A new release from pizza and delivery point of sale developer SpeedLine Solutions Inc. helps restaurant chains save time and improve brand consistency. With this new menu management toolset, chains can easily manage a master menu with local variations across multiple units and regions.

New flexibility allows a head office to push out a single menu, and go live with the correct set of menu items, toppings and condiments or flavor options, value meals, and coupons for each store and region. A new menu can be set to activate immediately, or on a specific day.

“Many of our chain clients already use the enterprise menu management and distribution capabilities built into SpeedLine point of sale,” says Marketing Manager Jennifer Wiebe. “But even with a master menu in place, small variations in availability, pricing—even small differences in soda flavors between regions or locations—sometimes made it necessary for a chain to manage a set of menus,” she adds. “This new release is a huge step forward in time savings and menu consistency across the brand.”

Multi-unit operators can now address all regional variations in availability, pricing, or coupon offers in a single menu file. Restaurant operators can also deactivate seasonal or temporarily unavailable menu items, toppings and add-ons, or coupon offers until they are needed again. That means that a chain could reactivate a successful Valentine’s Day promo, for instance, with one click.

On top of that, menu testing is fast and thorough. A menu manager at head office can test menu revisions against sales mixes from all locations with one click. Wiebe notes, “This really drops stress levels for corporate marketing and IT staff. Now, before they ever make a change live, they can be confident that their menu pricing and promo updates will be accurate and error-free in every location.”

The new release also simplifies online ordering setup and testing, making errors much less likely. Because every store runs the same base menu, there is much less potential for mismatched product lookup numbers. “That eliminates one of the biggest headaches multi-unit marketing and IT folk experience with ordering integration,” Wiebe says.

Also notable in this new release is the new ConnectService, which significantly speeds processing and response times for web and mobile orders—and ensures that stores continue to receive online orders even when the point of sale software is not running on the web order station at the store.

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