Pocket PCs in the Hospitality Industry

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='https://members.microsoft.com/customerevidence/search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?EvidenceID=14196&LanguageID=1&PFT=Microsoft%20Exchange%20Server&TaxID=19731' target='_blank'>https://members.microsoft.com/custo...ver&TaxID=19731</a><br /><br /></div><i>"United Kingdom-based Inventive Leisure has grown rapidly since its first vodka bar opened in 1996. The organisation now operates 46 town and city centre establishments, of which 43 trade as Revolution Vodka Bars. With most of its senior team on the road, travelling between venues, the company was keen to increase productivity by enhancing communications between field staff and the head office. Inventive Leisure worked with JMC, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to roll out Windows Mobile powered Pocket PC devices to senior managers. These devices provide real-time access to information and e-mail while they're away from the office, and ensure they are always up-to-date with their schedules. Now able to manage their administration while away from the office, users are far more productive, can reduce paperwork, and have freed up a significant amount of time to focus on expanding the business."</i><br /><br />This is an interesting case study focusing on the value of Pocket PCs in the hospitality industry. I've noticed now that more than ever before, restaurant staff around my area use handheld devices to manage orders and feed them to the "Iron Chefs" in the kitchen. How about you? Perhaps you've noticed a few bars, clubs, or restaurants in your neighbourhood using handheld devices; if so, what are your thoughts on it?

[emuelle1]

Used correctly, I'm sure handhelds could do wonders in just about any field.

I'm working toward an IT degree at University of Phoenix. My previous class was called Fundamentals of Businesses Systems Development, where we learned the basics of being a systems analyst. It was very interesting, yet intense. For our learning team projects, we were given business cases in which we had to do the analysis work and submit a proposal as a group presentation. My learning team was given a hardware store project. We had to present a case to streamline the inventory management and billing and other business operations on a previously manual system. As an anecdote, one of our members actually went to a hardware store to speak to the owner and we based our case heavily on what he told her. Our instructor took points off because one of our points had to do with spending 4 months on inventory as the hardware store owner told us. Our instructor said that was too long and no hardware store could afford 4 months on inventory. Guess the owner should have given us our grade...

The other team did a restaurant project. The conclusion they came to was to use iPaq's for the waitresses and a wireless network for the orders to show up in the kitchen. As someone who has used Pocket PC's for a few years, when question time came I decided to grill them a little "What happens if a waitress drops an iPaq?" They had done a lot of research and I was impressed.

That's not a real life case, but if adult students can come to the conclusion that handheld devices are a good idea, I'm sure we'll seee this catching on sooner or later.

[petevick]

Hi,
and what did happen if a waitress dropped the ipaq?

Pete

[emuelle1]

I think they planned on a warranty, but they also planned on having cases clipped to the waitress aprons to prevent a fall if dropped.

[daS]

"What happens if a waitress drops an iPaq?"
The question I would have is: "What happens when they get a customer like Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally"... "I'll have the Cobb Salad, but no eggs, and can I have sprouts instead of avocado, and the dressing on the side, and, and, and..."

How do you enter all that quickly on the Pocket PC? :?

For certain types of restaurants, where speed is important and you don't get a lot of special orders, then these types of wireless order entry systems work great. For example, In-and-Out Burgers in California (best fast food burgers and fries around!) use ruggedized tablets when the drive through line gets long. They send someone out with the wireless tablet to walk down the line of cars and take orders. Then when the car gets to the window, it's just a matter of paying and getting the food.

[R K]

"What happens when they get a customer like Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally"... "I'll have the Cobb Salad, but no eggs, and can I have sprouts instead of avocado, and the dressing on the side, and, and, and..."

How do you enter all that quickly on the Pocket PC? :?
1. Tap "Cobb Salad"
2. Uncheck "Eggs"
3. Uncheck "Avocado"
4. Check "Sprouts"
5. Check "Dressing on the Side"
6. Tap "OK"
Total: 6 Taps

It takes as many taps to manually close out a program in Windows Mobile so it shouldn't take that long.

[emuelle1]

Total: 6 Taps


It takes as many taps to manually close out a program in Windows Mobile so it shouldn't take that long.

:rotfl: What would I do without the Dell Switcher Bar? I can close any application in 2 taps!

[daS]

"4. Check "Sprouts"

But "Sprouts" are not a "normal" ingredient of a Cobb Salad. Just how many check boxes do you plan to have on the screen? One for every possible ingredient? 8O

The point is that special orders, often are beyond what is practical to do by check boxes and would require typing or writing. Writing on a Pocket PC is still quite problematic because the digitizer doesn't have adequate resolution. Typing is too slow to use while the customer is giving their order.

In my experience as a systems architecture consultant for companies deploying mobile and wireless computing, I always found the greatest challenge is to design a system that works at least as well for the user as the manual systems it is replacing. Generally, the benefits are found in other areas. For example, in the case of a restaurant, the advantages are in getting the orders to the kitchen without losing slips of paper, avoiding the wait staff having to transfer the orders from the order slips to the cash register computer, inventory control ("I'm sorry sir, we just ran out of the salmon."), etc. But most likely, the system would be slower for the server at the table, which may turn off the customers. Most of my research time on any new project was understanding how the current methods worked and how we could most closely emulate those methods for the users.

[joflow]

Drop down menu with "off-the-wall" requests. At worst, an open field where it could be tapped in or if the unit has a keyboard typed in quickly. In a case like that, writing it would take just as long as doing either of the other things.