reduction in labor and food costs from accurate forecasts. For more information on Data Science, please contact your account manager or email OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com

Safe Harbor Statement: The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a...

Data and Analytics

Oracle Hospitality Introduces New Data Science Cloud Services to Help Food & Beverage Operators Optimize Every Sale

Safe Harbor Statement: The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle's products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. Expert Analysis and Machine Learning Enable Improved Menu Optimization and Greater Cost and Inventory Control Redwood Shores, CA (August 1, 2017) – Empowering food and beverage operators to convert data into profit, Oracle Hospitality today announced Data Science Cloud Services. With the new services, food and beverage operators gain the ability to analyze key information such as sales, guest, marketing and staff performance data at unprecedented speed – generating insights that lead directly to actionable measures that improve their top and bottom line. The suite includes two cloud-driven offerings – Oracle Hospitality Menu Recommendations Cloud Service and Oracle Hospitality Adaptive Forecasts Cloud Service – currently available to operators worldwide, enabling them to improve up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, and optimize operations, respectively. The new Data Science Cloud Services bring Oracle’s renowned machine learning and data-analytics expertise specifically to the food and beverage industry. This, combined with years of hospitality industry knowledge, delivers quick wins for operators, while saving them the significant expense of having to hire their own analysts or invest in a data processing infrastructure. In addition to Oracle technology, Data Science delivers the support of a team of leading data scientists, database engineers and experienced hospitality consultants. “Margins are being squeezed in hospitality like never before,” said Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Hospitality. “Labor and food costs are increasing, and competition for the dining dollar is high. With our Data Science Cloud Services, we are giving our customers the ability to be as profitable as possible, by helping them pinpoint cost-savings in each location while optimizing every single sales opportunity to deliver revenue growth.” Making Every Sale Count with Oracle Hospitality Menu Recommendations Cloud Service Oracle Hospitality Menu Recommendations Cloud Service allows food and beverage operators with multiple locations to evaluate their menus and identify enhancements to maximize every sales opportunity. The Data Science service can seek the best possible up-sell or cross-sell options by location or time of day, with recommendations dynamically updating based on customer behavior. Assumptions around cross-sells and up-sells can be analyzed, leading to better understanding of guest behavior and preferences. Speed to value is accelerated, thanks to integration between the Data Science service and the Oracle Hospitality technology platform. Recommendations are available at point-of-service terminals and displayed as localized cross-sells or timed up-sells. Such simplicity enables staff to optimize sales and serve guests without delay or confusion. Predicting Stock and Labor Needs with Oracle Hospitality Adaptive Forecasts Cloud Service Oracle Hospitality Adaptive Forecasts lets operators better predict stock and labor needs at every location. The service creates a single forecast by item, location and day part, and factors in weather, events, time of day, day of the week and Net Promoter scores. Such forecasting maintains appropriate levels of inventory and staffing in all business scenarios, helping store managers minimize wasted inventory, lower labor costs and, most importantly, ensure an exceptional guest experience. For Oracle Hospitality customers, these Advanced Science Cloud Services complement the self-service data access and reporting solutions that are already available, including the InMotion mobile app that provides real-time access to restaurant KPIs and the Reporting and Analytics 9.0 service that was launched in April 2017. About Oracle Hospitality: Oracle Hospitality brings 35 years of experience in providing technology solutions to food and beverage operators. We provide hardware, software, and services that allow our customers to deliver exceptional guest experiences while maximizing profitability. Our solutions include integrated point-of-sale, loyalty, reporting and analytics, inventory and labor management, all delivered from the cloud to lower IT cost and maximize business agility. For more information about Oracle Hospitality, please visit www.Oracle.com/Hospitality

Safe Harbor Statement: The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a...

Events

Join Oracle Hospitality in Nashville for this year’s IAVM Venue Connect

Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment is delighted to be attending this year’s IAVM Venue Connect taking place in Nashville from August 7th - 10th. This year’s conference provides 80+ educational sessions designed to increase your revenues, offers hands-on experiences, and unrestricted access to 150 exhibitors and 1000+ attendees. Here at Oracle Hospitality we will be showcasing the latest edition of our Simphony platform. The Simphony platform is the premier cloud and mobile food and beverage management platform, and it enables sports and entertainment operators to deliver a fast, efficient fan experience throughout their venues. Check out our latest video and see what Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment solutions can do for your venue to help manage the ever-rising demands of consumers and fans. Come along and meet us and find out more about how Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment can help your venue and see how the cloud is changing the way venues operate. We look forward to seeing you there! Interesting in learning more? Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment is delighted to be attending this year’s IAVM Venue Connect taking place in Nashville from August 7th - 10th. This year’s conference provides 80+...

Events

ReAlign, ReUnite and ReEnage with Oracle Hospitality at this Year’s RetailNOW Show

Oracle Hospitality is ready for a four-day experience at RSPA’s that is RetailNOW show, taking place in Las Vegas from August 6th – 9th. The show is the perfect occasion to learn about the latest in hospitality technology and what opportunities exist in the marketplace. The Oracle Hospitality team will be at RetailNOW in booth737 showcasing how we can provide technology solutions to the POS industry and improve the operating efficiency of F&B processes with: Simphony: a premiere cloud and mobile hospitality management platform, providing a modern POS and back office user experience. Kiosk: an interactive, self-service station that enable today’s on-the-go consumer to enjoy “zero-friction” shopping experiences and encourage impulse purchasing. Tablet 720: an intuitive and easy-to-use tablet, designed specifically for hospitality. The mobile application allows staff to maintain and manage operations off site. You can read more about our Food and Beverage solutions on our website, and don’t forget to stop by our booth #737 to see how you can reAlign, reUnite and reEnage with Oracle Hospitality – see you in Vegas!

Customer Success

Spotlight: Miami Marlins – Using Oracle Hospitality to Orchestrate Employee Meal Programs

Just imagine the logistical challenges of feeding a small army of employees over a stretch of at least 81 home games. Among your many tasks: Keeping tabs of who ate what, how much, when and where. That job can become exponentially more difficult when those workers are scrambling around in a 35,000-plus seat stadium. Just ask David Enriquez, senior director of IT for Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins. By working with Oracle, he was able to leverage his point-of-sale platform and use the Oracle Hospitality Gift and Loyalty solution to help curb unauthorized spending, enhance accounting and improve staff morale. The Challenge Before the installation, the Marlins were operating a meal program that, at best, could be described as a “manual process,” according to Enriquez. “We were in the Stone Age,” he said. “All we had, literally, was a list of names that were authorized (to eat) in the press box. We went up, signed our names and got our plates. If you weren’t on the list, you wrote your name in, and later, someone would have to go back and physically cross-match that the names existed.” But that was just the beginning of the inefficiencies. The Marlins “charge back” dining expenses to each worker’s respective department; however, lack of accountability made this a time-consuming headache. “When you got the bill at the end of the month, you hoped it was (accurate) and signed off,” Enriquez said. “There was no accounting. No accountability for how many meals were given during a certain home stand. By the time you finished adding it up, you could have had three guests come in and each one of them could have eaten once or twice. But you would never know.” From an operational perspective, the Marlins needed better management of the meal program that would deliver greater tracking, reporting and accountability to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Just as importantly, the team wanted a solution that would better serve its hard-working staff – as many as 150 are on hand for any given game. The Solution After significant research of possible solutions, the Marlins selected and deployed Oracle Hospitality Gift and Loyalty prior to the 2014 season. The Marlins were already using the Oracle platform for point-of-sale and adding the Gift and Loyalty module gave them the functionality they needed without requiring an additional supplier or extra integration costs. The system incorporated the usage of swipe cards to authorized employees, enabling them to purchase meals throughout Marlins Park – including the array of in-stadium, culinary vendors available to fans. From a back-office perspective, Enriquez was drawn to Gift and Loyalty’s reporting capability and its accessibility via the Web. Gift and Loyalty automatically tracks every aspect of employee expenditures. Most importantly, it is capable of producing detailed reports, customized in any fashion, analyzing activity from any game. Web access also enables staff to retrieve reports anytime from virtually anywhere. The Results: Enriquez describes Gift and Loyalty’s impact on operations as “transcendent.” “Companies want to use innovative technology, but the issue is always, ‘Where’s the payback?’” he said. “In this case, it was very clear to me in employee satisfaction and improvement in accounting.” Among the benefits: • Curbs unauthorized spending: “Very simply, if you don’t have a card, you don’t eat,” Enriquez said. “And if you don’t have a card and want to eat, you can pay for it. It saves us money in the long run because we don’t have the wrong people eating free meals. It adds up.” At roughly $15 per meal, just one unauthorized individual eating a meal per game during the season could cost the team more than $1,000, he said. • Enhances accounting accuracy and staff efficiency: “Just off the top of my head, we’ve easily saved 4 to 6 hours a week from the fact that we don’t have to run around anymore figuring out which department to bill,” Enriquez said. Such time saved now can be applied to more meaningful projects that help the Marlins achieve its corporative objectives. • Improves staff morale: “The feedback from the employees has been amazing; they’re just happy that they don’t have to go to the press box and eat at the same place every day,” Enriquez said. “They can taste the food around the ball park like the guests do. You have an opportunity to go try sushi or the fish tacos. That’s really a positive thing.” He said happier employees also serve as more knowledgeable, helpful ambassadors, who can guide fans to the stadium’s best dining spots. Ultimately, Oracle Hospitality has enabled the Marlins to escape the Stone Age. Said Enriquez: “This allowed us to change from where we were for a long time to where we needed to be. A lot more teams should look into this because it’s a time saver.”

Customer Success

A Night at TGI Fridays: The Launch Party for New Bar Tab Functionality

Last night, Oracle Hospitality in the UK hosted an event with TGI Fridays and MasterCard to launch the new Bar Tab functionality at TGI’s Leicester Square location. Over 100 hospitality leaders had the opportunity to see the technology at work and how it could benefit their customers. With drinks flowing and virtual bar tabs flying, the new feature proved to be a great success. Read more about the new Bar Tab. If you’re interested in how Oracle Hospitality can help you embrace innovation and grow as a business through our hospitality solutions, contact us today on oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com or visit our website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

A Night at TGI Fridays: The Launch Party for New Bar Tab Functionality

Join Oracle Hospitality at SEAT 2017 in Atlanta for Stadium Venue Operators

Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment is looking forward to attending this year’s SEAT Conference taking place in Atlanta from July 16th - 18th. This year’s SEAT Atlanta will boast over 800 industry global leaders providing a perfect opportunity to network, discover, and learn how the Sports & Entertainment market is changing. We are excited to build off of our participation at an amazing SEAT London, as well as last year’s SEAT Las Vegas, so come chat with us to learn how Oracle Hospitality can provide the experience your fans deserve! It is more important than ever to know how technology can continue to improve your business operations and guest experience. With the Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment Simphony platform, venue managers lead from the front in going beyond traditional point of sales, transforming their venue with one platform and a multitude of innovative solutions, all backed up with the security and reliability of the Oracle Cloud. Check out our latest video and see what Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment solutions can do for your venue. We look forward to seeing you there! Interesting in learning more? Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment is looking forward to attending this year’s SEAT Conference taking place in Atlanta from July 16th - 18th. This year’s SEAT Atlanta will boast over...

Jungle Juice Bar: A Quick Service Smoothie Experience with Oracle Point of Sale

I’m not sure what I loved most about my trip to meet with Jungle Juice, an Oracle Hospitality quick service customer that has 13 smoothie bars across Finland. It might be the names of their products – they have a smoothie called the Flu Fighter, which made me wonder what Dave Grohl’s favourite fruit would be - or it might be their lemon and ginger shots, which look very innocent but turn out to pack a mighty (and healthy) punch. In fact, what impressed me most is their total commitment to serving their customers with healthy drinks as quickly as possible, whether you’re on the way to the gym or to work. Jungle Juice Bars were created by Noora and Petteri Fagerström, two entrepreneurs who recognised a gap in the market for fruit drinks that could be bought from quick service concessions in train stations or shopping centres. They have plans for growth and so have chosen the Simphony Cloud POS platform from Oracle Hospitality to help them meet a number of goals, including: Serve the right products to their customers with super-fast, efficient service Grow the business with more locations in Finland and across the Nordics In the video, they talk about how Simphony Cloud will help them: A quick service point of sale (POS) that is fast and efficient POS with multi-language and currency functionality A reporting and analytics service to support their business Inventory management to keep control of fresh stock Loyalty functionality to replace their current stamp card system that offers no data insights E-commerce support to help them engage with their customers Cloud technology tailored to help food service operators remove the burden of managing their IT Watch the full Jungle Juice Simphony Cloud video. Interesting in learning more? Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Schedule a Demo of Oracle Hospitality Technology at our UK Customer Experience Center

Our UK Customer Experience Center opened its doors in November, with an opening ceremony led by Lisa Faulkner, winner of Celebrity Masterchef. Since then, we’ve continued to update and innovate with our technologies, and the specialist center has followed suit. This environment allows customers and prospects to see exactly how Oracle Hospitality solutions would work in their food and beverage operation. With distinctive areas for every organisation’s specific needs, visitors are able to see how Oracle Hospitality solutions integrate and work simultaneously with each other for maximum speed and efficiency. You can see exactly how orders flow from a kiosk or POS, straight through to the kitchen via our kitchen display systems. The whole process is brought to life and you can see where your operation can benefit. What this industry-specific area offers is an immersive experience providing visitors with the opportunity to get hands on with new technologies, and demo hardware and software that is designed with the user and business in mind. If you are interested in visiting our new Customer Experience Center you should reach out to your account representative or email us at oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com, and schedule a date and time that is convenient for you. We look forward to seeing you here! To learn more about our solutions, visit the Oracle Hospitality website.

Come and Meet Oracle Hospitality at this Year’s ALSD Conference and Tradeshow for Sports and Entertainment Operators

Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment is excited to be attending and sponsoring this year’s ALSD Conference and Tradeshow taking place in Miami Beach Hotel from July 10th – 13th. With 100+ speakers, a compelling lineup of presentations, and stadium/arena venue tours, it is a perfect opportunity to network, discuss ideas and create new business. Along with our exhibit booth, Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment will be the presenting sponsors of the Sports Venue Design & Build Forum so come along and check it out to learn how the Sports & Entertainment market is revolutionizing in wake of what the future holds. We are also looking forward to our solution session led by Jeff Grossman, Vice President Global Pre-Sales, Food and Beverage: “Changing the Game with Food and Beverage Technology at Stadiums and Arenas.” The session will take place on Tuesday, July 11 at 10:20am. It is more important than ever to know how technology can continue to improve your business operations and guest experience. With the Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment Simphony platform, venue managers lead from the front in going beyond traditional point of sales, transforming their venue with one platform and a multitude of innovative solutions, all backed up with the security and reliability of the Oracle Cloud. Check out our latest video and see what Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment solutions can do for your venue. We look forward to seeing you at ALSD! Interesting in learning more? Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment is excited to be attending and sponsoring this year’s ALSD Conference and Tradeshow taking place in Miami Beach Hotel from July 10th – 13th. With 100+...

MoschMosch: Putting the Guest First with Oracle Point of Sale for Restaurants

I was very excited about my visit to MoschMosch, an Oracle Hospitality customer with 12 table service noodle restaurants across Germany. Their strapline advises that “ramen makes you slim and attractive” - who could turn that down? In fact, MoschMosch’s total commitment to the guest is extremely impressive. Many restaurant groups talk about the importance of “the experience”, but at MoschMosch they know exactly what that experience needs to look like in all of their locations. We filmed our MoschMosch video with Christopher and Pamela in their Frankfurt business district location. At 11:45am the tables started to fill up with office workers dropping in for a quick, healthy lunch, and the flow of hungry guests didn’t stop. Orders were taken, food and drinks were served, and bills were paid as quickly as the customers needed and wanted. Oracle Hospitality restaurant technology is supporting that fast, efficient, yet very friendly service. In the video Christopher and Pamela, talk us through how that works: Point of sale (POS) that is fast and efficient: Staff can input orders and close checks quickly, allowing guests to arrive, eat, and leave within their preferred timescales. Reporting and analytics to provide insights into what they’re selling: Which dishes are popular, or less popular; which need more marketing; how many guests are coming in to the restaurants every day; what is the average order value…the team at MoschMosch really values their ability to access business performance information to help them improve the quality of food and service. A restaurant loyalty solution to bring them closer to their guests: I’ve often been told that loyalty programs are less popular in Germany, as guests don’t like them. MoschMosch is proving that wrong; their Gute Gäste Karte allows customers to collect points and get special treats on their birthdays. In return, MoschMosch can see what customers like to eat and drink so they can better understand their guests and make adjustments to their menu and service. Mobile hardware to help them speed up the ordering process and improve accuracy: The ability to take an order on a handheld device, complete with modifications and requests, and send it to the kitchen without having to write it down, walk to a POS terminal, and input the details, saves time and makes the order and food delivery process faster. Watch the full MoschMosch video. Our sincere thanks to Christopher and Pamela and the team at MoschMosch Frankfurt Europaviertel. Interesting in learning more? Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

I was very excited about my visit to MoschMosch, an Oracle Hospitality customer with 12 table service noodle restaurants across Germany. Their strapline advises that “ramen makes you slim and...

Tablets in Restaurants: How Long Should They Last?

If you’ve ever used an Oracle MICROS workstation, then you’ll know that they are built to last, both in terms of getting you through a busy night in your restaurant and in lasting many years – we have restaurant customers that are happily using workstations that they’ve had for two decades! But as restaurants move to mobile POS tablets, can operators expect the same longevity from these devices? Restaurant operators need to be thinking about two things when choosing the right tablets: How long should the battery charge on my device last? How many years should my tablet continue to provide value within my restaurant? We recently surveyed hundreds of restaurant operators to find the answers to those two questions. How long should a single charge of my mobile POS tablet battery last? In our survey of restaurant operators, we asked how long the battery charge on a tablet needs to last. The average response was “12 hours” - given the average shift in the hospitality industry is between 8-10 hours, from an operator perspective that seems to make perfect sense. But ask yourself how many tablets on the market today can last for 8 to 10 hours of constant use? Many operators find themselves having to buy two tablets for each server, one to charge and one to use. Others end up tethering supposedly mobile devices to charging stations and being forced to use them as fixed POS devices. When researching your next device consider how it will be charged; will it be portable or fixed to a charging point? How many charges will you get out of your device; 100, 200, 500 charges? And how many devices will you need to buy; if the device doesn’t last a full shift, how many will you need to order so that your staff always have a charged device to hand? These are all questions you should consider when looking to purchase your next device. When I invest in a tablet for my restaurant, how long should that device last? Our survey of restaurant operators found that on average the operators expect their tablet to last for 4.35 years, or in other words 4 years, 4 months and 2 weeks. This again makes perfect sense when you are comparing the tablet to a fixed POS. However, consumer based tablets are not designed to last this long in the home, let alone in the demanding environments that you find in most restaurants. So if you’re looking for a device to last 4 years, then industry-specific tablets are the best way forward for your business. The other consideration is that new versions of consumer tablets are often released every 18 months and after 2 new releases, support for the older device is often dropped. This means that in just 3 years your consumer tablet is out-dated and no longer supported. If a tablet solution was introduced across hundreds of restaurants, there is a high chance that part way through the roll-out you find your chosen device is no longer supported. This is something that should be taken into consideration when looking to purchase your next tablet solution. How can Oracle Hospitality Help? Oracle Hospitality’s new Oracle MICROS Tablet 720 is designed to last with its lightweight, but rugged design, making it the ideal choice for restaurants, bars, stadiums, theme parks, hotels and other hospitality operators. The Tablet 720 has also been created with both the user and the business ROI in mind. A ‘hot-swap’ battery has been built into the device, which means that your staff don’t need to leave it on charge when it runs out of power. Instead, they simply remove the depleted battery and replace it with a fully charged one whilst the device continues to run. This not only removes the need for two tablets, but also ensures that the server doesn’t lose any valuable data when waiting on tables or managing a line at a venue. What next? To find more about our mobile hardware for food service operators, email us at oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com or fill out a product inquiry form. You can also visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Data and Analytics

Data Ownership in the Cloud – Who Owns My Data?

A large global food and beverage operator, speaking at the FSTEC conference in 2016, talked about the benefits of cloud technology. Among the many he cited, cost topped his list: Cloud technology, he told us, was one-tenth of the cost of on-premise IT. The advantages of cloud don’t stop there. Food and beverage operators can gain business agility, achieve centralization and improve reporting. Read the full list of benefits in the Power of Cloud for Food & Beverage Operators. So why are some operators still reluctant to move their POS to the cloud? Some operators have concerns about data security in the cloud; others are worried about data ownership. Data ownership is a valid issue, and operators should undoubtedly be quizzing their cloud provider about their policies. F&B operators who choose the Simphony Cloud platform from Oracle Hospitality – hosted in the Oracle Cloud – can rest assured that the data is owned by the operator. If operators need access to their data, they request entry and gain access through the customer portal. Oracle customer data is subject to security controls, such as segregation from other customer data, which when taken altogether are designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of such data. Read more about data security in the cloud.

A large global food and beverage operator, speaking at the FSTEC conference in 2016, talked about the benefits of cloud technology. Among the many he cited, cost topped his list: Cloud technology,...

2017 NRAEF ProStart Invitational: Educating the Future of Food and Beverage Hospitality

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s 2017 National ProStart Invitational, representing Oracle Hospitality for the second year in a row. For those not familiar with the program, ProStart is a high school educational program that teaches students about the foodservice industry. From restaurant management to culinary techniques, ProStart provides real-life opportunities and builds practical skills that students can use when moving into a career in the foodservice industry. ProStart reaches nearly 140,000 students in more than 1,800 high schools across the United States, the Territory of Guam and at Department of Defense Education Activity schools in Europe and the Pacific. The National ProStart Invitational is the final event in a series of state and regional led competitions. Each state crowns its winning culinary and management teams and sends them to the Invitational to compete against other state teams. Nearly 400 students were sent to this year’s Invitational! After a weekend of intense competition in front of a panel of industry leading judges and a packed house of 1,000 educators, businesses, supporters, families and fans, five culinary and restaurant management teams were crowned the 1st through 5th place winners. The 10 winning teams walked away with college scholarships to further their careers in the foodservice industry. As a sponsor, Oracle Hospitality was provided a booth in the Business & Education Expo, and the privilege to watch the whole competition start to finish. Business & Education Expo The Business & Education Expo provides sponsors with a chance to meet the students and educate them about their business. Sponsors come from all facets of the industry- from manufacturers of kitchen utensils, to food distributors. Subsequently, the students get a chance to learn about different aspects of the foodservice industry. In the Oracle Hospitality booth, we featured two Oracle MICROS workstations: one running our Simphony point-of-sale system, and the other running our kitchen display system. The goal was to educate the students about restaurant technology, showing them the FOH (front of the house) and BOH (back of the house) and how they connect. Many of the students had not used a point-of-sale system before, much less knew how they worked. I showed them how to enter in orders and how to send them to the KDS. They seemed to get a kick out of the orders popping up on the KDS screen, one student exclaiming “Look, there it is! How cool!”. These students are the best of the best and the future of our industry. Teaching them about restaurant technology was a rewarding experience that I will never forget. The Competition Watching the culinary and management competitions is a memorable experience in its own. Observing the teamwork, focus, and drive from these young individuals is truly inspiring. The culinary teams create the most beautiful and intricate dishes, and prepare them in 60 minutes with only two butane burners...no electricity or running water! They are evaluated on their menu, degree of difficulty, food safety and sanitation, knife skills, cooking procedures, food costing, teamwork, taste, and presentation of their meal. The management teams develop innovative and imaginative restaurant concepts. The management proposals are evaluated on their concept, marketing strategies, menu, recipes and food costs, operations, and critical thinking skills. Oracle Hospitality’s own Brett Smith, Senior Director F&B Solutions Management, was one of the Management Competition judges! The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s ProStart program is helping to develop a strong workforce for the foodservice industry. The students who participate in this program are bright, talented, and the future leaders of the industry. Oracle Hospitality is proud to support the NRAEF and the future of the foodservice industry. To learn more about the NRAEF, please visit www.chooserestaurants.org.

Events

Join Oracle Hospitality in Chicago for the 2017 National Restaurant Association Show

Are you interested in learning about the best restaurant solutions and what the future holds for restaurant technology? Then join Oracle Hospitality in booth 5816 at the 2017 National Restaurant Association (NRA) show on May 20-23 in Chicago, IL. The NRA hosts 2,000+ exhibitors across the four-day event, showcasing products ranging from food items and kitchen tools to the newest technologies to run and manage restaurant operations. What will Oracle Hospitality showcase? This year we have created a fantastic booth display to showcase how our products create the frictionless hospitality experience that consumers are demanding today. Visit our Quick Service restaurant station to see the latest technologies for QSR operations, such as the Oracle MICROS Tablet 720 and Self Service Kiosk. TSR operators can enjoy our Table Service restaurant station and experience our full-bodied Simphony POS platform and Workstation 6 Family. Along with our QSR and TSR experience stations, we’ll feature an Innovation Station that’ll place the spotlight on Oracle Hospitality’s future advances in restaurant technology. Join our 10-minute briefings: We will also run 10-minute education sessions on our cornerstone topic: Restaurant 2025 – What will your restaurant look like in 2025? How will drones, robots, biometrics and more change how your restaurant delivers service and guest experience? The sessions will be held at our booth at quarter past each hour – 10:15 am to 4:15 pm, May 20-22, and 10:15 am to 2:15 pm on May 23rd. There is no need to register for these education sessions – just drop in. Make sure you stop by booth 5816 in the North Hall to discover how our solution set can revolutionize your business. We look forward to seeing you there! Subscribe to Oracle Communications and visit our website to learn more about our food & beverage solutions. Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Are you interested in learning about the best restaurant solutions and what the future holds for restaurant technology? Then join Oracle Hospitality in booth 5816 at the 2017 National...

Oracle Food and Beverage

Play to Win with Oracle Hospitality’s Sports & Entertainment Solutions

Managing a large, complex venue is no easy task. Nowadays sports fans are demanding a more personalized, relevant experience that starts before the game, continues throughout, and is ongoing even after attendees have departed. This can make the job of a venue operator challenging and will require additional tools in order to achieve exceptional fan experience. The Oracle Hospitality Simphony platform innovates beyond traditional point of sale, allowing stadiums to go the distance and meet the desires of their fans. Oracle Hospitality Sports and Entertainment solutions include: Knowing your fan’s spending habits with real-time data Inventory management Loyalty rewards programs Point-of-sale mobility Premium seating, suites, and club areas Third-party integrations such as in-seat ordering Security and reliability of the Oracle cloud And much more! Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment we have created a video which highlights everything that we can do to help venues and venue managers adapt and manage the ever-rising demands of consumers and fans: With Oracle Hospitality Sports & Entertainment solutions, venue managers lead from the front in going beyond traditional point of sales, transforming their venue with one platform and a multitude of innovative solutions, all backed up with the security and reliability of the Oracle Cloud. The ball is in your court! Subscribe to Oracle Communications and never miss out on what we’re up to or email us at oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com to set up a meeting with one of our representatives. Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS. Transform your venue with Oracle Hospitality Sports and Entertainment solutions today!

Managing a large, complex venue is no easy task. Nowadays sports fans are demanding a more personalized, relevant experience that starts before the game, continues throughout, and is ongoing...

Innovation

Restaurant Loyalty: Respect is Earned, Honesty is Appreciated, Trust is Gained and Loyalty is RETURNED

As long as you’re loyal to your customers with your value, experience, and food quality, your customers will stay loyal to you, driving repeat business. However, what good is customer loyalty if you can’t track or measure it? A loyalty program can deliver many benefits to a restaurant operator, but the key benefit is being able to deliver the frictionless and personalized services that consumers today demand. In our research report, Recipe for Engagement: Essential Ingredients for a Restaurant Loyalty Program, we found that rewards must be relevant, redeemable and reliable in order for guests to keep using your loyalty program. With Oracle Hospitality’s comprehensive cloud solution set, operators can initiate a loyalty program that provides the right offers to the right guests, and track its effectiveness with advanced reporting capabilities. Using our Gift and Loyalty cloud service, you are able to create and execute a flexible loyalty strategy that allows you to combine discounts, gather guest transactional and demographic data, and implement gift & payment cards, entirely through online administration. You can then tailor your programs to drive revenue. Combined with our Reporting and Analytics cloud service, you monitor the effectiveness of your active loyalty promotions, on or off site! The scope of Oracle Hospitality’s reporting capabilities can provide a complete range of performance perspectives, allowing you to delve into the condition of an individual restaurant location, to the full picture of how your enterprise if performing overall. Simphony Cloud POS is the platform that brings it all together: POS, kitchen, inventory, labor, reporting, loyalty, and much more. Gift & Loyalty and Reporting & Analytics seamlessly integrate with Simphony to ensure a reliable foundation for your loyalty program. Are you running an effective loyalty program? Read our report, Recipe for Engagement, and see if you are giving your customers what they want! Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Oracle Hospitality Fosters More Meaningful Guest Experiences with New Mobile POS and Robust Analytics

Today Oracle Hospitality announced the launch of two new innovations for food and beverage and hotel customers, at the annual Oracle Industry Connect event in Orlando, Florida. The new Oracle MICROS Tablet 720 provides new mobility capabilities for hospitality operators, while the launch of Oracle Hospitality Reporting and Analytics 9.0 provides food and beverage operations with a greatly enhanced solution for identifying revenue generation and cost saving opportunities. “Hospitality brands of all sizes are looking for new ways to accelerate growth while delivering a differentiated guest experience,” said Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Hospitality. “With today’s announcement we are providing our customers with a new ruggedized mobile POS capable of engaging guests in new ways across a variety of segments including hotels, restaurants, stadiums, casinos and cruise ships. Combined with the Oracle Hospitality Reporting and Analytics 9.0, we are arming food and beverage operators with new insights that can streamline the operations of their businesses.” Enhanced Revenue Opportunities and Guest Experience with Oracle MICROS Tablet 720 The new MICROS Tablet 720 is a durable mobile point-of-sale tablet designed to allow hospitality staff to engage consumers away from traditional terminals. The MICROS Tablet 720 combines the usability of traditional mobile devices with rugged features and extended battery life to meet the needs of unique hospitality experiences found at bars, casinos, cruise lines, hotels, restaurants and stadiums. “For the hospitality industry, guest experience and speed of service are everything. Operators need to be able to provide amazing guest service wherever the guest is,” said Jay Upchurch, vice president of strategy, Oracle Hospitality. “We engineered the new Oracle MICROS Tablet 720 to improve the way consumers and the hospitality industry engage with one another by providing a ruggedized device capable of serving customers in diverse environments and integrating with our existing Simphony and OPERA management suites for mobile access to real time data.” Increased Revenue and Cost Control Opportunities with Reporting and Analytics 9.0 The Oracle Hospitality Reporting and Analytics solution is used in over 50,000 restaurants, hotels, bars, coffee shops, stadiums, theme parks, and other hospitality operations around the world. Fully integrated with Oracle Hospitality POS systems, Reporting and Analytics provides managers with insight to sales, revenues, and other key performance indicators. The release of Reporting and Analytics 9.0 sees integration with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE). Oracle’s powerful analytics engine, OBIEE is renowned worldwide for its capability to provide visual reports that enable industry leaders to create a data-driven culture. “With increasing competition, food and beverage operators need to be able to analyze their data and identify ways of cutting costs and increasing revenues,” said Upchurch. “Reporting and Analytics is an integral part of our Simphony Cloud point of sale solution, which means that our customers are now receiving additional value with a powerful analytics system as part of their cloud POS service for no additional cost.” “The integration of Oracle Business Intelligence with Reporting and Analytics is also another example of how the Oracle acquisition of MICROS is bringing benefits to our customers, as Oracle investment and technology are brought together with MICROS domain expertise.” About Oracle Hospitality: Oracle Hospitality brings 35 years of experience in providing technology solutions to food and beverage operators. We provide hardware, software, and services that allow our customers to deliver exceptional guest experiences while maximizing profitability. Our solutions include integrated point-of-sale, loyalty, reporting and analytics, inventory and labor management, all delivered from the cloud to lower IT cost and maximize business agility. For more information about Oracle Hospitality, please visit www.Oracle.com/Hospitality

Innovation

Oracle Hotel 2025 and Oracle Restaurant 2025 Reports Audit Consumer Attitudes on Emerging Technologies and Their Impact on Future Hospitality Experiences

Oracle Hospitality Research Identifies the Future of IoT, Virtual Reality and Wearables in the Guest Experience Oracle Industry Connect, Orlando, FL.—Mar 22, 2017 Today Oracle announced the findings of two research initiatives aimed at identifying consumer attitudes to new technologies and how their implementation will shape consumer behavior in the years to come. Insights from both the Oracle Hotel 2025 and Oracle Restaurant 2025 highlight that consumers are most willing to engage brands with new technology if they feel that they are in control of their experience and that hospitality operators should be wary of implementing automation without personal service. “Given the heritage of service throughout the Hospitality industry, we’re not surprised that guests want a continued human connection with their food and beverage and hotel brands of choice, despite the emergence of new technologies,” said Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager Oracle Hospitality. “Our hotel and restaurant management platforms OPERA and Simphony will continue to be enabling investments given their ability to provide a singular view of how guests engage and interact.” The Hotel 2025 and Restaurant 2025 reports audited 250 restaurant operators, 150 hotel operators and 702 consumers in February 2017 on their reactions to technology’s role in the guest experience over the next 8 years. Recognition and Personalization Will be a Driver for Future Technologies 33 percent of restaurant and 72 percent of hotel operators say that guest recognition via facial biometrics will be in use within the next five years. 31 percent of restaurant guests and 41 percent of hotel guests will be more likely to visit an establishment with greater frequency if they are recognized by a server or associate without having to give their name or show a loyalty card. Both restaurant (49 percent) and hotel (62 percent) guests agree that having this recognition would improve their experience. 28 percent of restaurant customers would visit more often and 45 percent said it would improve their experience if service was faster because they were recognized. 42 percent of restaurant guests find suggestions based on health invasive and 68 percent find suggestions based on digital footprint invasive. 47% of hotel guests agree that using artificial intelligence to suggest items based on past purchases would improve their experience. 72% of hotel operators agree that AI-based systems that leverage guest preferences and buying history to make targeted dining recommendations will be mainstream by 2025. Consumers are Warming to Voice-Activated Experiences 36 percent of restaurant guests say ordering through a virtual assistant would improve experience and 17 percent would visit more often, along with 50 percent and 33 percent of hotel guests respectively. 59 percent of hotel guests believe controlling their room via a voice-activated device would enhance the guest experience and operators agree. Hotel operators polled indicated that managing room control and ambiance management (78 percent) via voice activation would be widespread by 2025. Hotel operators also believed that ordering room or hotel services (70 percent) via voice activation would be adopted by 2025. Operators are keen on gathering customer feedback by voice; 61 percent of restaurant operators and 68 percent of hotels said this will be in use in the next 5 years. Virtual Reality will Enhance the Booking and on-Property Experience in Hotels Consumers also indicated that virtual reality tours of hotel properties (66 percent) and virtual reality lounges for entertainment (44 percent) would improve the guest experience. Hotel operators also believe virtual reality technology will be widespread by 2025 with a variety of use cases: staff training (68 percent), guest entertainment on property (64 percent), and previewing meeting rooms (63 percent). Robots Won’t be Replacing Hospitality Staff Anytime Soon 50 percent of restaurant guests said being served by a robot would not improve the guest experience and 40 percent would visit less. 37 percent of hotel guests said being served by a robot would not improve the guest experience and 22 percent would visit less. 64 percent of restaurant and 58 percent of hotel operators say that the use of robots for cleaning is appealing. Operators Begin To Consider Investment in Wearable Technology 51 percent of restaurants and 63 percent of hotels say staff activity monitoring via wearable device will be in use in the next 5 years. 59 percent of restaurants and 78 percent of hotels say that staff checking into work and onto workstations via wearable device will be in use in the next 5 years.

Mobility

The Oracle MICROS Tablet 720: Mobility Designed for the Hospitality Industry

By: John Nicewick, Senior Director of Hardware, Oracle Hospitality March 21st – Oracle announced today the launch of our newest innovation – the Oracle MICROS Tablet 720. We’re excited about all its new features, but mostly about its relevance to you: This device has been designed from the ground up with the hospitality mission at its core. Hospitality environments provide a unique set of challenges for every piece of equipment and technology. From kitchen grease to elevated temperatures to relentless use, such equipment takes quite a lot of punishment – and needs to be built to endure it. No one knows this better than Oracle Hospitality. Our fixed point-of-sale terminals have been standing up to this punishment for decades. I’ve seen our POS churn out orders whilst baking outdoors in the sun at seafront restaurants and freezing in specially themed ice bars across the globe. The Oracle MICROS Tablet 720 has been designed with that heritage and pedigree. But the true value of a tablet built for hospitality is about so much more than ruggedness. It’s about intuitive design that understands and answers all your precise needs. We know hospitality operators need device batteries that will last at least the length of a standard shift. Our new device couples extended battery life with the ability to hot swap batteries, ensuring minimum downtime and disruption. Recognizing operators need to tightly control budgets, we created our tablets with batteries that can be easily removed and charged – meaning there is no need to double up on devices. Batteries can be charged until ready and then hot swapped into the device. We appreciate that when operators have invested in a device they need to maximize its use. The Oracle MICROS 720 Tablet can do so much more than take orders. It can be used for: management reporting, increasing customer engagement, ordering and stock taking, and RFID reading or bar code scanning. Whatever your requirement, this device can help. We heard our customers when they told us ease of use was of paramount importance. This device has been designed to seamlessly integrate with the Oracle Hospitality Software Suite providing a solution that’s simple and intuitive to use. The Oracle MICROS 720 Tablet is the tablet for hospitality. To find out more, watch the video. For further insights on what operators are telling us about their tablet experiences and requirements, download our report: Tablets: Considerations for the Hospitality Industry.

Data and Analytics

Oracle Hospitality Launches Enhanced Reporting and Analytics Service for Food and Beverage Operators

We’re announcing fantastic news for the food and beverage industry today: the launch of Oracle Hospitality Reporting and Analytics 9.0. Join our webcast on April 5th and find out more: 11am ET and 7pm ET. This latest version of Reporting and Analytics brings a whole number of fantastic benefits to food and beverage operators: Reporting and Analytics 9.0 has been integrated with Oracle Business Intelligence. OBI is Oracle’s industrial-strength analytics engine, renowned worldwide for its capability to provide visual reports that enable industry leaders to create a data-driven culture. OBI brings more graphics, dynamic pivot tables, and drill-downs to Reporting and Analytics. You can spot a missed sales target and drill down to find out which locations are not performing. You can use dynamic pivot tables to compare locations over time and see which stores might need attention. And you can view data in graphs, pie-charts, and other formats so that you see instantly where you might have addressable issues. You can work out what’s happening but also WHY it’s happening. By giving executives and managers access to the detail in your data, they can understand why a particular issue has occurred and respond to what they’re seeing. If sales are slightly disappointing in your new location, operations directors can compare that store to the one at the other side of the city to establish why this is happening. This then allows marketing to ramp up their activity if needed, or the store manager can provide guidance if one or two employees require some extra training. The result for you: identify cost-cutting and revenue generating opportunities. As margins get tighter in food and beverage, making sure that your locations are meeting their targets and your employees are performing is essential. With Reporting and Analytics 9.0, executives, directors, and store managers have access to the detail they need to adjust and fine-tune their operations to close up the gaps. Reporting and Analytics 9.0 comes free of charge with Simphony Cloud. If you’re using our Simphony Cloud point-of-sale platform, the Reporting and Analytics service, with all of this additional functionality, comes at no extra cost to you and your business. When Oracle acquired MICROS, we knew it would bring together the power of Oracle technology with the deep hospitality domain expertise of MICROS. The release of Reporting and Analytics 9.0 is a perfect example of how this is benefitting our customers, as we bring better data analysis capability to help them improve guest experience, cut IT costs and complexity, and drive disruptive innovation. Join our webcast on April 5th and find out more: 11am ET and 7pm ET. Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Margaritas Mexican Restaurant: Accelerating Kitchen Efficiency with Oracle Kitchen Display Systems

I had the pleasure of traveling to Massachusetts with a film crew to produce a video with long-time Oracle Hospitality customer, Margaritas. Margaritas is a Mexican table service restaurant that features unique, fresh-made food inspired by Mexican culture. Currently Margaritas has 27 locations spanning the United States Northeast: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, Connecticut, and New Jersey. What struck me about the Margaritas family, is that it is much more than just a restaurant enterprise. They are cultural ambassadors for Mexico and are heavily involved in bringing Mexican culture to the local community and they do this in a variety of ways. Firstly, no two Margaritas locations are identical since each location’s interior is designed by hand and features art that is personally selected and imported from Mexico. The vibrant colors, exquisite designs, and fascinating décor (not to mention the fantastic food!) in each restaurant truly make you feel like you are dining south of the American border. Margaritas also educates middle and high school students about Mexican culture and art through field trips to their restaurants. The trips include guided tours of the restaurant, cooking demonstrations, and even a video presentation about Mexican culture that highlights artisans, markets, street scenes, and mariachi bands. Teachers are provided with a study guide for a follow up classroom discussion. In addition, Margaritas offers a Visiting Artist Series. The restaurants host Mexican artists who work in a variety of mediums, creating art from scratch. The artists also give presentations on their work and Mexican culture only in both the restaurants as well as local schools. Our video focuses on Margaritas’ use of Oracle Hospitality Kitchen Display Systems. The KDS system has helped Margaritas to streamline kitchen operations through determining where there are strains in the line for each location. The line is then able to be re-worked to elevate efficiency. This has been especially useful when opening up new locations since each location is different and needs a solution that can be customized to that location’s specific needs. Click here to watch the full video! Interested in learning about what Oracle Hospitality KDS can do for your business? Send us an email at oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com! Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

I had the pleasure of traveling to Massachusetts with a film crew to produce a video with long-time Oracle Hospitality customer, Margaritas. Margaritas is a Mexican table service restaurant that...

Kinka Japanese: Bringing Japanese Cuisine to Canada

Recently I had the pleasure of developing and producing an Oracle Hospitality customer success video with restaurant group, Kinka Family. Kinka owns and operates a diverse portfolio of Japanese restaurants throughout Canada and Japan. Their portfolio features five different restaurant concepts: a Japanese noodle fast-casual concept, a coffee shop, a pub-style restaurant, a fine-dining full-service restaurant, and a tapas-style eatery. The video we produced showcases two Kinka brands: Kinka Izakaya and Kinton Ramen. The film crew and I had the pleasure of dining at both restaurants during the shoot. For lunch, we ate at Kinton Ramen, Kinka’s fast-casual Japanese noodle-style restaurant where guests create their own ramen dishes. Customers select their desired flavors, noodle style and toppings, and the result is a wonderful bowl of ramen noodle soup made with the highest quality ingredients. We also had dinner at Kinka Izakaya, an izakaya-style restaurant, which is essentially a Japanese pub. The menu features a variety of traditional and modern Japanese specialties that are made for sharing. The restaurant also offers a diverse collection of premium Japanese sake, craft beers and cocktails. The fantastic food coupled with the friendly and energetic staff make dining at Kinka Izakaya a memorable experience. The Kinka Family has partnered with Oracle Hospitality to implement our flagship food and beverage product, Simphony Cloud point of sale. This product will help Kinka as they execute their rapid expansion plans and provide them with many operational advantages, including: Advanced reporting that will allow Kinka to monitor business in each location without having to be physically on site Insight into customer demographics for each location that will enable building of targeted marketing and loyalty campaigns Ability to grow their enterprise rapidly and efficiently Click here to watch the full video. Interested in learning about what Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud could do for your business? Send us an email at oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com and visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Recently I had the pleasure of developing and producing an Oracle Hospitality customer success video with restaurant group, Kinka Family. Kinka owns and operates a diverse portfolio of...

Enhancing the Fan Experience with Oracle Hospitality and VenueNext

For stadium operators in the never-ending search for better ways to engage fans, their focus is increasingly turning to the almighty smartphone. It’s arguably the most indispensable item carried by anyone, used for everything from depositing checks to hailing rides to taking selfies. Yet many teams still haven’t unleashed the full potential of the phone once brought into the confines of their venues. The result? Countless opportunities to enhance the fan experience, increase loyalty – and, most importantly, boost sales – get benched. At a time when tech-savvy millennials comprise the core of fan constituencies, it’s imperative for venue operators to pair point-of-sale platforms with mobile app technology. Oracle Hospitality POS solutions are uniquely engineered to evolve, embracing third-party innovations and seamlessly integrating with them for unparalleled performance. For instance, the Oracle Simphony platform is integral in allowing venues to maximize the benefits of VenueNext’s connected venue technology, which includes smartphone apps for game day. With the power of VenueNext and Oracle, the apps transform phones into stadium remote controls, enabling fans to access a host of services, including food, drink and merchandise delivery to their seats and enhancing loyalty programs to reap more rewards. The benefits are immediate for fans and operators: Increase food and merchandise sales at events through mobile ordering Generate new revenue streams Improve the in-venue (or in-stadium) experience for both casual fans and season ticket holders Transform any venue into a fully integrated, connected facility, enhancing fan engagement and increasing opportunities to gain greater knowledge about visitors and their preferences “In every other aspect of their lives, fans now have 24/7, Wi-Fi connectivity to enrich whatever they do,” said Michael Lambert, AVP of Oracle Hospitality Sports and Entertainment. “Why should they be isolated when they come to stadiums? With the combined power of Oracle POS and VenueNext, we can deliver fans a better game experience and, just as importantly, gain incredible insights about them.” Taking the live experience to a new level Food and beverage continues to play a significant role in the fan experience, and leveraging the full capabilities of the Simphony POS platform can diminish the pain points and drawbacks of attending live events – primarily long lines that lead to interminable waits (and worse, missing key plays). By capitalizing on POS integration, teams are now able to identify and connect with fans in new innovative ways that directly enhance the individual’s fan experience. Pairing POS and mobile also is a proven means to boost food and beverage sales, likely yielding a greater return on investment than spending exorbitantly on video boards or pre-game entertainment. Such conclusions were among the key discoveries of the just-released report, The Fan Experience: Changing the Game with Food and Beverage. The global study – published jointly by Oracle and Turnkey Intelligence, an industry-leading market research provider – surveyed more than 3,500 sports fans in eight countries: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. Key findings included: More than 40% of sports fans worldwide reported abandoning concession lines in the past 12 months – without making a purchase – because of excessive waiting. American fans, on average, said they would spend an additional $20 for food and beverage if wait times were cut in half – representing a 43% increase in typical expenditure (per party, per game). Greater fan engagement = greater fan spending Such opportunities already have been realized by venues that deployed the integrated technologies of Oracle and VenueNext. Oracle POS solutions provide control and improve efficiencies of vital stadium operations, and they offer reporting and analytics capabilities to shape tomorrow’s business decisions. A foundational POS system enables integration with venue technology providers such as VenueNext, whose platform and accompanying apps help fans get the most out of their stadium experience and venue owners improve their business. Among the most popular uses of VenueNext’s game day apps is in-seat ordering: It’s practically nirvana for fans because it allows them to order from their seats, meaning they won’t miss a single play or have to wait in snaking lines. VenueNext integration with Oracle POS enables content management and control systems to provide real-time updates of available menu items at each stand – and manage expectations by updating wait times. If fans prefer to pick up their order, the app can serve as a traffic controller and route them to an express pickup line, where the POS promptly processes and records the transaction. The latter activity enables operators to simultaneously run loyalty initiatives through the POS as well. VenueNext, whose client portfolio now includes NBA, NFL and MLB franchises, has demonstrated the ROI on its technology platform: In its first season of use, an NFL client attributed a $2 million revenue increase to app-driven food, beverage, merchandise, parking and sponsorship sales. It’s a win for fans and operators alike From shorter concession lines to incremental revenue gains achieved by involving more fans (who otherwise would have skipped making purchases), multi-functional venue apps offer operators a bevy of benefits. But, arguably, the most important is their ability to nurture relationships with fans for the long term. For stadiums enhanced with Oracle and VenueNext, fans are no longer anonymous paper-ticket holders; they emerge as unique individuals whom operators can court with promotions and services tailored to their preferences and behaviors (captured via POS). Through a new currency ecosystem based on integrating ticketing, loyalty and point of sale, season ticket holders can trade in tickets that they won’t use for “currency” to purchase perks – including seat upgrades, food and beverage, exclusive merchandise or access to special events. The exchange comes at no loss to the team, which can re-sell the tickets. But it keeps fans feeling as if they are “special” and their discretionary dollars circulating in the stadium economy. This type of ecosystem requires a truly connected venue and is made possible through the integration of the Oracle Simphony and VenueNext platforms working together. “Connecting the point-of-sale system directly to the guest’s mobile phone is a key enabler of this whole new experience,” said VenueNext CEO & Founder John Paul. “And together with Oracle, that’s one of the most important innovations we deliver — allowing venues to skip out on buying a lot of new expensive hardware and customers to enjoy seamless, secure and easy ways to pay at the venue.” ### Learn more about Oracle Hospitality Sports and Entertainment and Simphony Point of Sale System on our website, as well as What Is POS thought leadership!

NRAEF: Investing in the Future of the Restaurant Industry

Every year 350 high school students from across the United States come together to put their culinary and management skills to the test, with the hope of winning a scholarship to one of the nation’s top hospitality universities. The National ProStart Invitational by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation is the finale in a series of state competitions hosted by the local state restaurant associations. The winning culinary and management teams from each state are sent to the Invitational, where they must impress judges from a variety of industry corporations, colleges, and universities, with the skills they have learned from the ProStart program. This year Oracle Hospitality was honored to not only have a team member (Brett Smith, Senior Director, F&B Solutions Management) sit on the panel of judges at the competition, but also to sponsor a co-written report with the NRAEF. In our report, A Look Inside the National ProStart Invitational, we look at the key trends that were seen in the restaurant proposals that the students submitted for the competition. These trends cover all aspects of the restaurant business – from culinary trends to marketing tactics, and even technology. One of the keys to succeeding in this industry is to stay on top of changing technology requirements and evolving customer needs. These ProStart students are the future of our industry. They are the restaurant owners and managers of tomorrow, so it is important to anticipate and understand what new trends and ideas they will bring with them. Here is a look at some of the trends: Standout ingredients included forbidden black rice, quinoa and game meats More than half of menus included vegetarian or gluten free dietary options The majority of the proposed restaurant concepts were fast-casual Many concepts focused on farm-to-table cuisine incorporating locally sourced ingredients See all of the trends by reading the full report here, and check out what the ProStart Invitational looks like in our infographic here.

Loss Prevention in Restaurants: The Importance of Staff Training

Staff training can cover a variety of areas from health & safety, to food preparation, and recipe creation. Many of these occur on a regular basis due to policy changes, new government regulations and the ever-changing work environment. But what about shrink prevention training? One of the main findings in our new Cost Control in Food & Beverage Report was that 43% of restaurants train staff about shrink prevention more than once a year. Casual dining restaurants lead the way with 68% of all operators carrying out this training once a year or more. What’s concerning is that 55% of restaurants train staff on shrink prevention less than once a year or never at all. This can result in significant financial loss and product loss for these restaurants. Through implementing an integrated loss-prevention solution like our XBRi Loss Prevention Cloud Service, operators appear vigilant in the face of their employees which can often discourage any misdeeds that could otherwise occur. This integrated system can further benefit operators as managers are able to look at, and understand business performance and financials allowing the identification of any potential issues. It is recommended that managers train themselves to gain a comprehensive understanding of these systems so that they can quickly identify variances and proactively correct them. If these considerations are taken into account and acted upon, valuable time and money can be saved, further generating revenue for restaurants. To learn more about our loss prevention solution, send us an email at oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com.

Research Report: Cost Control in Food & Beverage: How Technology Can Help Maximize Profits

By: Rebecca Adlington, Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality has teamed up with Technomic to survey more than 200 independent operators and chains to get to the root of many profitability problems in modern food and beverage operations; proper cost control. We have compiled the survey responses in our latest report, Cost Control in Food & Beverage: How Technology Can Help Maximize Profits. Our report finds that labor and inventory costs, on average, combine to account for more than 50% of a restaurant’s revenues. This striking statistic prompts an important question - if these areas have such a large magnitude of impact on a restaurant’s bottom line, what is being done to prioritize their control, and more importantly, what can be done to reduce these costs? The research findings are organized around 3 key areas: labor, inventory, and loss prevention, with each examined respectively to provide clear insight into their associated dilemmas. Other insights from the paper quantify the effect of poor cost management, and look at detrimental activities such as menu pricing increases, over portioning and food waste. While the challenges of controlling costs are undeniably many, the research supports an overwhelming resolution: restaurants must gain an understanding of cost management in the context of their operation, consider systematic remedies to make management more efficient (especially in the form of technology) and ultimately, gain better control. To download a copy of the report today, click here, and if you would like to hear further analysis from the Oracle Hospitality team, don’t forget to sign up for one of our upcoming webinars on August 30th at 11am ET and 7pm ET, where we will discuss the findings in more detail and explore how they relate to you.

Two-thirds of restaurant operators raise menu prices to offset staff and inventory costs - Labor and inventory account for more than 50% of revenue spending

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. – June 27, 2016 – Two-thirds of restaurant operators say they are having to increase menu prices to offset rising staff and inventory costs, according to Oracle’s new study, Cost Control in Food & Beverage. Thirty-eight (38%) percent say they will be raising prices in the next six months. Bogged down in labor and inventory Labor and inventory are the two biggest costs on nearly every food and beverage operator’s budget. Restaurant operators report they spend more than 50% of their revenues in these two areas. While respondents resoundingly rank recruitment, training and retention as top priorities when it comes to staff, managers are clearly spending much of their time mired in administration: 63% change worker schedules prior to posting them and 49% do so after posting. The time and effort spent on scheduling is often falling short; 44% of respondents reported that understaffing is an issue for their business, which can have a negative impact on the dining experience for guests. Similarly, one third (32%) of restaurant operators spend three hours or more managing stock each week even though their top priorities for inventory lie in meal quality and kitchen staff empowerment. 68% of respondents report food consistency and quality is their top inventory concern. Brett Smith, Senior Director in Food & Beverage Solutions at Oracle Hospitality says: “Increasing prices to offset expenses is unsustainable in the long term. Customers want convenience and quality at the right price and will look elsewhere if they feel a food and beverage provider is not delivering on that expectation. Gaining cost and time-efficiencies in labor and inventory management is crucial to keeping menu prices in-check, and new cloud- based platforms that automate many of these processes are making this possible.” Some restaurant operators are addressing their labor management issues by allowing staff to manage their own schedules using their personal mobile devices. Half of the respondents plan to pursue this strategy, and among those, 51% plan to do so in the next six months. A wasted opportunity Over-portioning and food waste are also major contributors to cost inefficiencies, standing out as the two biggest factors for product loss among the businesses surveyed. Thirty-two (32%) percent of restaurant operators cite over-portioning as the biggest culprit and 30% cite waste. Despite these concerns, 50% of respondents admit they do not track prepared waste. Fewer than half use modern forecasting systems designed to deliver more accurate ordering and reduced waste, in addition to automated stock management. Smith added: “Failing to track prepared waste is akin to ignoring the fact that money is falling out of your wallet, and it’s a surprise that restaurants of all types are not doing more to address the issue. Encouragingly, the majority of those who do track waste have a system in place that is integrated with their point-of-sale. This is the easiest way to monitor how much money they are hemorrhaging so they can address the problem more proactively.” Scott Drago, Director of Operations, at Blue on Highland said: “In order to have multiple locations, you need to have reporting consistency and accuracy. Theft, over portioning, under portioning, usage variance, labor...these are all things that must be managed. One of the most important things in this business is food cost- you need to manage it in order to make your bottom line; from the second the customer walks in the door, you need to control the process behind how things are brought to the table. Having a user friendly and integrated reporting solution that could track these, was very important to us and is why we chose Oracle Hospitality." Ends Additional Information For the research, Oracle surveyed senior managers from more than 200 independent food & beverage operators and chains in the US, UK and Australia to find out how they manage labor, inventory and loss prevention and what their pain points are. To learn more about Oracle Hospitality solutions, follow us on Twitter @oraclehosp and on Facebook at facebook.com/oraclehospitality. About Oracle Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), visit oracle.com. Trademarks Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Contact Info Sarah Heinz CMG +44 (0) 20 7067 0424 sheinz@cmgrp.com Katie Barron Oracle +1.202.904.1138 katie.barron@oracle.com

The Power of Cloud: What Every Food and Beverage Executive Needs to Know

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Cloud is here! Discover how to streamline your business operations and optimize your enterprise with our brand new "Power of Cloud" briefing document. The most successful food and beverage enterprises are capable of performing many tasks better than their competitors: opening new stores and launching new concepts quickly; delivering consistency to the consumer by knowing exactly what they want; measuring performance across an entire enterprise and keeping costs to a minimum – the list is endless. The power of the cloud lies in its ability to help your enterprise expand at a faster rate, with all the integrated functionality needed for real-time business intelligence when you need it, so data-driven decision-making has never been easier. Why is cloud so powerful? Cloud allows you to cut IT costs, which means money can be reallocated elsewhere, allowing you to focus on the important things like opening more locations, refurbishing existing properties, branding, marketing and staff training…whatever makes your business more competitive. Cloud helps cut IT complexity, which means you can open new outlets faster, update systems at the click of a button without lengthy and expensive roll-out programs, and get access to actionable performance data quickly and easily. Cloud gives you greater speed and agility – whether that means introducing new menus and promotions within days instead of months, or being able to respond to customer concerns (for example: if they are waiting too long to pay their check at the end of a meal). In the "Power of Cloud" briefing document, discover everything you need to know about how to compete effectively in the food and beverage industry, how cloud technology can help you, why it’s important, and how to move your enterprise to the cloud. A massive 74% of companies say that cloud has provided their organization with a competitive advantage. Download the briefing document now and begin your journey to the cloud! Want to learn more? We love to hear from you! Email us at oraclehosp_ww@oracle.com.

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Cloud is here! Discover how to streamline your business operations and optimize your enterprise with our brand new "Power of...

Cloud Simphony: Delivering Speed and Agility for Competitive Advantage

By: Samantha Renner, Marketing Specialist The hospitality landscape is continuously changing to meet the requirements of today’s potential consumers. It is no longer enough to serve the best menu in town or feature the most exotic cuisine. Savvy restaurant-goers today demand an exceptional experience every time: an aggregation of outstanding food, personalized, consistent, and convenient brand interaction, as well as seamless service and superior staff synergy. Of course, this is a considerable feat for any food and beverage operation – and an essential one if a business is to thrive in today’s competitive hospitality milieu. Fortunately, there are tools to support these efforts and to provide a multitude of advantages for success. Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud Service is the ultimate restaurant technology solution, giving food and beverage operators the speed and agility they need to deliver an exceptional guest experience while increasing operational efficiency. So much more than a point-of-sale solution, it gives businesses a true competitive advantage even when the industry is evolving. Want to learn more? Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

Announcing the Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 Family

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality is excited to present the Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 Family, a line of sleek engagement terminals designed to provide hospitality professionals with the ultimate flexibility to deliver an enhanced, modernized guest and user experience. The terminals have been developed to optimize efficiency and maintain structural and operational integrity, allowing hospitality managers to focus their time on other important aspects of their enterprise, such as innovation and development. The key benefits include: Provides optimum reliability so your enterprise can withstand high demand Delivers enhanced guest and user experiences Offers a sleek, clean design to complement any busy hospitality environment Ensures long lifecycle for maximum return on investment Enables simple installation, to save valuable time and money The terminal is available in three different configurations: the workstation 610, 620 and 650. The device family offers a range of processing power and memory, allowing you to choose the right terminal for your operation. The robust design also means the workstations can withstand the most demanding environments, making them a long-lasting and reliable asset. To find out more check out the Workstation 6 Family Brochure here. Have questions? We love to hear from you! Email us at OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com.

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality is excited to present the Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 Family, a line of sleek engagement terminals designed to...

Grupo Fynso: A Japanese Cuisine Dream Supported by the Oracle Team

Felipe Ytuarte and his wife started their journey as restaurateurs when they were just young students. Entering the industry as a dishwasher, Felipe climbed through the various positions within the Japanese restaurant at which he was working, gaining the valuable experience that he would need to catapult him into the challenging world of restaurant entrepreneurship. “It was our dream to take the concept of Japanese cuisine to the fast food restaurants inside Mexico’s shopping malls,” Felipe commented in Oracle Hospitality’s recent video interview with him. The couple achieved their dream of developing Grupo Fynso restaurant group and launched fast-food brand concepts Sushi Tai and Itacate, as well as table-service restaurant Sato in Leon. Owning and managing multiple business operations can be a challenge, which is why Felipe chose the fully integrated Oracle Hospitality solution and point-of-sale system. According to Felipe, Grupo Fynso has leveraged the Oracle technology platform to benefit in the following ways: The ability to view real-time actionable analytics on any mobile device has expedited strategic business decision making. The cloud-enabled guest loyalty system has increased customer trend visibility and enhanced guest experience. Reduction in food costs by increased inventory visibility and in-depth understanding of daily consumption. Increased speed of service and reduced wait times in their fast food concepts. Want to learn more? Check out the full video interview below:

Oracle Hospitality Voted Chef’s Choice for Best EPOS Supplier in the UK

By: Rebecca Foster, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality At Oracle Hospitality, we are celebrating the fantastic news of our recent win as Best EPOS Supplier in the Chef’s Choice Awards 2016. The award, which was announced in the January 2016 edition of the popular UK publication, Restaurant Magazine, was voted for by hundreds of chefs from across the British food and beverage sector. The accolade is another monumental moment for Oracle Hospitality and a true testament to our dedication to providing innovative POS solutions to the evolving industry. It is through this continual commitment that we strive to deliver fully integrated products, which hold the potential to be customized to fit individual requirements whilst accelerating business growth, streamlining operations, elevating loyalty and even enhancing profits – it’s hardly any wonder that we are the number one choice for chef’s when choosing EPOS systems in the UK. If you’d like to find out more about our best-of-breed solutions and how they could be tailored to your hospitality enterprise, visit the Oracle Hospitality website.

Kentucky Restaurant Association Day at the Races

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Join Oracle Hospitality for an expo like no other at Churchill Downs Racetrack (Home of the Kentucky Derby) on November 19, 2015. We look forward to seeing you all at the KRA Day at the Races to discuss our latest technology offerings and enjoy an exciting afternoon watching the races. Oracle Hospitality specializes in providing restaurant owners, managers, and chefs with the technology to accelerate innovation, transform their enterprise and satisfy customers with complete and integrated solutions. At this year’s show we are excited to be showcasing: Oracle Hospitality Simphony- Simphony, a premier cloud food and beverage management platform, offers the latest functionality for customer engagement and managing operations, while reducing IT costs. Oracle Hospitality RES 3700 - RES provides the functionality needed by nearly any type of F&B establishment through configurations specific to the type of operation. With store-based or hosted applications RES can help to manage inventory, staff, cash, and much more. Hardware - Our complete hardware offering features sleek and flexible workstations and tablets, including the Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 and the Oracle MICROS Tablet E-Series, that offer versatility combined with durability and robust processing power. Oracle Hospitality Kitchen Display Systems – Oracle Hospitality’s KDS Systems provide highly visible, real-time information to manage and control kitchen efficiency, driving customer satisfaction. Stop by booth 25 to see how Oracle Hospitality can help you!

Digest the Latest Hospitality Trends at the Bakery & Restaurant Show in San Juan

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality is all set to attend the Bakery & Restaurant Show in San Juan, Puerto Rico, taking place October 10-11 this weekend. With 5,000 visitors across the two days, this event is a fantastic opportunity to network with industry experts and learn how you can use technology to run a successful and profitable food and beverage enterprise. We will be showcasing our latest advancements in hospitality technology, including: The latest in point-of-sale technology, including Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud Service Efficiency-delivering kitchen management systems that are fully integrated with Oracle POS, enabling food service quality and consistency Back of house reporting and analytics software, providing real-time actionable data via mobile app for enhanced business decisions Sleek and flexible workstations and tablets including the Oracle MICROS Workstation 6, and the Oracle MICROS Tablet R-Series and E-Series – hardware offering versatility and convertibility from fixed to mobile, combined with durability and robust processing power Stop by stands 506, 507 and 426 to meet the Oracle Hospitality team and learn how our solutions can help streamline business operations, increase customer loyalty, and enhance the guest experience. We are looking forward to seeing you all there!

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality is all set to attend the Bakery & Restaurant Show in San Juan, Puerto Rico, taking place October 10-11 this...

The EMV Switch in the USA: Oracle’s Role and What You Need to Consider

In parts one and two of our three part blog series on the EMV switch in the United States, we addressed what it is and what it means for your business, as well as Oracle’s approach and what you can expect from our partners. In this final installment, we will be addressing the status of our partner integration, what you need to consider as you prepare for this transition, and how Oracle can help best serve you with the EMV payment transition. Oracle’s Partner Integration Status As we discussed in our last EMV article, EMV ready solutions are currently available for Oracle Hospitality products deployed in all markets globally. Through our total payments solution with Elavon, we are now positioned to meet the needs of the U.S. market. Although similar total payments solutions are not currently available with other partners today, (Merchant Link, Shift 4, First Data, Heartland, Vantiv and others), a solution with Merchant Link is actively in the development pipeline with readiness for production deployments slated for 2016. For more specific information concerning Merchant Link timelines, businesses will need to discuss with Merchant Link. In addition, Oracle Hospitality is still in the process of finalizing its new “Payments Partner Program”. Once this has been finalized we fully expect to begin moving forward with these partners. What You Need to Consider Since it is important to keep payment devices separate from the POS system, external payment devices are necessary for the switch to EMV. Our payment partners decide on which devices will be supported by their solution as well as when these devices will be available. Customers will need to purchase these devices from our partners and should not purchase from third party sources the manufacturers themselves. Oracle will not be selling, installing, or directly supporting these devices. Each workstation needs an individual payment terminal device. Devices cannot be shared across terminals. Oracle is Here for You We understand that the shift to EMV can be difficult, but we are here help! Start taking the steps to make the transition today, so you and your business will be prepared as the October 1st liability shift commences. Have questions? Email us at OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com or call us 8AM-5PM EST at (866)287-4736.

Oracle Hospitality at Restaurant Show, 2015

Oracle Hospitality is gearing up for The Restaurant Show, the UK’s biggest annual food and beverage trade show event. From October 5-7, we will be showcasing solutions for running a successful and profitable food service business. This year we are excited to share our latest and great technology solutions with Restaurant Show attendees: The latest in point-of-sale, kitchen management, and reporting solutions: Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud Service is designed to accelerate the profitability and efficiency of any food service business, while increasing speed of deployment and decreasing the cost and complexity of IT maintenance with technology in the cloud. Sleek tablets and workstations: The Oracle MICROS Workstation 6, the newest member of our family of engagement devices and traditional terminals; and the Oracle MICROS Tablet E-Series and Oracle MICROS Tablet R-Series family of ruggedized and versatile handheld tablets that are fully mobile, but also conveniently convert to stationary POS terminals. The power of cloud technology: Cut the cost of IT spend so funds can be reallocated elsewhere; simplify the complexity of IT for faster deployment of systems; experience acceleration in opening new locations, addressing customer concerns, and harmonizing business-wide technology and menus across an enterprise. We’ll be showcasing our range of food and beverage hardware, software and solutions at The Restaurant Show next week. Stop by stand GG10 to meet Oracle Hospitality and learn how our solutions can benefit your F&B operation, and follow us on Twitter @OracleHosp for insights on the products we’ll be featuring at the show!

Stay on Top of the Game: Join Oracle Hospitality at Stadia & Arena 2015

By: Jolene Tay, Marketing Specialist, Oracle Hospitality, JAPAC We are all familiar with the long lines at concession stands when attending an event at a stadium or arena. We spend hundreds of dollars to attend a concert or a football match, only to spend a good portion of the time waiting in line to purchase food and drinks. For every venue manager, the need for speed is never greater than when you are trying to get patrons back into the action as quickly as possible. The fast-paced, customer-centric stadium and arena environment requires technology solutions that are easy-to-use, reliable, and robust enough to cater to tens of thousands of fans who are in a rush to grab food and get back to their seats. With Oracle Hospitality’s venue technology solutions, wait times are decreased and lines are reduced. The results? And improved fan experience, increased sales, and the delivery of a hassle-free experience. Jonathan Stahl, the Executive Director, Ballpark Operations and Guest Experience at the Washington Nationals notes, “It’s all about ease of effort for our guest. How can we deliver what our guests want as fast and as efficiently as possible? We have about 3.5 hours to serve 40,000 people and that is not a lot of time. Technology plays a huge part in the guest experience and for us…we want to be as innovative as possible in making sure that it enhances the guest experience. It is important to give that great feeling that the Washington Nationals is on top of things.” Managing a stadium operation is not an easy feat, but with Oracle Hospitality’s seamlessly integrated, flexible and scalable products, complex managerial tasks can be simplified to allow you more time to focus on your largest business asset – your customers. Oracle Hospitality will be at the Stadia & Arena Asia Pacific 2015, held at the new Singapore Sport Hub. Visit us at booth F06 to find out more information and see our solutions in action. Have questions? Email us at OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com.

Join Oracle Hospitality in Mexico City for ABASTUR 2015

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality is excited to attend ABASTUR 2015 in Mexico City from August 31st – September 3rd. The four daylong event will attract more than 20,000 visitors nationally and internationally, providing fantastic opportunities for hospitality professionals to come together and discover the latest technology innovations, keep up with industry trends and network with industry experts. Oracle Hospitality is dedicated to providing innovative technology solutions for the food and beverage and hotel industries, helping to streamline business operations, increase customer loyalty, and elevate profitability. Visit our booth 1429 at ABASTUR 2015, to find out more about: Oracle Hospitality Simphony – The latest cloud POS from Oracle Hospitality that can help you to easily manage business across multiple locations while reducing operational costs. Oracle Hospitality OPERA Suite of Products – The world’s most popular hotel management platform, and Oracle Hospitality OPERA Property Premium Cloud Service is the most sophisticated and comprehensive version of the property management system. It provides all the tools that hotel staff require to carry out their jobs—from handling reservations to checking guests in and out, assigning rooms, managing room inventory, accommodating in-house guest needs, and performing accounting and billing functions. Oracle Hospitality inMotion Mobile – A mobile reporting app that hospitality operators can use to elevate operational efficiency and stay in control with real-time data. The Oracle MICROS Tablet E-Series – Offering great flexibility, these tablet devices allow staff to work on the go and take orders at anytime, anywhere in the restaurant and feature and engaging, live-tile experience when combined with the revolutionary Oracle Hospitality Simphony Engagement Feature. Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 – The newest addition to the Oracle Hospitality family of hardware, the Oracle MICROS Workstation 6 is a sleek engagement terminal that provides businesses with advanced, robust and reliable hardware. Come along to stand number 1429 to talk to a member of the team and experience the technology first hand. See you in Mexico City!

How to Choose a POS System for Your Restaurant – The 2015 Smart Decision Guide

By: Catherine McErlane, Marketing Assistant, Oracle Hospitality, EMEA Oracle Hospitality recently contributed to a free guide that gives advice on everything restaurant owners need to know about choosing the right point of sale (POS) system for their business. This free guide provides expert advice and guidance on what to look for when choosing a new POS system and the top questions you need to ask to ensure that you make the right decision for your business. Over recent years we have seen a dramatic change within the restaurant industry, with the shift from cash registers to POS terminals. POS terminals are now an essential part of a restaurant, helping to improve business operations and customer experience while reducing costs and increasing revenues. Obviously the introduction of mobile technology within the hospitality industry is also having a massive impact on how restaurants now run their operations and how they are using technology to enhance the guest experience. Mobile technology is enhancing the guest experience with tableside ordering and payment processing, which is whyit is one of the biggest considerations for restaurant owners, at least in table service environments. New data security requirements, along with a number of advances in features and functionality, also need to be considered during POS purchasing decisions. These are only two factors that need to be considered during the POS purchasing decision. There are many other advances in POS technology that need consideration, from more robust data analysis and reporting capabilities to expanded payment processing options such as e-wallet apps. In short, there is no lack of compelling reasons for restaurateurs to upgrade their POS systems. Yet many restaurants continue to use outdated systems possibly due to lacking understanding of the financial and other benefits that a next-generation system can deliver. Of course, selecting the right restaurant POS system can be a daunting task. As a first step, restaurants need to gain clarity around their own unique needs and priorities. This Smart Decision Guide offers a road map to success for restaurant owners, managers and IT decision makers looking to harness the power of next-generation POS systems. It includes guidance for what to look for in a system, actionable insights for evaluating the different options and a framework for making the right selection. It also includes pointers on how to maximize the value of the investment once the system has been implemented. Download a copy of the free guide to find out in more depth why upgrading your POS systems is essential to running a successful restaurant. Visit the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems and our thought leadership on What is POS.

By: Catherine McErlane, Marketing Assistant, Oracle Hospitality, EMEA Oracle Hospitality recently contributed to a free guide that gives advice on everything restaurant owners need to know about...

Join Oracle at the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality is excited to be attending the Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo taking place in at the Los Angeles Convention Center on August 23-25, 2015. The three daylong event gives restaurateurs access to over 500 leading industry experts within the restaurant and hospitality sector who will be presenting on the newest trends as well as showcasing new products. We are eager to discuss the importance of cloud technology at the event, explaining how it can dramatically sculpt an enterprise and reduce IT costs and complexities. In addition, our mobile solutions offer maximum flexibility and advanced guest engagement, allowing staff improved control over operations so they can focus on creating exceptional customer experiences. Visit us at booth 2120 to check out our latest and greatest in mobile and engagement technology, learn more about our solutions, and how our advancements in cloud technology can benefit your business. See you in LA! Have questions for us? Email us at OracleHosp_ww@oracle.com or visit our view our food and beverage solutions here.

By: Rebecca Adlington, Marketing Administrator, Oracle Hospitality Oracle Hospitality is excited to be attending the Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo taking place in at the Los Angeles...

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