Development of online menu and service system in cafes and restaurants without downloading applications

The MVP was aimed at developing a multi-disciplinary tooling and technology platform and deploying a suite of cloud computing infrastructure support for the catering and hospitality industry.

The system is a solution with a set of services for customers of B2C and B2B categories, as well as having integration with its own CRM for business management. Currently, there is a clear trend in the HORECA market to increase the use of smartphones when ordering food or services, as today the mobile phone is becoming a source of the most diverse and necessary resources for work, leisure and education.

Following this trend, business owners are incurring high costs to create their own online menu and ordering apps.However, customers do not want to download individual apps for each establishment on their smartphones. Therefore, there is little justification for this investment.

So the need to create a service that became a single platform for market participants and allowed them to place their online menus and other services offered for a small subscription fee, accessed from a tag on the table of the establishment via the client’s smartphone. The customer is able to order remotely.

The distinctive feature of the service is the functionality developed for the needs of the restaurant and hotel industry. What the service gives business owners:

• Waiting times and the number of staff calls are reduced (reducing the labor intensity of customer service);
• Increases the amount of the average cheque through impulse orders from the seat, pop-up offers, recommendations and promo codes (increased revenue); 
• Modernises and raises the level of service; 
• Eliminates queues at chain food outlets;
• Allows for easy menu editing; 
• Gives feedback to Visitors; 
• There is an opportunity to generate additional income from advertising on the e-menu;
• Multilingualism appeared for services where there is a possibility to choose a foreign language;
• It became possible to record and control the work of personnel;
• There is an opportunity to serve people with disabilities who find it difficult to receive one or another service (hearing, speech functions). 

What the service provides for customers:

• With a single tap of the module on a smartphone, the customer has direct access directly from the table to the menu and all the services of the establishment; 
• A user-friendly customisable interface with a choice of dishes or services is offered for implementation; 
• It is possible to order quickly by bright and colorful photos without calling and assistance of a waiter or a hotel employee;
• Customer waiting times and staff calls are reduced; 
• There is no need to download any separate app for an individual establishment; 
• Doesn’t take up space in your smartphone’s memory; 
• Contributes to the development of the «Accessible Environment» concept, as it helps people with disabilities (hearing and speech impaired) to easily use the services of the institution, make orders, and communicate with the staff without assistance.

How to use:

1. Service in the form of modules replaces physical staff call buttons and internet resources located on the tables of the institution
2. The customer touches the NFC-equipped module with his smartphone or scans the QR code and the electronic menu of the restaurant, hotel and all its possible services, the section for contacting the staff, feedback, services of the establishment’s partners open on the screen. No separate download of any application is required.

The service fulfills three basic requirements:

• Has a good stuffing (methodology);
• Easy and convenient to use;
• Accessible (affordable) to almost any company.

The novelty of the solutions proposed in the MVP:

The project developed a unified multi-disciplinary instrumental technological platform for cloud computing for catering establishments with an entry point for customers directly from tables or items equipped with modules equipped with NFC and QR.

It provides two different modifications: for corporate use and for use by users (clients) of institutions. All modifications have a common system core and differ from each other at the level of configuration and customisation of interaction between individual services.

The system includes computational and software resources that are available in a distributed environment. However, each of the platform modifications forms the cloud structure based on these resources differently. In other words, they have different registries of available services, which, for example, specify which services on what terms, in what modes and to whom exactly can be provided. At the same time, the same service based on it can be available independently from different modifications of the platform.

In the international market, customers of establishments have to download the apps of each establishment they visit in order to use the online menu.Users do not want to overload the memory of their smartphone, and are reluctant to do so only in exceptional cases.And when they need to contact staff, customers first press a physical button to call a waiter, wait for the waiter to arrive, then tell them what they need, and then wait again for what they needed: an additional order, a cutlery, a bill, etc.All of this increases customer service time.

Business owners need a system to interact with the customer through the existing infrastructure rather than buying a new one separately.With the system, restaurant menus and services are delivered to the customer’s device without any applications, thus significantly reducing labour and service time.The staff has the opportunity to receive precise information about exactly what the customer requires.