Magazine: Digital devices we use

According to Sándor Démy-Gerő, managing director of Novohost Kft. families still don’t have enough money to regularly eat in restaurants in 2015. Consequently, restaurant owners won’t have enough income to invest in development. It was a financial blow for them when in 2014 they had to throw away their so-called ‘black box’ systems – in many cases purchased just a couple of months or years earlier – and purchase much more expensive systems with online connection.

Today restaurant IT systems are widely used for administrative and invoicing purposes. Mr Démy-Gerő reckons that from the many types of software available in the market restaurant owners tend to purchase the ones with proper customer service and maintenance background – and they stick with them. Sándor Bagdi, managing director of UCS Kft. is of the opinion that in Budapest the recession is over in the restaurant business. He told our magazine that especially those restaurant owners choose restaurant management software consciously who have already done it before – newcomers tend to make their choice based on price. The latest trends in the restaurant business include consciously building a relationship with customers and trying to get new guests. Social media is an excellent tool for this – and also for measuring customer satisfaction. Mr Bagdi’s experience is that smartphone use isn’t frequent in restaurant management systems yet. UCS Kft.’s latest solutions make it possible to introduce virtual loyalty cards on smartphone and facilitate ordering, e.g. ‘Order from the queue’ service in Burger King restaurants in Russia. Sándor Démy-Gerő informed that the NovoHost restaurant management software has been available in Hungary for 20 years. Android smartphones and tablet PCs can be used for taking orders at the tables. One of the NovoHost system’s biggest strengths is the stock monitoring and management feature, which automatically monitors the use of ingredients in 20-30 places. The two-way communication between the RKeepeR kitchen display and the waiter’s handheld device helps the work of both parties