Cooking the Books
Utilising computers and the Internet to unload the burden of running a business & improving our lives seems the stuff of dreams, but it doesn’t have to be!
The catering industry is renowned for seemingly completing hundreds of tasks in a short amount of time with ‘rush’ being the operative word. When working in this kind of industry that already runs in a ‘busy’ world you need everything you can to help make the business run smoother and of course your life run easier!
Where did it go wrong?
The personal computer was invented and promised to make out lives easier and hopefully our businesses run smoother. This was a pipe dream, an ideal that to most hasn’t come true and the reality is the computer, for some, has become a master and not a servant.
Become the Master.
With computers comes software and you normally are familiar with applications like Microsoft word, Excel, Publisher etc. These do various tasks but the reality is they are completely underused or misused even. As a small to medium catering business what you need is something that does it all?
You might have appointments to make, quotations to send, bookings to confirm, orders to fulfil, customers to remind, money to chase, invoices to raise and much more!
Ø You might use a variety of programs to do this for you?
Ø You might use a variety of books and paper notes?
Ø You might work and live from one day to the next in total chaos?
What’s the solution?
What if you could do all this in one source? Internet based administration is rapidly growing in popularity as more and more businesses turn to the Internet for all their business needs.
But why the internet?
Well access basically. Traditionally a program needed to be on every computer that was used and this became expensive. By having administration based on the Internet (which is contained within a secure environment) all you need is a web browser to do your work. This means whether you’re in the office, at home or even on holiday, you can check how the business is running 24/4 365 days a year.
Creospace offer this kind of solution in the form of their Creocaterer package. “Our goal was always to teach people to use the computer as a tool, by utilising the Internet and building bespoke solutions to problems we can achieve that goal” says Gary Dickenson from Creospace. Gary also Says “A solution to the catering market seemed a natural continuation to what we already do and so by working with a caterer we developed the product.”
Creospace build bespoke products using blocks of existing code and so clients have the benefit of a solution that is unique to their needs but without a large bill for development!
Hayley from ‘Buffets to Suit’ in Colchester uses ‘Creocaterer’ and she says “Thanks to Creospace, one of my new years resolutions (to be more organised) is coming true.” “I’d never have thought of getting a personalised system built as I didn’t know it could be done for companies on a budget such as ours.
Amongst other things mine has a booking diary and it reminds me when enquirers haven’t responded, paid deposits, confirmed numbers, etc. It also reminds me when to send quotes, invoices, thank you letters, etc The different menu prices and service levels come up automatically on the invoices and there’s no more cutting and pasting between different systems!
It’s brilliant! Oh, and it shows me when to stop taking bookings for a particular date as we’re full. I’d really recommend you chat to Creospace”.
More information about Creospace and their products can be found on their website – www.creospace.co.uk
Written by The Editor on April 27th, 2006 with
no comments.
Read more articles on Catering.
- [+] Digg: Feature this article
- [+] Del.icio.us: Bookmark this article
- [+] Furl: Bookmark this article