What they couldn't control in the dark past was how much they spent on each interaction and how the balance weighed when they went over their books at the end of each business day. That's changing all over the hospitality industry, but for restaurants, the new application of yield management software long a mainstay of hotels has proven to squeeze more dollars out of every transaction. Pilot Project Completed Restaurants stand to pocket a substantial amount of additional cash by measuring the yield from each recipe used each day, according to the operators HT spoke to at a half-dozen establishments across the nation. Although the base cut was less than a half percent, a spokesman noted that it was multiplied over 250 locations. Real Time Data Applebee's runs the EatecNet database on Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 at its Kansas City headquarters, linking it to remote locations through six Citrix Application Servers.
All figures are real-time, except for sales that poll up to the Kansas City headquarters each night.
Before installing the system, Applebee's had no good way to track waste management. Everything was based on historical data and food budgets from the past year. With the Eatec system Applebee's calculates daily recipe requirements and food sales. Applebee's started to look for a better inventory control and yield management system about two years ago. The initial rollout to company stores was completed May 1, 2000.