Client Success Story - Hard Rock Cafe
From exotic locations such as Kuala Lumpur and Taipei to hometowns such as Boston and Salt Lake City, the Hard Rock Cafe is a cultural icon. Keeping the beat for more than three decades, the Hard Rock Cafe serves traditional American fare while celebrating the rock-and-roll legacy. What has The CBORD Group, Inc., done for this colossal restaurant chain? CBORD's cutting-edge restaurant management systems provide the tools needed to make informed business decisions. With CBORD®, the Hard Rock is saving money, increasing its purchasing power, and improving communication with the corporate office.
The Hard Rock Cafe built its business by keeping an ear to the ground. So when its food service software provider wasn't meeting its changing needs, it knew where to turn—CBORD. After a four-month trial implementation of CBORD's Windows®-based system, Foodservice Suite®, the Hard Rock Cafe made CBORD its exclusive provider of food service automation software.
"We were several years into an implementation with another provider, but they just couldn't give us what we needed," said Kelly Maddern, Director of Information Technology at the Hard Rock Cafe. "CBORD's proven track record with other chains, plus their technical vision and project management skills, made them our ideal choice."
Purchasing Power
Nearly half of Hard Rock's revenue is from food sales. So it's logical for management to look to this area when their goal is to reduce overall operating costs. The CBORD system is helping the Hard Rock Cafe's company-owned sites achieve this goal.
Increased Purchasing Power! The CBORD system gives the Hard Rock Cafe more purchasing control with its vendors. "We were relying on the vendor to provide us with all our information," Maddern explained. "The CBORD system gives us better negotiating power." The Hard Rock now has a better view of its purchasing history and usage. Each restaurant can easily calculate what percentage of its business it is purchasing from each vendor.
Purchasing History! Maddern believes electronically tracking purchasing information is critical to food cost savings. "Paper invoices don't let us see the whole picture," she said. "They don't have the detailed information that will tell us if we're paying too much for certain items. But with CBORD, the system tracks and stores a purchasing history so we can see a specific price history on each item at any time. That detail makes all the difference."
Streamlined Information! Each Hard Rock Cafe handles its own purchasing. The CBORD system gathers the purchasing information from the individual sites for more control at the corporate level. "In addition to reduced operating and labor costs at all sites, we'll know exactly what each restaurant is using as well as what they should have used. That way, the corporate office can identify the control points that need to be addressed," Maddern said.
Seamless Communication
With company-owned restaurants around the globe, communication within the Hard Rock Cafe corporation is crucial. Each restaurant must exchange data with the corporate office. CBORD provides the Hard Rock Cafe with the seamless communication it requires. "CBORD provides the broad functionalities we need," Maddern said. "Their system automates what had always been a manual process of financial reporting, and as a result the pilot sites have reduced operating costs."
This smooth exchange of information has plenty of advantages. The Hard Rock Cafe's corporate office can forecast potential revenues using pricing and costing information from established sites. "There will be a virtual data warehouse of information available to them because of replication," explained Brad Krakow, CBORD's project manager for the Hard Rock Cafe. "Having that information on hand will be very helpful because the corporate office can make informed decisions about future growth."
