Johannesburg, 12 Sep 2006
Nandos has revamped its ICT infrastructure and restaurant connectivity after incorporating a new Linux-based solution and connectivity across its network. The well-known restaurant chain outsourced the project to Synaq, a provider of managed Linux services and open source software.
Nandos has 230 restaurants nationwide and each restaurant is required to forward detailed information from their point of sale (PoS) system directly to head office on a daily basis.
The data is vitally important in assisting the company in its day-to-day operations, identify trends, engage with its market and ensure sufficient quantities of stock.
Each restaurant is equipped with a PoS system and back-office computer. The back-office computer communicates with the PoS and then communicates all data back to head office.
"The solution was not providing head office with accurate and reliable communications on a regular basis. This would often result in staff having to manually retrieve the missing information from each restaurant. Synaq was contacted and requested to conduct a fully inspection and evaluation of the communications infrastructure with the objective of redesigning the infrastructure setup and network," explains Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq.
"We then set up a completely new server and initiated a three-to-four week re-design, development and testing process," Hasson continues.
This culminated in the integration of a new solution which has already resulted in 100% communication from all Nandos restaurants.
"In addition, we provided Nandos with a graphical reporting interface that allows the company to view the percentage of stores that were successful, which failed and other background information," adds Hasson.
Antonio Silva, spokesperson for Nandos, said the solution more than met expectations and has proven to work in the given timeframe and within budget.
"Synaq has superb project management skills which is sorely lacking in the industry. They are in touch with business and technology, and their standards-based approach ensures that one never feels locked in as is often the case with open source and custom development," comments Silva.
"The company took the time to audit and understand our technology which ensured that they understood our challenges. Synaq has proven to be a valuable partner for Nandos and I am confident that we have a bright future together," Silva concludes.
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