EPoS advantage for La Petite Maison

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In common with its Gallic parent, La Petite Maison in London's Mayfair serves what has been described as "upscale Mediterranean food to a chic, multinational crowd in a smart dining room". When the restaurant opened in 2007, it opted for an EPoS solution from TISSL upon the recommendation of its shareholders who had already put TISSL to good use in other establishments.

La Petite Maison London, a franchise of the renowned Nice establishment, is owned by Azur Ltd. which operates La Petite Maison restaurants worldwide outside France. La Petite Maison opened its Brook's Mews premises in 2007.

Combining the best fresh seasonal ingredients with the culinary influences of the Côte d'Azur and neighbouring Liguria, Chef Patron Raphael Duntoyé (formerly of Zuma and an associate of Pierre Kauffmann) offers an inspired yet simple interpretation of French Mediterranean and Niçoise cuisine.

On a sunny day with light flooding in through the large windows and the smells of garlic, peppers and olive oil wafting across the dining room, sun-starved London diners are transported to the south of France.

La Petite Maison's management team was determined to invest in modern technology from the outset that would help it run and grow the new business.

Sharing common shareholders with the international Japanese restaurant group Zuma, already by that time an established and satisfied TISSL EPoS user, La Petite Maison quickly established that this tried-and-tested solution should be installed in the new restaurant.

Observes Olivier Eynard, Operations Director at La Petite Maison: "Whilst the decision to adopt TISSL EPoS was made before my time, I know it was very much influenced by the positive relationship that Zuma London had with TISSL."

La Petite Maison comprises the main dining room with a small bar, then a larger bar area with a summer terrace. Two points-of-service were originally installed and these have been recently upgraded to PC-based VariPOS ™ 815 i3 touchscreen terminals with multi-touch PCT screens. They deliver reliable performance and support servers with a rapid and intuitive interface. This summer, a third fixed-point unit will be installed on the terrace.

"TISSL gives me what I need as Operations Director. It's very easy and straightforward to use."

Not surprisingly given his role, Olivier Eynard's focus is on the functionality that TISSL gives him to run business processes smoothly and efficiently and to measure financial performance. Two things are particularly important to Eynard: how systems work together across the business, and the management information that can be derived from them.

"Most EPoS systems do much the same thing; where they differ is the degree to which they can integrate with other systems and provide what the individual business wants to achieve. Nowadays it's rare to run a system in isolation; it's more about what they can do together."

At La Petite Maison, a system from Paperchase manages purchasing and stock control processes. This third-party technology is fully integrated with TISSL EPoS; as a result, Eynard is equipped to track products and ingredients purchased right through to dishes and beverages sold.

"I can calculate all my margins – potential and actual – on a weekly basis, which is very useful."

TISSL has brought an additional benefit to La Petite Maison; its integration with specialist software Avero means that restaurant clients such as La Petite Maison can benefit from even richer business intelligence than they would derive from running a stand-alone EPoS solution.

"Thanks to integration of TISSL EPoS and Avero, I have visibility of all the costings I need right across the business."

"I can look at my best and worst sellers, track average spend, detect any dining trends and look at anomalies and potential problem areas such as voids."

"From planning menus and calculating prices to controlling till processes and guarding against shrinkage, from managing staff work patterns and performance to analysing margins and profitability, we have the whole business at our fingertips and can completely understand how we are trading."

Together, TISSL and Avero process and analyse a huge amount of complex data in order to create much deeper business insights than would be available separately or manually. "Not only is our EPoS solution a great management tool for London but when I need to I can compare our performance with that of our sister restaurant in Dubai, for example."

"I am very confident and comfortable with the operational and financial side of the TISSL EPoS solution," concludes Olivier Eynard.