9fbtechreview.comAUGUST 2021Focus on Profitability--Leverage Business DataAlthough profit is one of the primary factors for food service businesses, they often miss out on opportunities due to several small factors. It could be wastage of food, poor cost optimization, inventory failure, and so on. In such cases, data analytics can hold the answer to many of the profitability challenges faced by restaurants. Accounting all these different factors will require robust information management systems so that clients can visualize the shortcomings. For instance, if an item on the menu is not selling as expected, it could be because of quality. In this case, the restaurants can switch to another vendor that can deliver better produce.Adapting to Consumer PreferenceBesides inventory optimization, restaurants should possess agility in terms of perceiving consumer behavior as well. Often, businesses undercharge or overcharge particular products without proper analysis to back it up. If we consider appetizers, it is easy to infer the popularity of certain products over others. If this data is plugged into the food costing system, the clients can quickly determine the variance in their current costs compared to what they are supposed to charge for the products. Food popularity fluctuates all the time, and hence, restaurants should be reevaluating their menu on an annual basis and ensure that the products are priced accordingly. This all comes within the umbrella of cost solutions such as ours. We present the data in `black and white' for clients to view the final numbers. Because, in the end, the margin number is what matters to the client. Paving the Way for Touchless ServicesFood costing and inventory is only the tip of the iceberg. Restaurant technology is evolving rapidly, expanding into food packaging and processing. For instance, we have rolled out a voice assistant solution to tackle the upcoming challenges in the sector. Given the pandemic, contactless interfaces are becoming even more valuable in the food sector. I believe voice technology will rapidly flourish in the food industry and permeate into parallel applications. The incorporation of voice inventory, voice recipe costing, voice invoice, and other functionalities will go a long way in reducing contamination in the restaurant workspace, and thus, staunch the spread of the virus. Thus, in the next few years, I am fairly certain contactless technologies will reign the food processing and packaging sector. Given the pandemic, contactless interfaces are becoming even more valuable in the food sector
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