O'Charley's
O'Charley 's upgrades it's POS with Squirrel's new window-based
system
With a vendor-operator relationship that goes back nearly 10 years, O’Charley’s Restaurants has continually benefited from upgrades to Squirrel Systems’ POS solution. Now, with Squirrel’s newest offering, Squirrel for Windows, the restaurant chain has realized enhanced control of transaction processing as well as improved data movement, reporting and training.
O’Charley’s, a casual dining restaurant chain with more than 200 locations across the Southeast and Midwest, was founded in 1971 in Nashville, Tenn. In the early 1980s, the concept was acquired and expansion of O’Charley’s began in Mississippi and Tennessee. The company, which went public in the early 1990s, continues its 20 percent yearly growth rate, and adds between 20-25 new stores annually.
And as the chain has grown, its technology has improved as well, with Squirrel leading the way — starting first with a DOS version, Squirrel Classic; then migrating to an OS/2 version; and now to the graphically rich Squirrel for Windows platform. This new Squirrel version makes the collection and analysis of corporate data much more straightforward.
O’Charley’s began piloting the system in its first location last October, and there are currently 30 restaurants using it. “At least half of our locations will install the technology within a year,” reports Jim Gray, O'Charley's chief information officer. “And we plan to completely outfit the chain’s future and existing restaurants by 2005.” O'Charley's also plans to upgrade the software to Squirrel’s version 1.3 upon its release during the fourth quarter of 2003.
O'Charley's
discovered that Squirrel’s newest solution, including Squirrel’s Version
1.2 software and its Workstation 6 POS terminals, was even easier to install and
implement than its previous solutions. The system is supported by an open SQL server
database. A consolidated database resides at the O'Charley's home office and an
individual one is featured at each store location. This data has delivered noticeable
improvements to O'Charley's data mining efforts. “An open SQL database environment
gives us easier access to data queries, making the process very straightforward,”
Gray says.
IMPROVED REPORTING PROCESS AND DATA FLOW
Previously, with Squirrel Classic, each office was able to poll data, but the analysis
of that data was more challenging. “We had to write or use Squirrel extraction
programs to pull data into separate files, and then do data mining in a new file.
It was a very time-consuming process,” explains Gray. “We needed a file
to query product mix, another to analyze credit card transactions, yet another for
customer behavior, and so on. Squirrel’s Windows version completely eliminates
these processes.”
Another piece of this solution is the Xcellenet extranet frame relay network, which transmits data between stores and corporate headquarters. With the system in place, all software and store operation systems are centrally installed at headquarters and filtered to stores remotely through a dedicated server.
All menu and inventory changes, as well as the POS transaction application, are pushed to locations over the frame relay. “The system keeps the maintenance at the home office. Then the frame relay moves data to the stores, and the POS terminals make the transactions happen,” Gray explains. “And in reverse, all updates at store level are moved to the home office and then stored centrally in our master database.”
The new system also provides more accurate data movement from the stores to the corporate level. The speed with which the data is transmitted at close is already a favorite with the managers, who now wait only five minutes, instead of 30, for nightly transmissions to conclude. But Gray expects more, “While we are still polling our stores at the end of each business day, the system will support real-time data polls through 15-minute intervals. We’re not there yet, but we hope to start experimenting with that functionality next year.”
O’Charley’s is experiencing better data capture at the checkout terminal with data available as soon as it is entered into the system. Now O’Charley’s has immediate access to information such as: who entered the transaction; at what temperature the food was cooked; and what payment option the customer used to pay the bill.
REDUCED TRAINING TIMES
An aggressive schedule of store openings meant that improving training times was
an on-going issue. “When you’re opening new locations at the aggressive
rate O’Charley’s is, you need a system that provides ease of training,”
Gray says. With Squirrel’s new POS, O’Charley’s has been able
to reduce its training time by more than 75 percent. Gray adds, “Squirrel’s
system is easy to learn, and helps management teams spend more time training employees
on the menu and service rather than focusing on the technology.”
- Managing and supporting the gift card program;
- Creating Java extensions that will integrate the POS software with its human resources and payroll system from J.D. Edwards; and
- Developing an interface between the POS and customer information to make improvements to the take-out portion of the business and facilitate customer surveys.
The
new system is already helping O’Charley’s achieve its goal for enhanced
customer service, and the chain expects to gain additional savings as the rollout
continues.
Gray added that O’Charley’s ultimate goal is to have a better- trained staff that is more experienced and more knowledgeable. Improving staff will lead to less turnover and better customer experiences. He concludes, “By adding a system that is simpler on our end, we are promoting better service and, in turn, we expect more sales.”
