J2 & Mission stage a new EPoS solution for Royal Opera House hospitality operations

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: J2 & Mission stage a new EPoS solution for Royal Opera House hospitality operations.

A partnership of J2 Retail Systems and Mission Integrated Systems has supplied PC-based touchscreen tills and front-of-house and back-office software across the venue's restaurants, bars and cafs that are managed by the Company of Cooks.

Technology partners, J2 Retail Systems and Mission Integrated Systems, have revealed details of the new hospitality EPoS solution that they have installed at the Royal Opera House. 

During 2010, the venue reviewed its hospitality operations.  In particular, it wanted to attract more diners to its Paul Hamlyn Hall Balcony Restaurant and Amphitheatre Restaurant, including diners that were not attending a performance.  Royal Opera House embarked upon an investment programme, of which the first steps were to appoint Company of Cooks as its new catering partner and to form a new joint venture, Royal Opera House Restaurants.

Explains Royal Opera House's Chief Technology Officer, Rob Greig: "Company of Cooks inherited a hospitality EPoS system that we'd had been in place for some time but which was causing us support concerns.  The caterer recommended we replace this with a full, modern software and hardware solution, better able to support our expansion plans."

A market-wide systems evaluation took place and included specialist software house, Mission Integrated Systems, the preferred EPoS supplier of Company of Cooks.  Observes Ian Jones, managing director of Mission: "Company of Cooks like the fact that we are what you see.  We own and develop our software, rather than resell someone else's.  We work together in a number of high-profile corporate catering operations, and Company of Cooks were keen to have the comfort of running with a tried-and-tested solution and partner."

Continues Greig: "We have taken the full Mission solution, including point-of-sale, back-office accounting and web reporting.  Plus we had some bespoke development carried out."

Once appointed, Mission approached its preferred hardware manufacturer, J2 Retail Systems.  Observes Jones: "We like the consistency of the J2 offer.  It's a solid, reliable product.  For this client, we recommended J2 615 touchscreen tills.  They're easy to use, quiet, look good, and have a small footprint, so we felt they were ideal for the Royal Opera House with its fine dining spaces."

"At Mission, we focus on low cost of ownership, and that's something that resonates very much with J2.  Their hardware represents easy maintenance, a very low failure rate and cost-effectiveness," he says.

Mission carried out the implementation and system training, and 40 J2 615 units running Mission software are now in use across the building.  This includes both of the principal restaurants and their bars, the Champagne Bar, the Crush Room, the Conservatory and Private Dining Rooms, the coffee shops, as well as the areas allocated to staff and artists' catering and catered events.  "Staff are happy with the new solution, and can do their own price and menu changes," comments Ian Jones. 

The Mission-J2 partnership has experience in providing combined EPoS solutions to leading entertainment venues. For example, its hardware and software have been used for the past two years by The Royal Festival Hall.