Nick Wong, Group Finance Director
Clapham House

"We are growing rapidly and have actively looked at all the different POS and enterprise management solutions in the market before committing to IBS as our preferred supplier for the extensive Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) roll out.

With an aggressive roll out programme planned for all four Clapham House brand concepts, we have to be spot on with key decisions. Naturally, this review process can be a tough time for an incumbent supplier like IBS even though a lot of our senior management team know the company through personal experience during their time with PizzaExpress and, of course, they supplied Tootsies prior to our acquisition of the brand last year. As we went out to the market to look at alternatives I could empathise with any unease shown by Gareth and his team at IBS knowing we were looking elsewhere.

However, after our POS review we knew IBS was right for us. It was apparent, in our view, that there are few POS specialists able to meet the exacting demands of a forward-thinking dynamic company like Clapham House.

Our goals for a considerable POS investment were clear. We wanted to automate and simplify the entire process, ensure it was 100% secure and accurate and have instant access to the necessary reports to make informed decisions from director level through to our operational managers out in the restaurants. Previously, all reporting was manually imported into Excel from an inherited POS system, a labour-intensive and timeconsuming process which delayed decision making.

This process is now fully automated. We have overlayed the StockLink system with our own reporting suite that sends out relevant reports to the appropriate people on a weekly basis to give our senior management team the tools and information to make and implement decisions. The benefits of real-time reporting and identifying the information required to run a successful hospitality business should never be underestimated.

Where IBS scored highly was their desire to listen to our demands (and to be blunt we are quite demanding in a highly competitive business environment). We have great ambitions for all our brands, especially GBK. It may be a simple operation but it still requires sophisticated, easy-to-understand real time reporting. Maintaining and improving cost controls are essential, especially as our longer term ambitions are to have over 100 restaurants nationwide in the coming years.

We originally acquired GBK with six restaurants and one of our first initiatives was to implement tight cost control procedures. We first put an IBS system on trial at Ealing. This was successful, I am pleased to report. IBS has worked well with our team to integrate StockLink into our bespoke wide area network infrastructure and embraced the difficult challenge of working with our latest technology.

One aspect of the IBS approach that particularly impresses me is their ability to see the big picture and to understand the nature of our business. Their significant experience in the restaurant industry means they brought a wealth of expertise in business reporting to the table. We've only just started out on what promises to be a great journey but it's good to have IBS at our side."