Red Hot World Buffet is rolling out a new software strategy and systems ahead of expansion.

Feb. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- The move began with the roll out of a highly-regarded, award-winning customer service IT system across all branches, completed in November 2012. Provided by leading EPoS provider TISSL, the solution has been extensively tested by Red Hot in order to ensure it is able to handle the unprecedented number of covers the restaurant chain regularly serves.

The IT strategy will be fully implemented in 2013, by which time the brand aims to have integrated a new people, payroll and time and attendance solution, as well as a food and beverage (FnB) solution, at all restaurant locations. Both solutions will be supplied by Fourth, the global leader in engineering cloud-based, end-to-end hospitality management systems. The people system has already been successfully trialled at Red Hot’s busiest restaurant in Manchester and went live at all other locations in January, with FnB roll out due to commence soon after.

Steve Wilkinson, financial director at Red Hot, says: “The adoption of the new systems comes at a time when we’re investing in core elements of the business. Following the continued success and growth of the brand, we want to have integrated restaurant and head office accounting and back office systems, in place to support our planned expansion programme. The joint solution from TISSL and Fourth can achieve that and really represented the only option for us.

“Not only does an integrated approach offer unrivalled ease of use, speed and accuracy, but a cloud-based solution will allow us to automatically poll data centrally on a daily basis for integration with our existing accounting software, leading to a hugely streamlined and efficient operation, and much quicker response times and decision making.”

The EPoS system has been tailored to Red Hot’s very specific requirements and managers have already reported noticeable increases in speed, ease of use and reliability. The full solution is projected to manage not only the customer point-of-service and the accounting processes that sit behind it, but also improve profitability by cutting costs, reducing wastage, speeding up service and enhancing existing customer loyalty programmes.

Stuart Coetzee, business development manager of TISSL, says: “One of RHWB’s uniques is the diversity of its international buffet table, serving hundreds of dishes.  This provides an extra level of challenge, but one to which TISSL EPoS has risen.  Serving 45,000 customers a week means that point-of-sale and point-of-service processes are under enormous pressure, so system stability is absolutely critical.  

“We feel we have a true partnership with RHWB and we find them a refreshing company to work with.  Whilst very much forward-looking, they always review what they’ve achieved and analyse this against their strategy before moving on to the next stage, balancing the operational feasibility of any new developments and how they could benefit customers.”

James England, Director of Sales & Marketing for Fourth, says “We are delighted to be working with Helen, Steve and the team at Red Hot World Buffet, and to be part of a truly forward thinking IT strategy. It’s a momentous time of RHWB growth. We are proud to be providing RHWB the opportunity to streamline, systemise and uniformly lock down the entire back office process in order to allow for healthy, rapid and controlled profitable growth. For Fourth, Software as a Service is all about Customer Lifetime Loyalty and with RHWB we look forward to a long and happy partnership.”

The planned roll out of the systems across the group’s restaurants signals its intention to build a fully integrated infrastructure ahead of scheduled expansion plans, with five new restaurants due to open in the next year across the country. With the adoption of a common platform across all units, the company is looking to establish a central, cloud-based data bank in order to store and collate timely, accurate and reliable key information.

About Red Hot World Buffet
Red Hot World Buffet & Bar began in Nottingham in 2004 serving 120 different dishes from Indian, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican and Japanese cuisines. Since then it has expanded to seven restaurants. The company now employs over 720 people, with each restaurant serving up to 300 different dishes from cuisines around the world.

Red Hot World Buffet & Bar currently owns the largest restaurants in Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Northampton and Milton Keynes, serving over 45,000 people per week in total and it plans to expand to over 20 sites by 2015.

About TISSL Limited
Since 2003, TISSL has provided EPoS solutions and touchscreen tills to the hospitality industry worldwide.  Standing out for their speed, reliability, breadth of functionality and quality of support, they suit all hospitality operations.  Used in 400 establishments, TISSL EPoS solutions excel in fine dining, casual dining, fast food, pubs and bars, hotels and members clubs.  

Many of the industry’s most demanding chef-patrons, such as Heston Blumenthal, Rick Stein, Jason Atherton and Alexis Gauthier, use TISSL EPoS.  In Restaurant Magazine’s survey of 2,000 establishments, TISSL EPoS has been voted ‘Chef’s Choice’ for the past three years.  In the 2012 National Restaurant Awards, three of the top five winners and many other ranked establishments are TISSL users.

About Fourth Hospitality
Fourth employs 250 people, with offices in London, Cheshire, Connecticut, New York and Ukraine. Fourth is the leading global provider of completely integrated cloud based solutions for the hospitality and hotel industries covering People and Product. Its solutions are used in 54 countries.

It has over 1000 customers including: restaurant groups Gondola, Tragus, Carluccio’s and Jamie’s Italian; fast-food groups Krispy Kreme and Subway; pub groups Spirit, Fullers, Marston’s and Stonegate; hotel groups Intercontinental Hotel Group, Marriott, Starwood, Loews, Fairmont, Wyndham, Ritz Carlton and Jumeirah, leisure customers such as CenterParcs and Merlin, plus catering organisations such as SSP, Sodexo, MITIE and Aramark.