This time we take a look at how one Subway operator expects to save on labor costs by using IP telephony.
The restaurant: Arizona Subway franchisee presides over an expanding $20 million franchise of 26 restaurants and more than 300 employees in the Tucson area. He prides himself on developing the individuals in his organization.
The opportunity: White saw he was losing some of the personal contact with his employees that is central to his business philosophy. However, he was apprehensive about using computers to communicate with individuals in his growing organization.
So White sat down with representatives from Cisco Systems, Subway restaurants, and Dallas-based software development company IPcelerate, Inc. to explore other options.
The solution: White decided to implement a system of Internet Protocol (IP) telephones that feature a color touch screen and speakerphone. The system has the potential to dramatically change many operations in White’s business: He and his managers can now work with a secure network of IP phones that can save costs and improve employee performance.
The phones can be programmed to remind employees of their basic duties. These Task Alerts sound at different times during the day for different tasks, and employees must go to the phone and acknowledge the alert within three minutes. If the employee neglects to do so, his or her manager will receive a text message alert on their cell phone sent from the IP phone.
The phones have also been programmed to congratulate and motivate employees. White awards an Employee of the Week every week. The IP phones alert each store with the name of the weekly winner and the prize: dinner with the boss. Furthermore, White has set up the phones to relay a daily motivational message to employees.
The IP phone function that might be most useful in saving time is its ability to remedy scheduling problems. Employees in the restaurants that have the phones now clock in and out on the device. White says that when his employees didn’t show up for work in the past, the store manager or opener employee would have to search for a replacement.
Now, the phones can take care of the problem by calling all stores, the area director’s, the manager’s, and all free employees’ cell phones in an effort to locate a replacement.
In the past, employees who were late could call the manager to let them know, and then lie on their timesheet about when they arrived. The IP phones page managers when employees do not show or forget to clock in. They also text message the manager if the employee forgets to clock out or is approaching overtime.
Final verdict: The potential savings for White is enormous, as he was spending close to $500,000 a year on extra labor. The system also keeps track of daily deposits for the chain of stores in real time.
The development of this custom phone system took the work of three separate companies. The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7970G was combined with custom software designed by IPcelerate, while Cisco partner Calence, LLC, helped develop the secure private network for the phones.
