The Menu – the latest insights on restaurant technology trends, customer successes, and best practices.

The final day of Oracle F&B Connect – our first-ever customer conference – wrapped up today, with probably more than a few attendees taking one, last, wistful glance at Ft. Lauderdale’s beautiful beaches and a glistening Atlantic.

The final day of Oracle F&B Connect – our first-ever customer conference – wrapped up today, with probably more than a few attendees taking one, last, wistful glance at Ft. Lauderdale’s beautiful...

On Day 2 of our first-ever customer conference, we blitzed through nearly a dozen of the hottest technology topics by moving from one lively roundtable discussion to another led by our top experts – consider it a sort of technology speed-dating – to help keep attendees ahead of the innovation curve.

On Day 2 of our first-ever customer conference, we blitzed through nearly a dozen of the hottest technology topics by moving from one lively roundtable discussion to another led by our top experts...

In Case You Missed It – Day 1 Recap of F&B Connect

In Case You Missed It – Day 1 Recap of F&B Connect

Oracle Food and Beverage has released a new version of Simphony Point of Sale, its premiere cloud point-of-sale (POS) and back-office restaurant management solution, empowering restaurant operators to further expedite and personalize guest services and improve kitchen operations, while arming its partner ecosystem with APIs to deliver more innovative solutions to customers.

Oracle Food and Beverage has released a new version of Simphony Point of Sale, its premiere cloud point-of-sale (POS) and back-office restaurant management solution, empowering restaurant operators to...

Over the past few years, digital restaurant technology has exploded for the back of house, front of house and out of house. Certain categories including online ordering, reservations, 3rd party delivery, loyalty programs and kiosks have all evolved the landscape and are shaping both consumer demand and the way restaurants approach their guest experience and operations.

Over the past few years, digital restaurant technology has exploded for the back of house, front of house and out of house. Certain categories including online ordering, reservations, 3rd...

We’re headed to the glorious beaches of Fort Lauderdale for the first-ever Oracle Food and Beverage Connect – a three-day customer conference focused on innovating technology to help you grow your food and beverage operations and give guests the experiences they want.

We’re headed to the glorious beaches of Fort Lauderdale for the first-ever Oracle Food and Beverage Connect – a three-day customer conference focused on innovating technology to help you grow...

Oracle Simphony Cloud point of sale enables the Mina Group to deliver exceptional customer experiences and the Spirit of Aloha at The Street Food Hall in Waikiki.

Oracle Simphony Cloud point of sale enables the Mina Group to deliver exceptional customer experiences and the Spirit of Aloha at The Street Food Hall in Waikiki.

Simphony Point of Sale Platform and Oracle MICROS Hardware Power Leading Restaurant Group’s New The Street Food Hall Concept in Hawaii

Simphony Point of Sale Platform and Oracle MICROS Hardware Power Leading Restaurant Group’s New The Street Food Hall Concept in Hawaii

How to Minimize Voids and Queue Times and Serve Restaurant Customers Faster with Conversational Ordering

How to Minimize Voids and Queue Times and Serve Restaurant Customers Faster with Conversational Ordering

The Oracle Food and Beverage team is getting ready for Oracle Food and Beverage Connect, coming up February 4-6, 2019. Filled with sessions about industry trends, breakthrough innovations, and much more, Oracle Food and Beverage Connect will provide our foodservice customers with the opportunity to network with our executive leadership team, key partners, and peers.

The Oracle Food and Beverage team is getting ready for Oracle Food and Beverage Connect, coming up February 4-6, 2019. Filled with sessions about industry trends, breakthrough innovations, and...

Oracle Food and Beverage Simphony Cloud Increases Speed of Service and Enhances Visibility Across Restaurants

Oracle Food and Beverage Simphony Cloud Increases Speed of Service and Enhances Visibility Across Restaurants

Download the excerpt: http://ora.cl/tS1fh Oracle has been named a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Point-of-Sale Software in Quick-Service Restaurants 2018 Vendor Assessment. The IDC MarketScape evaluated POS software vendors with a specific focus on their commitment to delivering advanced and omni-channel POS services and capabilities. In addition to being named a leader, Oracle’s deep well of domain knowledge, technology and architecture expertise, investments in R&D and the fresh energy from the newly created Oracle Food and Beverage global business unit were recognized in the report. According to the IDC MarketScape report, “The Food and Beverage Global Business Unit’s strategy is twofold: to evolve the MICROS Simphony solution from a POS to a transaction platform – an ecosystem that can deliver greater value through the partners and network that the POS is integrated to and to focus the platform and ecosystem on three areas: ‘Make money,’ ‘Save money’ and ‘Save time.’ While the evolution to the platform is ongoing, Oracle continues to innovate in areas including applying data science to menu recommendations and optimized forecasting, providing better visibility to operational metrics, accelerating the payment process, and developing better APIs that drive more value from the partner network, analytics and visualization.” “The IDC MarketScape’s recognition of the Simphony platform underscores our recent investments in bringing new features and technology to market and our continued commitment to the food and beverage industry,” said Simon de Montfort Walker, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Food and Beverage. “Delivering omnichannel capability while maintaining IT simplicity for restaurant operators both large and small is core to what Oracle Food and Beverage is doing and we continue to invest and expand our platform to support our customers.” Find out more about how Oracle Food and Beverage can help your business – contact us at oracle-foodandbev_ww@oracle.com  

Download the excerpt: http://ora.cl/tS1fh Oracle has been named a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Point-of-Sale Software in Quick-Service Restaurants 2018 Vendor Assessment. The IDC MarketScape...

Written by: Jason Ford, Hardware Solutions Engineer, Oracle Food and Beverage The numbers don’t lie. Need proof? Watch our video. POS environments are already harsh enough that they can put even the most rugged hardware through its paces. But in today’s world of mobility and total integration of the POS into the property, POS hardware today is expected live in environments and deal with conditions yesterday’s POS equipment didn’t have to. Think about fixed terminals located outdoors, in kitchens or mobile terminals used for food trucks or pop-up venues. You need more than just a battery or screen protector for these locations, you need real protection against impacts, dirt and liquids. So how do you know that your point of sale hardware is up to the task of surviving these more difficult environments? In short, it’s all about the numbers; the IP numbers, also known as Ingress Protection Code. IP is broken down into two mandatory number: The first number being the protection against solids and the second being the protection against liquids. The third number is optional and describes to the impact protection. In general the higher the number the more protection offered. Oracle’s 310R has earned an impressive IP rating of 454. This means that the 310R can handle the debris, and more importantly, the large amounts of water that you may find in the harsh outdoor or in-kitchen POS environments. Couple the high IP rating with other smart features like: An aluminum chassis, not only for rigidity but heat dissipation. Carefully selected chipsets to compliment Oracle software demands while controlling heat by not having wasted cycles. Optically bonded touch screens to keep out water, debris and UV energy (extreme heat when used outdoors), but also to allow all of the panels brightness to be transmitted to the user instead of being diffused through multiple material transitions – which wastes energy and generates more heat. And you have a product that can not only survive in a difficult environment, but it can thrive in it. So, go ahead install your Point of Sale outside. Go ahead put your Point of Sale in an environment where things may impact it. Go ahead and get your point of sale dirty… At Oracle the numbers don’t lie and our 310R can take it and we have the video proof.

Written by: Jason Ford, Hardware Solutions Engineer, Oracle Food and Beverage The numbers don’t lie. Need proof? Watch our video. POS environments are already harsh enough that they can put even the...

From managing orders to keeping track of menus, promotions, labor, and inventory, a point-of-sale system is a critical tool in any restaurant. Therefore, it’s incredibly important that restaurant owners and managers choose the right POS for your operation. But, making that selection can be a daunting task, especially when there are so many options in the market today. In partnership with Starfleet Research, Oracle Food and Beverage just released the 2019 Smart Decision Guide to Restaurant Management and POS Systems, a resource to help operators make the best decision when it comes to a POS system. So what should you be looking for when you choose a POS? What should your POS be doing for your business?  According to the Smart Decision Guide, respondents said that a new POS had helped them: 96% - Improve guest satisfaction / quality of the guest experience 92% - Improve staff productivity / efficiency in business operations 84% - Meet new payment processing and security compliancy requirements 74% - Improve data analysis / business intelligence / performance reporting 71% - Improve inventory and/or employee scheduling and management With cloud and advanced mobile devices changing the way that consumers and operators use technology, upgrading to a next-gen POS system is an essential step in delivering the enhanced guest experience that consumers demand today. In fact, 84 percent of full-service restaurants and 72 percent of quick-service and fast-casual restaurants reported in the Smart Decision Guide that they achieved “significant” or “dramatic” improvement in revenue performance after deploying next-generation restaurant management and POS systems. For anyone managing a restaurant, the Smart Decision Guide is a must read. It includes insights for evaluating different restaurant technology and practical guidance for the selection process. It also includes pointers for maximizing the value of the investment over time and driving continuous performance improvement.  Download your copy today at www.oracle.com/pos-guide!

From managing orders to keeping track of menus, promotions, labor, and inventory, a point-of-sale system is a critical tool in any restaurant. Therefore, it’s incredibly important that...

Located in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas, Toyota Stadium is a state-of-the-art venue with over 20,000 seats that is always bustling with excitement. The stadium is primarily kept busy as the home of Major League Soccer team FC Dallas, hosting 17 home games annually. But on top of that, the stadium also hosts a variety of concerts, Frisco Independent School District high school football games, and special events, such as the opening of the new National Soccer Hall of Fame. There are times that the stadium hosts multiple events in the same week, drawing different crowds with thousands of different fans. Kendal Kitchens, Senior Operations and Purchasing Manager at Toyota Stadium, knows that to keep guests happy, her team must provide the best experience possible to each different audiences that attends these events – and a major part of this is providing the right food and beverage offers. Loyal FC Dallas fans may have a go-to order they get at each home game, but certain items might not sell as well at a high school football game. Similarly, pricing changes might need to be made in order to accommodate fans at a concert. As Kendal explains, “Our main goal is to give all guests at our venue an amazing experience. Having the ability to change up our menu definitely helps with this.” So how does Toyota Stadium keep up with their jam-packed schedule, and the menu changes that go along with it? By fully utilizing Oracle Food & Beverage’s Event Based Pricing functionality. “With Oracle, making changes is much faster than doing it manually for every individual event,” explains Kendal. “We have a template for soccer, a template for football – templates for each event type that we host – and it’s really easy to switch them out. We’re able to offer combo meals, and add or remove menu items on certain nights. It’s great to be able to give guests exactly what they want.” Multiple times throughout the year, venues can host games or events on back-to-back days, forcing staff to change food and beverage items and prices on hundreds of menus throughout the stadium. This is not only a challenge for employees, but the hours spent on these changes is a huge waste of labor costs for venue operators. If venues aren’t able to make menu changes in time, they aren’t able to create a unique fan experience, and ultimately miss out on profits. Oracle Food & Beverage offers the most feature-rich technology platform for stadiums and arenas, backed on Oracle’s secure and reliable Cloud. Learn more about event based pricing, and all of the other features available with Oracle Simphony, by submitting a product inquiry to set up a meeting with one of our representatives and visiting the Oracle website to learn more about Oracle Hospitality Point of Sale Systems.

Located in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas, Toyota Stadium is a state-of-the-art venue with over 20,000 seats that is always bustling with excitement. The stadium is primarily kept busy as the home...

Simphony Restaurant Management Platform and Oracle MICROS Hardware Help Caractère Deliver Seamless Customer Service Caractère, the first restaurant from husband and wife team Emily Roux and Diego Ferrari, has debuted with the support of Oracle Food and Beverage technology. Based in one of London’s most fashionable neighborhood’s, Notting Hill, Caractere serves up contemporary Italian cuisine, with French culinary inspiration. To ensure the experience is as memorable as the food, Caractère is using a combination of the Simphony Cloud Point of Sale Platform the Oracle MICROS workstation 6 family and the Compact Workstation 310. New restaurant concepts have a variety of obstacles they must overcome as they create a signature menu that customers want to return to. With Oracle Food and Beverage solutions operators can take comfort in the reliability of the time-tested restaurant management and point-of-sale workstations and focus on expressing their creativity and differentiating their offering. “With Oracle, the ordering process is seamless. The order is taken and sent straight down to the kitchen. If our guests have any dietary requirements or allergies the system makes it very clear to the kitchen, so there’s no slip ups or confusion which is essential,” said Emily Roux, Owner, Caractère. “The system saves time and energy, enabling our front of the house staff to spend more time on the floor engaging with guests and ensuring they have a positive experience.” Oracle Food and Beverage Simphony restaurant management platform empowers restaurateurs to streamline operations, increase customer loyalty and elevate profitability with the ability to orchestrate their entire operations on one platform. Combined with the reliability of the Oracle MICROS workstations, both independent restaurants and chains have the trusted system they need to support the business they have today and scale to support their future aspirations. “Technology plays a crucial role in enabling new restaurants to scale and deliver the consistent service that guests expect,” said Chris Adams, vice president of strategy, Oracle Food and Beverage. “Consistency of experience can define the trajectory for new restaurants and restaurant management technology is critical to ensuring that service and kitchen operations are in sync. Caractère has been an out of the gate success and we look forward to continuing to work with its talented founders to support their growth.” Caractère purchased Oracle Food and Beverage in August before opening in October 2018.

Simphony Restaurant Management Platform and Oracle MICROS Hardware Help Caractère Deliver Seamless Customer Service Caractère, the first restaurant from husband and wife team Emily Roux and Diego...

Oracle Food and Beverage is continuing its commitment to the success of independent restauranteurs and large established food and beverage players with the appointment of Simon de Montfort Walker as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Oracle Food and Beverage Global Business Unit. Simon’s deep experience in hospitality technology will establish a renewed focus on delivering innovation for customers and continue the momentum of Simphony and MICROS in the marketplace. “Oracle Food and Beverage has a rich history of serving as a trusted partner and provider of critical technology that streamlines operations, personalizes the guest experience and drives long term loyalty for restaurants of all sizes” said Simon de Montfort Walker, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Food and Beverage. “I look forward to leading Oracle Food and Beverage with a commitment to hardware and cloud innovation, encouraging a rich partner ecosystem and arming our customers with the tools they need to grow their businesses, innovate and lead their markets. The industry is being challenged by intensifying competition, increasing guest expectations, rising costs, growing staff needs and disruptive technology. Oracle is uniquely positioned to bring class leading tools and innovation to this industry.  To underline our commitment to helping operators navigate these challenges we will be hosting a customer forum in February to hear directly from our customers, share customer success stories and offer hands-on demos of our latest solutions.” “The food and beverage industry is in the midst of a unique transformation, where food alone is no longer the star of the show. Consumers are looking for an unforgettable experience and technology is critical to enabling the kind of personalized service that helps brands differentiate amongst an evolving sea of competitors,” said Bob Weiler, executive vice president, Oracle Global Business Units. “Simon’s deep hospitality and operations experience will be an invaluable asset to our newest global business unit. His leadership, combined with our technology and years of experience being at the center of thousands of successful F&B businesses, uniquely positions Oracle to help customers navigate this transformation.” Simon has over 15 years of experience in technology with a proven track record in software sales, strategy and execution in both public and private companies. Most recently he served as the Chief Technology Officer and President of eGate solutions at gategroup with a focus on hospitality, supply chain and end customer servicing solutions. He has also served as EVP Operations at Blue Cod Technologies and General Manager for Octavian Inc. Simon has held leadership roles in multiple technology firms as well as led the operational turnaround efforts for technology companies in travel, banking, insurance and hospitality as an operator and previously as a management consultant with Sapient Corp. “Recent customer implementations from MASH, TGI Friday’s and Foodation have underlined the opportunity for innovation with Simphony & Simphony cloud and I am excited to expand our efforts bringing more of the best of Oracle to our F&B clients,” added Simon. Simon will be presenting at Oracle Food and Beverage Connect, from 4-6 February 2019, in Florida. Customers are invited to join us for strategic updates and product insights, with topics including Mobility, Payments, Integration, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and more. Find out more about the event

Oracle Food and Beverage is continuing its commitment to the success of independent restauranteurs and large established food and beverage players with the appointment of Simon de Montfort Walker as...

What matters most to a consumer when they visit a restaurant? Free wifi? Trained and knowledgeable staff? Rewards? We asked 15,000 consumers around the world to tell us what is most important to them when they eat out – read the whole report. What made the Top 3? Quick and Efficient Service 84% of consumers around the world ranked fast, efficient service as their number one priority when visiting a restaurant. To deliver that quick and efficient service, operators need a technology solution that allows everyone in the business to perform; handheld tablets for taking orders, high performing point of sale software to process transactions quickly and accurately, kitchen management systems that deliver food on time, and mobile and digital solutions that allow guests to pre-order, or order for speedy off-premises delivery. Order accuracy An order delivered quickly will only make the customer happy if it’s what they actually ordered. Order accuracy was a close second in the list of priorities, with 83% of consumers saying that it was very important to them. Here again, handheld tablets are your friend, ensuring that servers can submit orders to the kitchen from tableside without relying on memory or handwriting. Integrated kitchen management systems ensure that cooks are not having to decipher written tickets, thus avoiding errors. Enough staff to provide a good service Patience might be a virtue but it’s not something that consumers bring to restaurants; 82% of the 15,000 consumers said that restaurants having enough staff was important to them. It’s easy to see why; a short-staffed restaurant can mean queues, waiting to order, waiting for food, waiting to pay…every aspect of the experience can be negatively affected. Labor management technology can ensure that restaurants have the optimum number of staff at any time – enough to provide a great service but not too many to impact on profits. What else was on the priority list? Read more… Tell us what your guests care about - keep the conversation going using #RestaurantExpectations - we’d love to hear your thoughts!

What matters most to a consumer when they visit a restaurant? Free wifi? Trained and knowledgeable staff? Rewards? We asked 15,000 consumers around the world to tell us what is most important to them...

For over 37 years, Quiznos, known as the “pioneer of the premium toasted sub”, has been serving up fresh, delicious meals to customers across the globe. And with over 500 North American locations, and an additional 245 locations in Europe, Asia and Latin America, Quiznos needs a strong technology platform for their continued global expansion efforts. That’s why the team at Quiznos corporate has selected Oracle Food & Beverage as the recommended technology provider for all master franchisees around the world. Vice President of International, Arnaud Reilhac, explains that Quiznos chose Oracle because of, “the simplicity, the finesse and the practicality. It provides us results upon results in each and every market”. Watch the video to learn how Oracle provides: Improved speed of service – sandwiches come out freshly toasted in less than 3 minutes! Great reporting capabilities, especially on mobile Integrated inventory and labor functionality Support for global expansion Ability to continue digital and omnichannel plans in the future  

For over 37 years, Quiznos, known as the “pioneer of the premium toasted sub”, has been serving up fresh, delicious meals to customers across the globe. And with over 500 North American locations, and...

From dining in total darkness to three-course meals in abandoned subway stations, creating unique experiences is a hot topic in the world of food and beverage. Oracle’s The Loyalty Divide report, which examines consumer loyalty behavior, reveals that as many as 48% of consumers regularly share images of their food and their dining experiences on social media. So, how can quick-service and fast-casual businesses create experiences that generate such buzz? Oracle Food and Beverage recently asked three, diverse, global food and beverage businesses to share their insights on using technology to enhance experiences for guests – and keep them coming back again and again. Put the customer at the center of the business Geoff Holton, general manager, information systems at Restaurant Brands International, stressed that the customer is at the center of their business and is at the heart of every decision they make. Whether it’s store design, digital systems or staff interaction with customers, every facet of the business is geared to ensuring guest expectations are met. As an example, Holton cited their KFC stores in New Zealand where customers no longer have to stand in line for their food; they can now order and have the food delivered to their table. The KFC stores also installed kiosks to decrease the time spent in line to place an order. These initiatives were all driven by Restaurant Brands’ desire to redefine their customer experience. Get your staff involved TGI Fridays UK has innovated guest experiences by simplifying the transaction element of staff/guest interactions. Its BarTab app enables customers to order and pay directly through the app. Head of Business Solutions, Jeremey Dunderdale, insists that their key to success was involving the staff from the very outset. By having staff engaged, stores saw a marked increase in customer uptake of the app and in customer satisfaction. Keep it consistent Consistency is key for Cedar Fair, which manages hundreds of different outlets across its theme park estate. Whilst each one has a different flavor, Todd Sasala, vice president of information technology, emphasized that every customer interaction and every touch point should be consistent in the experience they offer. Sasala relies on technology to deliver such consistency and provide him a single vision of his estate, which also helps maintain performance standards by quickly identifying and fixing problem areas. The Businesses: Geoff Holton General Manager Information Systems, Restaurant Brands International Todd Sasala Vice President of Information Technology, Cedar Fair L.P. Jeremy Dunderdale Head of Business Solutions, TGI Fridays UK

From dining in total darkness to three-course meals in abandoned subway stations, creating unique experiences is a hot topic in the world of food and beverage. Oracle’s The Loyalty Dividereport, which...

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be hosting an event entirely dedicated to our food and beverage customers and the food service industry on Feb. 4-6, 2019, in Florida. Designed to provide insight into what Oracle is doing to help grow your business, Oracle Food and Beverage Connect will be the most important event of the year for restaurant, coffee shop, bar, and venue operators around the world. The agenda will include: Arrive early on Mon. Feb. 4 and attend deep-dive sessions, covering key food and beverage trends and offering product insights, including point of sale, data and analytics, and omnichannel. Join the conference on Tue. Feb. 5 and Wed. Feb. 6  for a packed program of keynotes and breakouts, covering an array of subjects, from delivery to mobility to cloud to hardware and more. Why should you attend? Here are 5 good reasons: Learn how we’re helping food and beverage operators to grow – from product deep-dives to customer stories to a comprehensive breakout program, you’ll hear how Oracle Food and Beverage is helping you capitalize on the ever-changing technologies of guest service and back-office operations. Get access to an extensive product suite – Engage in hands-on demonstrations of Oracle technologies and hardware. Meet the ever-growing Oracle Food and Beverage partner community – from online ordering to payment, our partners are driving innovation, and you’ll witness it at this event. Build your contact network – meet other customers and discover how they’re making Oracle technology work for them. Meet the Oracle Food and Beverage team – leadership and specialists from development, strategy, professional services, and sales will all be in attendance to answer your questions and help you take full advantage of everything Oracle has to offer. The event is open to Oracle Food and Beverage customers and partners. Register for the event today! To receive announcements about the event, subscribe to this blog and you’ll be kept up to date. If you have any questions about the event, please email us at oracle-foodandbev_ww@oracle.com.  

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be hosting an event entirely dedicated to our food and beverage customers and the food service industry on Feb. 4-6, 2019, in Florida. Designed to provide insight...

A colleague of mine produced a video recently, which included some beautiful aerial shots of a hotel that uses our technology. I asked her how she’d managed it on her budget and she answered; “we used a drone”. The penny dropped: I was a little underwhelmed a couple of years ago when everyone was getting drones for Christmas and flying them in the park. But I was missing the point. It’s not the drone itself that’s so attractive, it’s what you do with it. The drone wasn’t visible in the video at all, but the amazing bird’s eye shots of the hotel were stunning and achieved at low cost. So could drones be used in the restaurant industry? We included some questions about drones in our Restaurant 2025 research, which surveyed both consumers and operators on which new technologies would be most appealing to them. Download the full Restaurant 2025 report. Having meals delivered by drone – the guest view Only 27% of consumers said that they would definitely order meals for delivery via drone. A further 35% said it would be good to have the option, while 38% were against the idea. Delivering meals by drone – the restaurant operator view The restaurant operators had more enthusiasm for the idea of guest delivery via drone; 45% said they found the idea of delivery to customers by drone to be appealing, while only 25% were against it. This makes it more popular than some other technology uses - 30% of operators were against using wearable technology to monitor staff performance, for example. Delivery of restaurant supplies by drone – the operator view However, the operators were even more enthusiastic about using drones to deliver supplies to their restaurants. 54% liked the idea, while only 16% were against it. 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, voice recognition, 3D imaging, virtual reality, biometrics, and 3D printing.

A colleague of mine produced a video recently, which included some beautiful aerial shots of a hotel that uses our technology. I asked her how she’d managed it on her budget and she answered; “we used...

In the book Angels & Demons, there’s a very grim scene where the hero finds a murder victim missing an eye. It soon becomes clear that the eye has been stolen so that it can be used to access a laboratory using a retinal scanner. When I read this back in 2009, biometric security seemed to me like something that belonged in the world of data centres, banks, or fiction. And yet biometrics are very much in the mainstream today – I accessed my bank account on my phone this morning using fingerprint recognition. It’s a no-brainer for me - by removing the need for passwords and making life my easier I didn’t think twice about signing up for it. But how far would you be willing to go to speed up the process of getting a coffee or lunch or dinner? Would you consent to the restaurant recognising you by your face or fingerprint so you didn’t need to count out cash or find a credit card or scan your phone to pay? And taking that one step further; would you appreciate having menus curated based on your biometrics? A restaurant deciding that you probably don’t need that slice of cheesecake that you were considering and offering you a fruit salad instead? In our Restaurant 2025 report, we asked operators and consumers about the use of biometrics and facial recognition. This is what they told us. Download the full Restaurant 2025 report. Being recognised in a restaurant – the guest view 49% of the consumers that we surveyed said they would like to be recognised in a restaurant without having to give a name or show a loyalty card. Being served more quickly – the guest view 45% of the consumers said that they would appreciate having drinks or appetizers brought to them more quickly as a result of being recognised in a restaurant. Using recognition to provide personal service – the operator view However, although guests showed a clear interest in the benefits of being recognised, the restaurant operators who participated in our survey were not so sure about the use of facial or biometric technology to achieve it. Only 32% of operators liked the idea of using such methods to provide a more personal or faster service. A larger proportion (34%) actually said it was unappealing. Biometrics/facial recognition for security 44% of the restaurant operators liked the idea of using facial recognition and/or biometrics for managing security in their restaurants. Biometrics/facial recognition for measuring sentiment and feedback 42% liked the ideas of using facial recognition or biometrics to gauge guest satisfaction after a meal or drinks. Biometrics for staff recognition Perhaps surprisingly, considering biometric fingerprint recognition for POS is widely available on Oracle MICROS and other terminals, only 36% of operators liked the idea of using biometrics and/or facial recognition for staff. Biometrics/facial recognition for suggesting items on health 33% of restaurant operator survey participants liked the idea of suggesting items to guests based on their weight or health. However, 42% were not keen and found the idea unappealing. 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, voice recognition, 3D imaging, virtual reality, drones, and 3D printing.

In the book Angels & Demons, there’s a very grim scene where the hero finds a murder victim missing an eye. It soon becomes clear that the eye has been stolen so that it can be used to access a...

Easy Integrations Allow Restaurant Operators to Extend Value of Point-of-Sale Investment with Third Party Solutions Redwood Shores, Calif.—Oct 1, 2018 Oracle Food and Beverage has collaborated with Omnivore, a universal point of sale (POS) connection for restaurant app development and a Gold level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), to encourage restaurant operators to develop differentiated customer experiences and further streamline operations with their Oracle Food and Beverage investment. With this Omnivore connection, restaurant operators can easily take advantage of an ecosystem of third party solutions through a single point of integration into the Oracle Food and Beverage Simphony restaurant management platform.  “Guests are demanding engaging and personalized experiences from dining establishments and we believe continuous implementation of technology is essential to helping restaurant operators keep pace,” said Chris Adams, vice president of strategy, Oracle Food and Beverage. “Through our collaboration with Omnivore, Oracle Food and Beverage is accelerating innovation in the restaurant community by making it easier than ever for operators to take advantage of the latest third party solutions.” Omnivore connects restaurant point of sale to over 150 restaurant technologies, aligning brands with consumer, staff and support center needs in order to grow transactions while minimizing expenses. "Together, Omnivore and Oracle Food and Beverage bring merchants a true open, best-of-breed POS technology platform, giving restaurants access to the best available technologies to meet even the most creative brands' digital needs," said Mike Wior, CEO, Omnivore.  “We’re proud to help Oracle customers navigate innovative third party solutions within a rapidly evolving digital landscape.” Together Oracle and Omnivore are enabling operators to create a unique technology footprint that will enable restaurants to establish a competitive differentiation that reflects their guest experience. By creating a single source of integration into Oracle Food and Beverage restaurant management software and POS hardware, operators can leverage Omnivore to further streamline operations and quickly deploy new technologies faster than ever.   Contact Info Matt Torres Oracle 415.595.1584 matt.torres@oracle.com   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 www.oracle.com. About Oracle Food and Beverage Oracle Food and Beverage, formerly MICROS, brings 40 years of experience in providing software and hardware solutions to restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, coffee shops, cafes, stadiums, and theme parks. Thousands of operators, both large and small, around the world are using Oracle technology to deliver exceptional guest experiences, maximize sales, and reduce running costs. For more information about Oracle Food and Beverage, please visit www.Oracle.com/Food-Beverage. Trademarks Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. About Omnivore Revolutionizing the worlds of hospitality and retail, Omnivore connects a retailer’s point-of-sale (POS) with new technologies, driving engagement through the full lifecycle of the consumer experience. Omnivore’s cloud-based platform enables a single integration through their API, seamlessly facilitating the connections to POS systems now and into the future. The platform helps restaurants discover apps for payment, reservations, delivery, loyalty, analytics and more to connect with millions of consumers around the world. Omnivore enables access to real-time, quality consumer level point of purchase intelligence. Located in the San Francisco Bay area, Omnivore is a privately held company. Visit omnivore.io.

Easy Integrations Allow Restaurant Operators to Extend Value of Point-of-Sale Investment with Third Party Solutions Redwood Shores, Calif.—Oct 1, 2018 Oracle Food and Beverage has collaborated with...

The average American drives 29.2 miles a day, with a total duration of 46 minutes spent on the road. That’s 5.5 hours per week, per American, spent focused on the road and getting from A to B. So what would happen if all of those hours suddenly became leisure time? If driverless cars become the norm, drivers will have more time on their hands to do what most of them do during their downtime: look at their phones. This was the point made by Nick Low, our POS Solutions Director, during his Future of POS presentation at FSTEC. The restaurant industry often looks at the potential of driverless cars to facilitate deliveries but the true opportunity could lie in being able to target passengers who are moving from A to B and need a place to stop for coffee or lunch or dinner. Watch the video. He talks about how restaurant point of sale has evolved enormously from its original intent of removing the complexity out of ‘adding’. Its ability now to manage kitchens, run reservations, track wait lists and integrate into all sorts of systems takes its functionality far beyond where we have ever seen it go before. As a result, POS accumulates countless amounts of data; knowing the relationships, rules, serving periods, buying behaviours, and addresses linking back to years of transaction history. Being able to access this data will be critically important to restaurant operators who can use it to advance and develop their businesses to provide a more guest-centric experience in future. Hear Nick Low talk more on this topic watch the video. Keep the conversation going using #OpenForInnovation we’d love to hear your thoughts! Where do you see the Future of Restaurants? Interested in learning more on this topic? Check out our Restaurant 2025 report - http://ora.cl/hR4ga For more information of how Oracle Food and Beverage help your business grow visit www.Oracle.com/Foodbev or email oracle-foodandbev_ww@oracle.com   References: AAA (2015) New Study Reveals When, Where and How Much Motorists Drive. Available at: https://newsroom.aaa.com/2015/04/new-study-reveals-much-motorists-drive/ Date Accessed: 13/09/2018

The average American drives 29.2 miles a day, with a total duration of 46 minutes spent on the road. That’s 5.5 hours per week, per American, spent focused on the road and getting from A to B. So what...

Food and drink is the biggest expense for any restaurant operator, along with labor. Most restaurants spend at least 30% of outgoings on stock every week. It is therefore imperative that restaurant managers control those food costs. If 10% of your stock is being lost to theft and waste each week, that adds up to a huge amount of money every year that is draining out of your business. You need to have control of what is being lost. Watch this short animation to see how theft and loss could be impacting on your restaurant business. The example below explains how Inventory Management from Oracle Food and Beverage can save you money. By reducing inventory losses by just 5%, Inventory Management could save thousands each year for a multi-unit restaurant group. And then there’s the time and money involved in managing stock – if managers are having to physically go into stock cupboards and chillers to count what’s on the shelves, that’s hours of time every week that is being lost. Inventory Management from Oracle Food and Beverage gives you the ability to minimize the amount of manual effort involved in managing your food and drink costs. Check out the Quick Tour for more information on how Inventory Management from Oracle Food and Beverage works, or contact us at oracle-foodandbev_ww@oracle.com

Food and drink is the biggest expense for any restaurant operator, along with labor. Most restaurants spend at least 30% of outgoings on stock every week. It is therefore imperative that restaurant...

Running a small restaurant chain or a single store operation? I bet you have loads of time and resources to spend on marketing your business!  No??  Already working an 80-hour week you say? No budget for TV commercials or full-page magazine ads?  Do not fret – we’ve got you covered!  In this blog series I will give my two cents as a marketer (and an avid restaurant-goer) on what social trends have recently piqued my interest, and perhaps have gotten me to pop over to happy hour! For this first edition, here are just 3 simple tips to maximize the marketing bang for your budget (and bandwidth) in your independent restaurant operation: Leverage social influencers.  You have definitely heard about this before, but perhaps you think that Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber are out of reach for your small chain, and perhaps you are right.  Not all of us can have a Kim K in their back pocket.  But there may be some great local personas who happen to frequent your establishment (and who also might happen to have decent social followings)? I used to waitress at a small restaurant chain in the Midwest and I remember being utterly star struck when I delivered a grande margarita to Becky of Becky’s Tile and Carpet!!! – a minor celebrity in my hometown, but a major celebrity in my heart.  Becky’s Tile and Carpet has since closed their doors, but if they were still open, it would be worth getting a feel for whether or not Becky enjoyed her cocktail and if yes, whether she might want to tweet about it.  One positive tweet or Instagram post can expose your brand to thousands of new people who might in turn follow your socials, or maybe even order a margarita themselves one day. Uplevel your photos. You already know that a picture is worth 1,000 words – but a beautiful picture is also worth 1,000 engagements on social. While professional photography is the ultimate way to produce delicious pictures of your menu items, not every independent restaurant operation can host professional photoshoots on the reg.  But there are now (more than ever) simple and cheap new ways to uplevel your food photography to garner drool-worthy social engagement. Apple has made beautiful photography extremely accessible with their portrait mode which is actually a type of combination photography (using a dual camera) that artificially applies blur to the background of pictures. Although this mode was designed with human models in mind, it also works for F&B photography and can really give a photo taken on your iPhone a professional look and feel.              The image above was taken by my fellow Oracle marketer, Shannon Straub, at our recent IHOP video shoot.  She shot this with her iPhone 10. Looks super professional, right!? And now I want pancakes... Don’t have the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X? Fake it ‘til you make it, and there’s an app for that!  There are a handful of really great free apps that help turn ordinary photos into portrait mode lookalikes. I used the appropriately named free app “Portrait Mode” to bring my recent cheeseburger adventure to life: This is before I edited the photo: This is after I edited it: Not as good as the pancakes, but not bad, right? Facebook events. Yes, Facebook is for us oldtimers. But alas, this network is still growing every single day and is therefore still important for independent restaurants as a marketing platform. A friend and I love a good street taco (and a good marg just like our friend, Becky).  There is a tasty place right near her house and they host #ThirstyThursdays – All. Day. Long.  My friend saw that they were advertising this unicorn of a happy hour as a Facebook event and she invited me to it.  Obviously I accepted, and noticed that this restaurant set their event up as a reoccurring event so every Thursday I get a push notification from my Facebook app that says, “You have an event coming up today – Thirsty Thursday”.  And every Thursday I want to drink margs from 11 until close. Do you have an all-you-can-eat fried chicken special on Sundays?  Or maybe kids eat free on Tuesday nights?  You might benefit from setting up a reoccurring Facebook event to remind your fans that – hey – today is that event you are interested in.  It gets me interested every single Thursday. Don't we look happy?? These are just a few social tips that I’ve gotten wind of over the past few months that you can try out if you’re looking for some new marketing ideas.  Stay tuned for the next installment of this blog series for more info – and as always, feel free to reach out to us if you would like to talk to an industry expert.

Running a small restaurant chain or a single store operation? I bet you have loads of time and resources to spend on marketing your business!  No??  Already working an 80-hour week you say? No budget...

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.

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...

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.

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,...

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!

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. Whi...

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...

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.

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...

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....

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...

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.

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. W...

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...

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...

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!

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...

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

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.”

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...

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.

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,...

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.

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...

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.

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’...

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.

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...

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...

  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.

  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....

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!  

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...

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.

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...

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!

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...

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.

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...

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...

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! 

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...

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.”

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...

  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.

  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...

  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.

  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...

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!

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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

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...

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 Food and Beverage celebrates its double 40th birthday this year: in 1977, MICROS was founded to bring technology innovation to the restaurant 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 restaurant expertise, we thought we would summarize the 40 reasons why restaurant owners should choose Oracle Food and Beverage 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 Food and Beverage – 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 restaurant 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 Food and Beverage! 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) Enable transactions anywhere with the slim Workstation 310: Our smallest workstation ever features all-in-one portability and wireless for anywhere anytime transactions so restaurant operators can serve more guests in the same space. 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 Food and Beverage 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 oracle-foodandbev_ww@oracle.com.

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. Ho...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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!

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...

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...

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.”

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...

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...

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!

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...

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.

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...

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!

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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+...

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! 

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...

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.”   

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

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.

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 –...

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. 

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...

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+...

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...

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.

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...

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,...

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. 

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...