Intrapreneurship Plan
Business
Executive Summary
Even top companies are facing difficulties when it comes to finding the most suitable innovation that will bring forth a considerable success for the business. On the other hand, sailing into the vast ocean of entrepreneurship does not mean doing it alone because the business has several talents on board that could contribute ideas for business innovation. In the food and beverage industry innovation can be observed in the number of technological platforms integrated into the food service in order to create more value to the products and services and ultimately to provide convenience. For the restaurant business getting equipped with mobile technology brings the products and services to a whole new level. The proposed new technology for the restaurant will enable customers to use their phone to pay and place orders through mobile app in which the orders can be picked from the store. This will save the customers significant amount of time waiting for their orders to go or waiting in line to be seated because the app will allow customers to place reservation via the app, select the best available spot, or be informed about their spot in the queue.
Description of the Proposed App
The restaurant service app serves several benefits for the restaurant and the integration of mobile technology presents several opportunities for the restaurant to improve its food service. In addition, the proposed idea demonstrates an innovative approach for the restaurant business because the concept applies several technological platforms that are widely used by the majority of consumers, but not fully explored by many casual and fine dining restaurants (Bora and Gupta, 2012). Furthermore, the integration of mobile technology in restaurant business encompasses an approach to improvement by emphasizing convenience and time saving options (Tice, 2012). One of the problems that popular casual and fine dining restaurants are facing in their daily operations is how to accommodate customers on queue that are waiting to be seated.
Most of the time, waiting to be seated for too long results to customers leaving and the restaurant losing customers in the process. However, the service app being proposed herewith changes all that because the app will include a real-time queue monitoring function that will allow the customers to reserve a spot in the waiting list and see how far they are in the queue. With this function, the customers don’t need to wait on the line in front of the restaurant for too long because a message will be sent to their mobile app every time their slot in the queue advances. In addition, the call will be made to the customer to inform them to proceed to the restaurant as soon they reached the third spot in the waiting list. The customers will also see in real time if there are customers ahead in the queue that drops out from the waiting list, the same function available in the app will also enable the customers to drop out of the waiting list by cancelling their spot reservation if they choose to move on to another restaurant.
Another important option that the app can offer to the customer is take out priority, which will be offered only if they choose to cancel their spot in the waiting list via the mobile app. The service app also enable customers to place orders for pick up in advance without the need to call and the order can be paid through the mobile app via credit card, debit card, and other electronic payment channels. As for the dine in customers particularly those that are in the waiting list, orders can be placed in advanced and this will shorten the time that the diners have to spend for their food to be served. Payment convenience is another important aspect of the proposed idea for innovation. To reduce the instances of the customer’s credit card taken away from sight, which is a security risk on their part, the app can accept payments electronically using various channels (Lo et al., 2011).
Benefits to the Business and Return of Investment
The implementation of the app requires additional investment in terms acquisition of necessary third party service to develop the app and equipment to make it operational. On the other hand the investment can be justified by the benefits. Example of benefits includes driving more business through faster customer turnover, a added channel for marketing and advertising, increasing social media presence that improves brand awareness, a medium for collecting customer feedback, easier customer tracking during busy operations, and a good tool for collecting customer information (Ziosk, 2013). In terms of return of investment, considering the developing and implementation of the service app will cost the business an average of $300,000, the restaurant trough an increase in customer business can recover this amount in less than six months. If the restaurant’s average net revenue from each customer is $10-20, and the average number of customers per day is 50 to 100, the business earns net revenue of $2,000 per day.
Considering the cost of the mobile app implementation and development, the business would be able to receive return of investment in no time. However, in the real world, the cost of investing in the proposed concept will enable the restaurant to receive ROI between six months to one year. Furthermore, if the restaurant is losing an average of 30 customers a day because of waiting too long in the line without efficient means for customers to monitor the queue, the implementation of the service app can recover the lost customers. This translates to additional $600 of net revenue for the restaurant, which can significantly improve bottom line and the more customers get to know about the innovation introduced by the restaurant, the higher the tendencies for acquiring new customers. In addition, the added advertising and marketing value that the service app provides will save the restaurant thousands of dollars on marketing an advertising expenditure because the add can do the same more effectively.
Implementation Plan for the Restaurant Service App
In order to enable the full implementation of the plan, it will need the following resources with costs indicated for each aspect.
Interdepartmental and Interorganizational Relationship
The proposed deployment of the app requires the support of other departments particularly the finance and accounting department in order to deliberate and approve the required amount for the project. It is necessary to coordinate with the said department in order to monitor changes in the proposed cost and ultimately to justify with the concerned department why the indicated amount is necessary. It is also important to involve the help of the marketing and advertising department in the process in order to ensure that launch of the service app gains enough attention and publicity. Lastly, the entire project group should be constant communication with the app developer in order ensure that the specifics in the app functions are met and to discuss any problems that could arise during the testing phase.
Completion Timeline
The following table provides the timeline of the app deployment project and it is important that the development phase follows the indicated timeline to ascertain the timely launch of the app, and to avoid unnecessary expense of the resources due to project delays.
References
Bora, P. & Gupta, E. (2012). Application in order management system in restaurants. International Journal Of Application Or Innovation In Engineering & Management, 1(2), 59-62. Retrieved from http://www.ijaiem.org/volume1Issue2/IJAIEM-2012-10-15-027.pdf
Formotus,. (2014). Figuring the costs of mobile app development. Formotus.com. Retrieved 2 May 2016, from http://www.formotus.com/14018/blog-mobility/figuring-the-costs-of-custom-mobile-business-app-development
Lo, C., Lin, C., & Tsai, C. (2011). Mobile restaurant information system integrating reservation navigating and parking management. International Journal Of Engineering And Technology, 3(2), 173-181. Retrieved from http://www.enggjournals.com/ijet/docs/IJET11-03-02-43.pdf
Tice, C. (2012). How restaurants are using technology to deliver better customer service. Forbes.com. Retrieved 2 May 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/caroltice/2012/12/07/how-restaurants-are-using-technology-to-deliver-better-customer-service/#325bd93f626d
Ziosk, E. (2013). Chili's® Grill & Bar Innovates the Guest Dining Experience with Introduction of Ziosk® Tablets. Prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2 May 2016, from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chilis-grill--bar-innovates-the-guest-dining-experience-with-introduction-of-ziosk-tablets-224058451.html
