Pizza Nova Taps Volanté for 120-Store Enterprise POS Rollout
Canadian pizza chain Pizza Nova has recently partnered with Volanté Systems to install their enterprise point of sale management system in each of Pizza Nova's 120 stores.
Volanté is currently installed in 13 Pizza Nova restaurants, with plans to implement the system throughout the chain by two to three stores per month.
According to Merrilee Stoll, director of information technology for Pizza Nova, the driving force to replace their former POS system was to improve communications between the various stores and head office, and to take advantage of the cost savings offered by a point of sale system that was able to run on Linux. Volanté offered these advantages and more, which sealed the deal for Pizza Nova.
"Volanté was one of the few point of sale systems out there that offered Linux functionality," says Stoll. "We were very interested in the cost savings that Linux offers, and not having to worry about the cost of proprietary software. We also wanted to deal with a company that was in the Toronto area."
Volanté's multi-location POS capability has also translated into greatly improved data reporting for Pizza Nova. "Volanté enterprise allows us to see a repository of dates and to see everything we want to see from each of the stores." Stoll explains. "This information is very useful to have. I can tell you already that Volanté has really improved on our data reporting functionality."
Volanté offers clear and concise data reporting with its Data Synchronization feature. Data Synchronization enables databases to talk directly to each other. A single connection from Database one to Database two is established and outstanding data is sent asynchronously between them. Establishing a connection is a one step process thus eliminating any problems that can occur in-between. Since Volanté is written in pure Java, all the information needed is generated in real time, quickly and easily. Restaurant owners and managers can now easily create custom reports and charts on demand, in real time, or save them for viewing at a later date if they wish.
Volanté also provides the call center order interface for the pizza industry, where orders from the call centre are delivered instantly to the POS system at the restaurant. This new collaboration provides Pizza Nova restaurant operators a better and faster way to get orders to their stores, allowing them to efficiently grow their business through the use of leading edge technology.
"We used to have an in-house system," Stoll explains. "But now we're working towards two way communications between the store and the call centre. It also really helps with inventory control on a store level, for instance if the store is running out of cheese, they can communicate that to us right away and we can act on it immediately."
The new technology has also provided the pizza chain with improved driver tracking, a feature that is especially important to Pizza Nova.
"With Volanté, each driver is assigned to an individual order, we can track when the order left the store, and when the pizza is finally delivered." Adds Stoll. "This really helps when customers call to find out the status of their delivery, we can tell them exactly when it left the store, and the approximate time they should receive their order. To us, this is a huge thing, since it really improves overall communications at the store level and between customers."
Future plans for Pizza Nova include the utilization of Volanté's wireless POS technology through its mobile hand held devices.