Operator connection: technology in food service

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 23, 1996

The trends reported and observations and predictions made during keynote speeches, educational programs and exhibit-floor demonstrations at FS/TEC '96 suggest that operators are in for some exceptionally moving technology experiences in the coming months.

Among the declarations and concepts that fueled debate or brought nods of agreement at the inaugural FS/TEC:

* The user-friendly features of the Internet - including point-and-click browsing software and Hypertext Mark-Up Language (HTML) - and the fundamental logic of the international network's design are moving corporations to consider Intranets, or private Internets, as alternatives to other complex networking schemes.

* A need by some large, cash-strapped companies to make radical changes to their information technology in short order or the simple realization that managing information systems is not among a company's core competencies are among the primary reasons being given by companies as they move to outsource some of their data - processing functions to others.

* Point-of-sale systems and back-office applications so seamlessly integrated across in-store networks that any application con be accessed from any terminal in the restaurant are moving managers out of their offices, as are portable computers on wireless networks.

* Enhanced, easily scripted remote-access and polling applications - running under multitasking network operating systems - are moving data out of restaurants and into corporate data warehouses and then back into the restaurants after the information has been sliced and diced by executive information systems using relational data bases and other analytical tools. They also are moving software upgrades to targeted computers by way of telephone lines instead of post-office lines.

* Solidifying Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards, increasingly sophisticated software - both commercial products and packages provided to customers by distributors - and third-party services electronically linking operators and suppliers are moving purchasing orders to vendors and supplies back to restaurants with greater efficiency and accuracy. Hand-held computers for inventory receiving purposes are proving beneficial to some companies.

* The emergence of Microsoff Corp.'s Windows NT network operating system as a viable platform in retailing is causing some information-technology professionals to anticipate a move away from dependence on customized applications and toward more off-the-shelf software. NT's flexibility and graphical orientation which can greatly reduce training times in some situations can equate to greater hardware requirements, critics and fans point out.

* New hybrid data cards using magnetic film and erasable thermal surfaces are moving marketing data bases off restaurant and corporate computers and into the hands, pockets and purses of the very customers targeted by such sales-boosting initiatives.

* Evolving memory-chip-on-a-card technology, or "smart cards," are showing the potential to move cash out of wallets and average checks to a higher level.

Internet/Intranets:

Part of the

Foodservice Future

"Intranets are truly going to be the area of most rapid [network] growth over the next two to three years," ComputerWorld magazine executive editor Maryfran Johnson proclaimed during her FS/TEC keynote speech. Addressing the reasons why a growing number of companies are using the Internet as a blueprint for private networks, she added that the technology is not something a vendor is promising; the architecture is there."

With Internet like networks businesses "can dust off old Unix [operating system] machines, and "save thousands [of dollars] through [on-line] distribution of employee manuals," among other expense-reducing moves, Johnson said.

The Computer World editor said the emergence of the Internet as a major information-distribution medium and cultural force and as a potential new site for commerce has sparked a "renewed competitiveness in the [computer] industry."

Along with the rise of the Internet has come talk of a new class of less costly and less complicated "network computers."

So-called network computers are little more than the "smart terminals, that have long been a part of networking. They are boxes that rely heavily on the resources of the network but are capable of downloading and storing a limited amount of data on a local hard drive for recall later. Such computers, as a result of their reliance on the network, require less processing power, memory and storage capacity than today's typical personal computer.

Johnson said an acquaintance - an information technology professional who works for a large banking organization - has looked into network computers and has estimated that such devices might save his organization tens of millions of dollars. But she added that there appear to be several obstacles blocking widespread implementation of network computers, including "platform religion" by information technology professionals and user "distrust of a net-centric approach."