Café chain Eat overhauls systems

Eat’s iPhone app offers store and produce information. Pic credit: Flickr: Ewan-M

Coffee shop chain Eat is undergoing a complete IT transformation to enable the deployment of new customer-facing systems.

Eat is replacing its siloed, hierarchical database structure with a range of new systems designed to offer a better view of supply chain and sales processes.

The changes include the customisation of its IDS-supplied core platform to include workflow processes and a graphic interface that replaces queries to multiple Excel spreadsheets, enabling the firm to pinpoint trends, improve efficiency and reduce cost.

“[The new IT set-up] will afford a greater level of accuracy with [product] calculations, it will also give a comprehensive view of what is going on in the business, as well as simplifying the life of retail managers by ensuring that they can complete their tasks on time and on a daily basis,” said Rene Batsford, Eat’s head of IT.

Further benefits are expected from the company’s migration from the current electronic point of sale (Epos) system to a Windows-based platform this year, which will allow the firm to report real-time sales instead of scheduled data transmissions once a day.

“[The improvements] will give us a good platform for the next phase of projects we want to work on, particularly around mobile applications for customers and loyalty,” said Batsford.

This week, Eat is launching its iPhone application, which will enable customers to locate their nearest store and check product information, with future loyalty functionality building on its existing contactless payment infrastructure.

Given that the firm sells one-day shelf life products, timed offers under a mobile-based member scheme can drive up sales while helping the business detect customer trends, said Batsford. “Other coffee chains use very basic loyalty schemes, such as stamp cards. But [by using just that] you cannot understand your customers’ needs or analyse baskets,” he said.

“It’s all about having a solution that is intuitive and maximises sales potential. It has nothing to do with cheapening the brand, it is about enriching it and making people feel welcome.”