A START-UP up firm plans to take the food and drink industry by storm with cutting-edge technology which allows business owners to create offers and menu updates even when they’re relaxing on the beach.
Edinburgh-based ePOS Hybrid, has developed an Android-based point of sales app which is able to automate a restaurant or bars’ complete business operation, even if the owner is thousands of miles away.
The digital menu capabilities the technology offers means that restaurants can squeeze in an extra sitting of an evening as staff are able to work more efficiently, meaning on average an extra 30 tables available per night.
Not only that, the firm’s ‘Smart Tables’ mean that diners are placed in full control of their dining experience and easily able to request a waiter and place orders – while a gaming functionality means restless children at the dinner table are set to become a thing of the past.
EPOS Hybrid aims to enhance the dining experience and not replace the need for waiting staff but instead just reduce the number of times they have to visit a table.
Founder of ePOS Hybrid, Bhas Kalangi, has his eureka moment when helping in his cousin’s bar and seeing first-hand the difficulties that using a traditional point of sales system caused.
He has since invested over £500,000 of his own money after two and a half years in the research and development process, readying the software to take the market by storm.
He said: “Traditional point of sales systems mean that business owners can get locked in a myriad of processes and it can be very hard to keep on top of everything when you have to manually make the connection between stock levels, orders and staff performance, and then link this to income.
“With the click of a button, digital menus can be updated, offers can be created, staff performance levels can be monitored and stock management can be controlled.
“It’s so intuitive that a business owner could be relaxing on the beach on holiday and decide to start an offer at their restaurant back home and it would be up and running immediately.
“The digital menu capabilities mean that our customers can also squeeze an extra sitting into their evenings. Traditionally, there’s around three table turnarounds but the efficiency of our system means more time is freed up to get more customers in.”
The ePOS Hybrid software also gives business owners the option of setting up their own app, meaning customers can order food directly and save the business owners money they would usually lose to subsidiary apps.
While ordering food and business decisions are made easier, the software is also completely encrypted, making business data safer and helping ease General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.
The innovative ePOS Hybrid technology also helps restaurants provide allergen advice to customers as both staff and diners have access to the latest food updates at the click of a button.
Similarly, it helps reduce food waste through improved stock management as it generates an extensive report for management which clearly shows wastage patterns and details on food orders.
Bhas added: “We know that negative reviews from food delivery apps tend to be caused by logistical reasons such as suggested timings being way off, but our software means that we keep the customer updated from order, through to it arriving at their door.
“We’re really excited about our future growth plans and have already employed 15 people on our team in roles across design, standards checking and now marketing and our plan over the next five years is to expand into America and India.”
The technology developed by Bhas and his team helps businesses increase their bottom line by improving efficiency and in turn customer satisfaction levels.
