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Food & Beverages Department Management – Fewer Errors,... Food & Beverages department concerns the "food flow", from the purchasing of the raw materials to service to the guests' dining, concerned with the delivery and presentation of the food to the guests,...

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Housekeeping & Maintenance Optimisation at Your Hotels... Guests rate cleanliness as the most important feature affecting their choice to stay in a specific hotel. There is nothing worse than assigning a dirty room to arriving guests. In the morning rush hours...

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Front Office Management: Increased Efficiency with... A front desk at a hospitality property is the place where a guest comes face to face with hotel staff for the first time. More often than not your guest has made a tiring journey and would like to be shown...

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Efficient Inventory Management with Barcodes Inventory accounts for a major part of any business investment, be it in terms of raw materials or finished goods. The profit of a business depends on how efficiently the inventory is managed. If you...

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9 Easy to Implement Tips to Increase Sales in a Retail... If you are keen to increase sales in your retail store, here are some easy to implement tips: 1. You should have a lot of signages that indicate to the shoppers where different types of merchandise...

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Food & Beverages Department Management – Fewer Errors, More Profits

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 19-06-2013

Category : Customer Loyalty, Inventory Management, Smart Tips

Tags: , , , ,

Food & Beverages department concerns the “food flow”, from the purchasing of the raw materials to service to the guests’ dining, concerned with the delivery and presentation of the food to the guests, after completion of the food production.

This department is responsible for maintaining high quality of food and service, food costing, recipe management, menu engineering, bars and more. An integrated F&B module to your PoS, enhances guest experience by improving service with easy to use touch screen point-of-sale (POS), mobile-based ordering and automatic KOT printing.

It helps you to easily achieve a profitable food costing by controlling the procurement, storing, issuing, item recipe, consumption, wastage and variance. With inbuilt menu engineering, you get a menu that is popular as well as profitable.

Key elements in this department are:

Menu Engineering: Use menu engineering to create an effective item mix and gross profit margin to determine the relative performance of each menu item and classify them in a profit-popularity index as high-high, high-low, low-low and low-high. This helps you to balance the menu with popular items and profitable items.

Recipe and Production Management: Easily enter the recipe ingredients for each of the food and drinks menu items. It shall support semi-finished items, which are used to produce the final items.

Food Costing: Food costing helps you with strict control on raw material procurement at correct rates, issuing in the right quantity at the right time. This keeps a constant check on costs incurred and improves quality.

Variance Control: Variance control helps you to compare and analyze the actual consumption (cost and quantity) with ideal consumption. It helps you to increase revenue and quality by controlling mistakes (erroneous data entry) and mischief.

Restaurant Table Reservation: With an effective reservation system, you can easily manage the table booking and waitlist for the current shift or for a future date. While booking, a preferred table and wait staff can also be assigned with guest name, contact detail and other guest preferences.

Storing and Issuing (Stock Transfer): End-to-end stock transfer module comes to the rescue for the store manager and lets him manage the tracking of inventory. It helps him to receive, store and issue goods for designated sections to prevent theft or pilfering.

Food & Beverages department is an inseparable part of the hotel service. You need to pay enough attention to this department as it comprises a many complicated stages and procedures requiring expert attention.

FusionPMS helps you manage the F&B department at the maximum efficiency with minimal manual data entry errors thereby contributing positively to your bottomline. Check out the FREE demo here.

Housekeeping & Maintenance Optimisation at Your Hotels and Resorts

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 18-06-2013

Category : Customer Loyalty, Inventory Management

Tags: , , ,

Guests rate cleanliness as the most important feature affecting their choice to stay in a specific hotel. There is nothing worse than assigning a dirty room to arriving guests. In the morning rush hours when many guests are checking out and many are waiting to check-in, finding out which rooms are clean is very time consuming and mistakes here can be detrimental to the guest satisfaction.

In addition to cleaning the rooms, the housekeeping is likely to be responsible for managing the laundry. They are also responsible for storing proper inventory for cleaning and room supplies. It requires a good amount of time and effort for record keeping of these.

Automation of housekeeping department helps your hospitality business to get a grip over these problems before they arise. It marks the room with dirty status as soon a check-out happens. It also marks stay-over room clearly during the night audit.

The housekeeping staff is given a real-time occupancy report clearly displaying the room status for each room. They can simply change the status as the cleaning is done and supervised. The changes are displayed in real time at the reservation counter as the status is updated. It allows the housekeeping manager to efficiently record and analyse the inventory and other activities to keep a check on cost.

Key functionality of Housekeeping features in FusionPMS:

Cleaning, Supervision and Room Status: The status is clearly visible at the reservation screen and it will never allow assigning a dirty room to a guest. It helps the front office and housekeeping perform their jobs better, resulting in accurate and up-to-date room status.

Task Management and Scheduler: It helps you handle activities related to housekeeping, room supervision, maintenance and engineering. It works as a communication tool between the front office, housekeeping and the maintenance department.

Minibar Management: It includes complete management for the minibar billing and inventory control by offering a clear inventory position in each minibar, request to refill and billing option.

Inventory and Material Management: A large number of product inventories are required to be maintained by the housekeeping department for cleaning and servicing. The housekeeping inventory includes cleaning items.

Opening Stock: When you kick-start the system, start by importing opening balances of inventory details.

Barcode Integration: Barcode integration eliminates errors and speeds up the process of receiving and issuing of inventory and minimizes the dependency on manual data entry. With a smart system you can either utilize the pre-printed barcode found on the product packaging or generate barcode labels for items without barcodes.

House-keeping and maintenance is a service that is mostly remembered by the customers even after a long time. To make this after effect last even longer in customers’ minds, automate your hospitality business with high quality technology that understands your business better.

Invest in FusionPMS and serve more guests, better. Check out the FREE demo here.

Efficient Inventory Management with Barcodes

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 13-06-2013

Category : Inventory Management, Point of Sale (POS), Simplifying Retail Businesses

Tags: ,

Inventory accounts for a major part of any business investment, be it in terms of raw materials or finished goods. The profit of a business depends on how efficiently the inventory is managed.

If you can manage your operations with a low inventory level without running out of stock frequently, you will save a big amount on holding cost.

Barcode Inventory Management system is an exclusive tool designed for the purpose of managing the stock position in a better and efficient way. A barcode is a series of black bars of varying widths with white space in between, printed on a label. Each barcode has a unique value. A barcode scanner is required to read these labels and it eliminates the need for manual data entry.

Here are some benefits of the barcode technology:

* Using barcode scanners at the POS reduces the human error when it comes to identifying products and price.

* Operators can learn to operate the barcode devices within minutes.

* Placing the barcodes on boxes, crates and barrels can help you easily track exactly what is inside the container.

* The time taken for a barcode scanner to complete one transaction is very fast.

The inventory management systems can then let you identify the fast, medium and slow moving items so that you can plan suitable actions to reduce the inventory levels for such items. Getting accurate and timely updates also ensures you can place orders for the fast moving items in time and avoid losing sales due to stock out.

But you should never add, move or remove anything from inventory without first recording the transaction with either the portable barcode scanner or the desktop software, as it will lead to incorrect reporting. As a result the system will not give you correct reorder, usage or quantity report.

FusionRetail software is highly integrated with a large number of barcode readers and scanners so that you can manage your retail operations efficiently. Download a no-obligation demo copy of the software.

How can a retail POS system help me run my business more efficiently?

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 07-05-2013

Category : Inventory Management, Point of Sale (POS), Simplifying Retail Businesses

Tags: , ,

Are you looking for a way to operate your business more efficiently? Are you finding it hard to deal with increasing shrinkage issues? Is unnecessary paperwork and time management a big concern for you?

A POS software (Point Of Sale software can take care of all of the above issues. The point where a retail transaction is completed is called a POS or checkout. There are several advantages of a retail POS system. It’s all about you choosing a correct program that will suit your business needs. A good choice of software is half the job done. POS software is not restricted to a retail shop but even there are customized POS for restaurants and food courts.

When choosing a POS system, ensure that the retail software you choose can automate all of your process-oriented tasks, such as physical count, purchasing, label printing and customer loyalty monitoring. Apart from increasing your efficiency, it can help you manage the entire business as a unit. It simplifies the work, eliminating unnecessary chores and also keeps a track of everything.

Advantages of a good retail Point Of Sales software:

    Everything being recorded instantaneously, from sales to inventory, it is easier to reduce shrinkage.

  • With the help of barcode scanner, every item in the store is sold at correct price.
  • With detailed sales reports, it is easier to keep the right stock on hand leading to managing inventory in a better way.
  • POS software, be it for retail store or a restaurant, will increase the efficiency of the transaction by streamlining the process. It also speeds up the process resulting in more accurate service.
  • A POS ensures price consistency if you have store across multiple locations.
  • POS system can replace the lengthy but important paperwork. Thus it saves a lot of time.

FusionRetail is a very user-friendly software for your retail POS and will help you generate lots of profit from your retail store. Download a FREE demo software and see for yourself how streamlined the retail POS can become so easily!

How POS Software Boost Sales

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 23-11-2011

Category : Inventory Management, Point of Sale (POS), Simplifying Retail Businesses

A store can increase profits through various ways. Cutting down on overheads or increasing the margin between buying and selling prices are just two of them. Another tried and tested method of increasing profit is to boost up the sales volumes.

Now, let us discuss some ways to increase sales. In the present times where people live by the minute as value for time is very high, to manage a store successfully, point of sale (POS) software has become essential. This software helps in many different functions, from speeding up the billing process to maintaining customer relations.

Let us observe a few points which highlight how POS software boosts the sales for an increased profit margin.

Increases size of transaction per customer

Customers do spend a long time choosing their products but when it comes to billing they are not willing to wait. POS software integrated with hand held scanners to scan the bar codes and a touch screen interface helps the sales / billing operators to work faster. As a result, customers opt to pick up more products as they have comfort feeling of going through the billing process quickly for all their purchases.

Provide customer satisfaction

Point of sale software not only reduces billing time, it also stores customer's information. Interacting / greeting a customer with personalized information on person’s lifestyle, work or residence location makes a customer feel special. Such customers tend to visit the store again and again to enjoy that personalized approach of sales staff. Also, there is a high chance such satisfied customers recommend the store to their friends and family. A bigger customer base translates into higher sales.

Maintaining correct inventory

POS software automatically maintains an updated record of which products are coming in and which products are going out. This helps in assessing the demand for each product and making correct stock compilations. There are lesser chances of running out of a product which has a very high demand. At the same time reducing or eliminating the burden of dead inventory of those products with low or zero demand improves the fund utlisation.

Maintaining schemes and promotions

Most businesses offer different types of schemes and promotions from time to time. POS software helps to track the current schemes and promotions. Further, data collected over a period of time by the software helps in determining which schemes and promotions were most profitable and in which time phase. Such an analysis helps in planning the schemes and promotions to boost up sales.

POS software definitely helps in increasing sales and as a result has direct influence on increased profitability. So, next time you feel any doubt about using the POS software, think about the goal of your business – i.e. making profits. And you will definitely find the advantages of using a POS software to further that goal. And here is the POS software that is highly recommended for your store.

How Store Management Software Simplifies Operation

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 23-11-2011

Category : Inventory Management, Point of Sale (POS), Simplifying Retail Businesses

 

Searching on how best to manage your sales and increase the gross profit? The point of sale (POS) software lets you control your business and maintain an electronic record of your sales in a simplified manner.

The greatest challenge for any business is to maintain proper sale registers and increase the margin of profit. Now this problem of yours is completely taken care of by the retail management software. It is a specialist in managing such problems and gives you the best possible output.

Advantages of using POS software

Your business flourishes with the use of the right software and makes the management of work much easier. The POS software offers you a range of benefits including:

·         Maintaining an electronic sales record

The software makes your work easily manageable. Your energy input is reduced. Electronically maintained records will not allow any mistakes in the sales register.

·         Usage in various sectors for varied purposes

You can use the software for various purposes. This can be used to maintain sale records, otherwise a cumbersome job. Transaction records can also be updated in big businesses.

·         Reduces excessive time investment

If you had to maintain a written record of transactions, imagine the amount of time it would have consumed. Thanks to retail management software, the workload gets heavily reduced. And you can have a perfect error free register maintaining all your records.

·         Maximization of profit

The electronic register gives you a perfect view of the reports. So, keeping track of your gross profit is easy and less time consuming. Now you are free to concentrate on marketing your business to further increase the profits.

These features enable you to maximize the utility of the software and also to expand the business.

Do you get bogged down with complex software? The flexible features with intuitive and friendly interface are an important aspect of FusionRetail management software. It is highly user friendly and the ease of operation is a welcome change from the complexities of the competing products.

Retail management software – a perfect business assistant

Whether you have a small store or a chain, the store management software is there to support you. The flexibility and compatibility helps a varied range of businesses. From departmental stores to textile industries and everything in between. Once you have installed this software, all issues regarding efficiency management, data registering and even records of your customer are totally taken care of.

Precision and perfection in maintaining data allows you to have a clear view of the transactions taking place over a time period. The electronic register does not need any manual work. So number of workers required goes down. That is a major issue taken care of in present highly competitive conditions.

Ready to make the switch to efficiency and productivity? Check out FusionRetail Store management software.

 

Inventory Management – Automated Systems

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 05-04-2007

Category : Inventory Management

Inventory Investment is not a game, it is a Business Investment. Even excellent shops (without problems) have an opportunity to become more excellent

It is observed that 75% of small businesses went bankrupt within 5 years. Primary reason is cash flow and in retail, primary reason for cash flow problems is poor inventory management. Inventory is a Business Investment. It should be managed with Business Systems.

Benefits of Business System
1. It uses Technology
2. It does the Calculations
3. They are Automated
4. They are more time efficient, more objective, more accurate, more professional, more productive and more profitable

Business Systems needs to be use to plan Business Investments

Five Inventory Management Essentials / Checklists
1. Inventory Planning
2. Selection
3. Display
4. Sales & Service
5. Markdown Planning

What is Basket Analysis ?

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 09-11-2006

Category : Inventory Management

Basket Analysis is a modelling technique based upon the theory that if you buy a certain group of items, you are more (or less) likely to buy another group of items. For example, if a couple aged between 25 and 35 buys some apparel for their own need, they will surely buy something for age group between 0 and 5.

The set of items a customer buys is referred to as an itemset, and market basket analysis seeks to find relationships between purchases.

Traditionally, the relationship will be in the form of a rule

The Customer here is a parent and will surely buy some articles for their kids. This is referred to as the support for the rule. The conditional probability that a customer will purchase kids articles is referred to as the confidence.

What Is Data Mining?

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 07-11-2006

Category : Inventory Management

Data Mining is the art of exploring new, useful, and profitable relationships in data.

In every retail business, we study what happens in order to improve. We study our prospective customers. We study our actual customers. We study what we do and how we do it. We study whether our sales people are competent enough to bring the sales forecasted.

Primary objective is to trigger out patterns of behavior — forecast outcomes — and turn these into profitable opportunities and ventures.

The past study of such patterns was severely limited by the amount of human effort involved, and by the expense of gathering the necessary data to do the relevant exercise.

But, in the last few years, the balance has changed. More data is readily available to most businesses than ever before. More computing power is available to process that data, and automated techniques that can be used to find patterns in that data with limited human intervention. The entire process have become more matured.

Store Operations

Posted by Nilesh Shah | Posted on 19-10-2006

Category : Inventory Management

Tracking Store Traffic can help Boost your Retail Sales by 20% or more

Basic Retailing Business Issues
If your retail firm is to be successful over the long run, it must satisfy the needs and desires of its present and potential Customers, these guidelines will ensure you to do the same.

Minimise Shop Theft
Shoplifters come in all shapes, sizes, age and sex and vary in ethnic background, education, and economic status. To combat these losses, retailers will have to take sometimes-extreme measures to control this menace called – shoplifting.

Store Checklist
To succeed in retail you must have energy and flexibility combined with the ability to think on your feet and respond decisively to any issues that may arise. These guidelines will help you to understand your store in detail.

The Knockout Punch
How you interact with the customer is just as important a factor in brand building as any other.

Managing Your Store’s Grapevine
Have you ever walked into a store and felt uneasy? Tense? You look around and get a feeling that no one really works together? Here are some tips to handle such situations.

POP – Enticing Shoppers to Stop… Look… Buy
Point-Of-Purchase Merchandising (POP) lacks the glamour and sex appeal of traditional mass-media communication, such as television and radio. But if we realize that in many product categories, more than two-thirds of the purchase decisions actually are made at the point of purchase, we soon realize the significance of this very important marketing tool.

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