Your coffee - and your bill - will be served in a jiffy

"Instead of the proforma order note that most waiters carry in their apron/coat pocket to note your order, each of them is given a mobile terminal that allows them to record, confirm and produce the computer-generated bill even as you confirm your order. The confirmed order is simultaneously displayed (with the table number) on the kitchen terminal. The kitchen assistants immediately start working on it. The waiter, meanwhile, settles his customer's dues, be it in cash or credit card. "

Café Coffee Day, the coffee shop division promoted by Amalgamated Coffee Bean Trading Company, has introduced this IT tool. While the IT industry is known for offering solutions for export market, we are also seeing applications in the domestic market. An innovative IT solution to a coffee problem .....

- Dilip.

Source: BL, 27-03-2006

Your coffee - and your bill - will be served in a jiffy

L.N. Revathy

Here's an initiative to help you linger over that hot cuppa, and cut waiting time for that bill.

Coffee lovers would enjoy a steaming cup of `filter coffee' any time of the day.

More so in the cool interiors of a tastefully lit joint, where one can relax with mild background music or watch a TV programme or catch up with some work on the laptop while enjoying the sip.

But while the wait for that hot cuppa won't matter to most, even the most ardent coffee lovers get restless when the waiter takes his time to get the bill.

To help cut the wait, Café Coffee Day, the coffee shop division promoted by Amalgamated Coffee Bean Trading Company, has introduced an IT tool.

Instead of the proforma order note that most waiters carry in their apron/coat pocket to note your order, each of them is given a mobile terminal that allows them to record, confirm and produce the computer-generated bill even as you confirm your order.

The confirmed order is simultaneously displayed (with the table number) on the kitchen terminal. The kitchen assistants immediately start working on it. The waiter, meanwhile, settles his customer's dues, be it in cash or credit card.

"The waiter can swipe credit cards too in the mobile billing device (terminal). But, if a customer, for some reason, modifies or cancels an order after confirmation, the waiter will have to get my authorisation, and this is done by swiping my `smart' card'," says Narendran Reddy, the shop manager.

The waiters, no doubt, have got used to the system, but customers, Narendran says, have started asking him if the quick billing and order delivery suggest that they leave the place quickly.

The service is not confined to within four walls.

If a customer prefers to be served in his car parked outside or across the street, the waiter confirms the order from the spot. The device (terminal) remains connected up to a distance of 50 metres from the shop.

"This system is a combination of inventory and customer service management.

Of the 280-plus Cafe Coffee Day outlets in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Goa, about 120 have been networked.

All these outlets are Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) enabled.

The moment the bearer punches the order, the details are updated in our central server in Bangalore.

We no longer break our heads over reconciling the inventory or preparing the log-sheet at the end of the day. We do take a print of the summary at the close of day, but it is done within minutes," says Narendran.

So go on, pick that hot cuppa and linger over it - but not your bill!

lnr@thehindu.co.in