Needing more accurate food cost information to help run their 14 Wendy’s restaurants, Calhoun Management Corporation shopped around for software—and found the answer through their hardware.
Paul Rambler, director of Operations, said the company was looking for software that would give them a more accurate theoretical food cost, but also allow them to continue to use their Panasonic registers. He said one of the major reasons they chose RTIconnect Back Office software from RTI was its compatibility with Panasonic. “We had a good relationship with our POS supplier. We like Panasonic hardware and we wanted to stay with them. RTI allowed us to do that.” The competitor, he said, would have required them to switch register companies. Choosing RTIconnect, which is POS-independent, saved them $200,000 in the cost of new POS systems.
Before RTIconnect, he added, they were getting a theoretical food cost, but no precise detail behind it. Now using RTIconnect’s Daily and Weekly Food Variance reports, managers know exactly where to look to solve variance problems. These reports show the difference in ideal and actual food usage for selected inventory items and provide “drill-through” links to inventory/usage reports for troubleshooting. “It’s helped us identify where our opportunity areas are, and helped managers narrow down the items to work on. Instead of working on 200 items, they work on the five that need to be worked on.”
