Restaurants and bars are going digital as they take on the new challenges of hospitality.

Speed, simplification, environmental and economic sustainability and the direct, active involvement of customers are some of the guidelines on which new solutions are being based, as Chiara Begni, marketing manager of Terya explains. “Food service 4.0 is different from traditional business models in that it is able to keep an active control over all its activities and operations. The aim is to reduce the number of inefficient mechanisms thanks to integration with instruments that offer all-round visibility over procedures.”

At HostMilano the company will present its centralised kitchen management software: interactive kiosks that give users a gratifying, intuitive experience (with the possibility of also paying with vouchers), together with apps that allow operators to take control and manage payments directly on the move at the table, and cash systems that are able to offer a personalised, innovative service, to ensure a unique and memorable experience.

“Our kiosk guarantees a fully independent experience, enabling diners to choose from the menu, complete their orders and proceed with payment. This generates constant interaction with the dining public, as information and suggestions are fed through right up to the moment of actual purchase.”

Far from being cold and anonymous, totems “make it possible to exploit systems, technologies and forms of artificial intelligence to create experiential pathways that don’t simply involve the execution of commands, but generate a constant interaction with the public, providing information and suggestions to help them finalise their purchases.” An experience that reflects the new central role of the customer and is adapted to the demands and expectations created by the digital world.

Whoever is running the new digital restaurant will increasingly focus on all areas of the restaurant, on monitoring and on easy and intuitive access to important data in order to carry out analyses, take ever more strategic business decisions and make better choices regarding orders and warehouse management, in order to optimise costs and times and maximise profits.

Passepartout has identified five areas that are influencing the digital transformation of hospitality. The are: Automation (automatic bookings, self check-in from smartphones or totems, orders placed independently in the establishment, payments at the table); Personalised Experience (marketing e-mails and apps that can memorise preferences); Marketing & Sales; Sustainability (energy saving systems and software designed to limit waste); and Customer Safety.
“For activity managers,” says Digital Marketing Specialist Leonardo Serboni, “there are a number of changes to prospects regarding the sustainability of processes facilitated by technological automation and to the interpretation of data gathered by the systems used. Catering entrepreneurs need to develop their skills-set in a way that includes a greater awareness of business administration matters.” 
At HostMilano, in addition to the usual use of the cloud infrastructure, the company will present the new online business platform, which will be able to manage and collect all restaurant data. “Screens in kitchens no longer simply visualise the list of orders placed for meals to eat in or take away, but also new functional features that help organise the restaurant’s production and work plan, optimising resources and reducing times.”

Catering management systems also include functions that reduce the environmental impact of activities: “the software is able to calculate the actual stock requirements in relation to the ingredients needed for each individual dish and to plan the sourcing of those ingredients on the basis of how much has actually been consumed, as well as making it possible to digitise the communication process between the various divisions and between the restaurant (removing all paper orders) and the diners (electronic receipts, digital menus, orders placed online or from totems).”