by Dixon Epperson

Recently, I was at a technological show displaying some software I sell when I met two gentlemen from Alabama. A father and son. Dad comes up to me and says, “My boy says we have the smallest chain you can have and still call it a chain. We have two restaurants!” And so began a very enjoyable conversation between us that lasted a good half an hour and left me with a sense of appreciation for these two fellows.

Successful restaurant people, if you haven’t figured this out yet, like to be around people. We like to “jaw” or “yap” or “shoot the bull” or “kibitz.” This strength in relationships makes us feel strangely alienated by that thing they call a computer. And yet, restaurant people stand to gain as much as a Fortune 500 company from the smart use of computers. Instead of tackling the challenge head on, we duck it, run from it, delegate it or learn just enough to get by.

This is what I admired so much about the two guys from Alabama. The father, around age 60, confesses that he has just attended a computer training class. Then his son dragged him to the tech show. In a couple of weeks, he had another computer class to go to. Whatever the crisis might have been in their business that gave the son the advantage wasn’t told to me. But, it doesn’t matter. The son had the prod and he was patiently moving his Dad towards a level of technological proficiency that would eventually pay off. For his own part, the old man was demonstrating courage and a willingness to learn, with good humor as demonstrated by the fact that he kept calling the “mouse” a “rat.”

Courage is essential to survival! Willingness to learn is essential for progress! If you are going to make technology pay, then you must have a willingness to learn and the courage to dive in and learn it. Just owning a computer and having the software installed will not bring you into the technological age. You need to learn it, to use it and to apply it. I remember so well my first computer. Our company had computers, but I barely knew how to turn them on. It was in the late ‘80s, I was in my middle thirties, president of the company with restaurants in four states, when my VAR (value added reseller) convinced me that by embracing new technology I could pay for the investment in terms of productivity. Actually, the real motivator was our old system was breaking down, and since they weren’t making that model of computer anymore, I was really forced to buy into the state of the art technology at that time.

It was a 386, 16 on a Novell v2.x local area network. We had 7 workstations. I had a color monitor. Everyone else had monochrome monitors. I turned it on the first day, looked at it, let it run all day long and turned it off when I left the office that night. As a matter of fact, that is pretty much all I did the first couple of weeks. It gradually began to sink in that if I was ever going to make this investment work for me, I needed to study and learn how to use it.

Of course, we had the accounting software, some specialized software that our VAR had written and installed, WordPerfect v5.0 and a program called Quattro Pro, a spreadsheet program. WordPerfect was fairly easy to learn. But Quattro Pro, well it sat on my desk for 6 months before I finally set about learning it. Back then, software would come with these big thick “How To” manuals. I launched Quattro Pro, picked up the “Getting Started” manual and starting reading. They kept talking about cells. I didn’t have a clue. What did they mean by cells? When I looked at the screen, it was blue. There weren’t any cells on the screen! Just a blank blue screen. No lines, just blue. There was a white bar across the top with black letters in it and there was also a white bar on the left side with some numbers in it. There was also a menu across the very top, but I couldn’t figure out how to get up there. So after a couple of hours of looking at the blue screen, reading the manual, and wondering what in the world you can do with this thing, I figured it was time to turn it off and go home. Except I didn’t know how. I knew there would be an exit command in the “File” menu, but how to get there was beyond me. So I just turned the whole computer off and went home.

Eventually it began to make sense. Eventually I began to get proficient with the software and before long, the productivity gains began to kick in, big time! From these stories, I have discovered that there are three key ingredients that are essential for your successful embrace of technology.

The first, which I have illustrated already, is courage and the willingness to learn. In our fast paced world, you never stop learning. The second you think you’ve arrived and quit trying to improve and learn knew things, is the second you begin to fall behind. The second ingredient is your VAR. If you really want to make technology pay for you and you really want to save money, get a good VAR. I’ll give you some tips on selecting a VAR in a moment, but first let me explain about saving money. You can go up to the super duper computer store in your area, read all the specs and let a sales person talk you into a particular model with pre-loaded software for $999. (This is okay for home use, where you just want a computer to get on the Internet, do a few things and have some games to play.) Or you can talk to a VAR and spend $1099, plus the cost to buy the software you’ll need. Doesn’t sound much like saving money does it? But it is and here is why. A good VAR will sell you a machine that works and will be ready to service it on site if something breaks down. A good VAR will not sell you a lot of software that you don’t need, that doesn’t work, and is constantly interfering with your critical software. A good VAR will be there to help you learn how to make your system work and help you learn how to use it. You will probably have to pay your VAR an hourly rate for their tutoring, but what you gain will be well worth it.

One of the biggest hindrances to the successful implementation of technology in small businesses is the commodity mentality. Computers might have become a commodity, as shown in the latest full page newspaper ads hawking the lowest price, but the implementation of technology is not a commodity. The implementation of technology requires specialized knowledge that your VAR can provide for you in the most cost effective method possible.

So how do you choose a good VAR? First, let me say that I am not a VAR, so this is not a recitation of my strengths. This is, in fact, an observation of what works and what doesn’t.

The first quality you need to look for is someone who is staying current in his or her field. A VAR who doesn’t read up on current technology probably isn’t going to be very good for you over the long haul. You need someone who is staying current on all the latest developments, attending seminars, and has the attitude that their gain in knowledge is vital to their customer base and business success.

The second quality necessary in a good VAR is that they take the time to understand your business. It isn’t enough that they know their technology well and are staying current. It is imperative that they also study your business and make a genuine effort to understand both your current and future needs. Along with that is the need to talk to you about new developments and how they could help your business, giving you the option of selecting technological advances to enhance your business.

The third quality you need in a VAR is someone you are comfortable with and can ask questions without being made to feel stupid. They have the knowledge and you are paying for it, so ask questions and stay at it until you understand. If you feel intimidated, you will never ask the questions that you might think sound kind of dumb, and so you will never get what you pay for. There is a slight problem with this qualification, though. Some of your smartest people that have the most to offer simply can’t communicate. So I am not suggesting that you look for a VAR who you would be comfortable having over for a cookout, but rather one who is willing to take the time to help you learn and grow.

The fourth quality you should look for in a VAR is a satisfied customer base. Ask for references and then call those references.

The third ingredient in making technology work for you is selecting the software. The software I write is highly specialized and it won’t work for everybody and therefore, I haven’t tried to make it a catchall program. In fact, it was a need for software such as this that prompted me to make a career change.

You will be able to use only a few of the off the shelf products in your business. Word processing and spreadsheets are a couple of general type applications that you need. But, for you to really make technology pay for you, you will almost certainly need to move into more specialized software that never gets to the shelves of the super stores. However, shop around until you find the software that will really help you accomplish what you need to in your business.

Years ago, when I was looking for a POS type software for our business, I managed to get a first hand, unwanted education in this area. I had analyzed my needs to determine what I wanted and how I could make it work. The first company I sat down with had a big beautiful color 2 page folder filled with column after column of small print of what it could do. WOW! This is it, I thought. So I started reading. Every one of the 100+ capabilities. When I finished reading their sales literature, I asked if it could do just two things. The answer was no, but it could do this and that and this and that. When they finished trying to convince me that I didn’t need the two options I had asked for, my response was thanks for your time, but I think I need to keep looking. The point I am trying to make is this, know your business and insist on getting software that meets your needs. The software they were showing me was good software with a good reputation. But, it didn’t meet my needs. So I kept looking until I arrived at a reasonable solution.

As a matter of record, there are well over 100 software vendors for point of sale. So shop the field.

Another area of importance for software is an open interface, compatibility to work with other software. This is getting fairly common in software packages so it really shouldn’t be a problem, however it is one that your VAR can help you with.

Finally, don’t neglect training. All software is useless to you unless your employees are trained to use it. Often times, the software seller provides training in the price quoted, but make sure that somewhere, somehow, training is included.

After all this, if you are still asking yourself if you really need to get on the technological bandwagon, then consider this. Foodservice is the only business where three of the foundational concepts are wrapped up into one business. Manufacturing, Distribution, and Marketing. Properly applied technology is the one tool that can give you enough time to get back to the fundamental concept of why you got into foodservice in the first place. You’re a people person!