Atholl Arms Hotel, Scotland

July 27, 2019

On taking over the hotel, it was quickly identified that there was a need to improve many of the processes and procedures, together with dated infrastructure. A priority in this respect was the EPoS and Property Management Systems which were outdated, expensive and ineffective in providing sales and management data.

ICR Scotland are an established provider of ICRTouch and tailored EPoS solutions for restaurants, pubs, hoteliers, fast-food outlets and retailers.

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The brief

The historic 233-year-old Atholl Arms Hotel is located in the heart of the highlands in Dunkeld, Perthshire and is the perfect hotel for any business or pleasure getaway in Scotland. The hotel comprises of 17 well-appointed bedrooms along with the Riverview restaurant, Meeting Place Bar and Riverside Cafe. The restaurant has won numerous awards and serves the best of local and seasonal ingredients.

The hotel was recently bought over by Zsolt Balogh, who was keen to establish his own business after some 27 years’ working for others in the hospitality trade. His aim was to identify an under-performing business in a good location that he could transform by applying his knowledge and experience.

On taking over the hotel, Zsolt quickly identified the need to improve many of the processes and procedures, together with dated infrastructure that he had inherited. A priority in this respect was the EPoS and Property Management Systems which were outdated, expensive and ineffective in providing sales and management data. Zsolt explains “The existing EPoS system was seven years old and offered a mismatch of hardware and software that didn’t interface with our other systems and provided little management control. Simple things like being able to post a resident’s food and drink charges electronically from the bar or restaurant directly onto their room account were impossible, and the system was too slow and inefficient at busy times, leading to errors, lost sales and customer dissatisfaction.”

The solution

Having previously worked with ICR Scotland, Zsolt chose the company again, to advise on, and implement a complete EPoS upgrade. ICR Scotland provided the complete ICRTouch family of software. Zsolt says “Ian and his team at ICR are very experienced and knowledgeable. They spent time at the hotel, investigating the various aspects of the business before providing a bespoke solution that fitted my particular business needs. Without the walkthrough of my business I don’t think a suitable system could be implemented which would be capable of handling the requirements of my busy hotel, and in order to increase profit margins”

Sales Director, Iain Montgomery recommended a range of software from market leading EPoS Software provider ICRTouch. Iain said, “The foundation to our EPoS system is ICRTouch’s TouchPoint. The software is reliable, easy to use and proven. The main benefits of this software are; it’s extremely stable, intuitive to use, with a wide array of additional modules and third-party integrations”.

The Suite Of Software And Hardware Provided Includes:

• Aures Yuno Touch Screen EPoS Terminals

• ICRTouch TouchPoint

• ICRTouch TouchOffice Web

• ICRTouch PocketTouch

• ICRTouch TouchLoyalty

The result

Benefits For Atholl Arms Hotel

• Aures Yuno Touch Screen EPoS Terminal with TouchPoint is a fast, reliable and easy to use touch screen EPoS Interface for the busy public bar.

• Hotel residents’ food and drink bills can be posted electronically and instantly charged to their room from the bar or restaurant, so their account is always up to date.

• Wireless hand-held ordering via PocketTouch reduces customer waiting times, encourages more frequent ordering and higher average spends and can also significantly reduce staffing overheads.

• Table tracking and kitchen order printing in the dining areas ensures nothing leaves the kitchen without first having been charged on the till.

• Inbuilt customer loyalty database provides incentives to win and retain customers from your local competitors with TouchLoyalty.

• TouchOffice Web allows full management control and real-time reporting from any internet connected device. Take reports, change products and prices or perform stock taking procedures remotely from your office, home, or wherever.

One of the many suggestions given to the Atholl Arms was to trial PocketTouch which runs on any handheld, wireless Android or iOS device and is used by waiting staff for taking food and drink orders.

Zsolt added, “Our kitchen, bar and restaurant is some distance apart and as you can imagine it can take some time to go out, take the food and drinks orders using a traditional order pad and pen, then walk to the bar to manually input the order into the till. Ultimately, this then takes the server away from the customer. ICR Scotland loaned us the handheld device for two weeks to test before making a decision.”

Benefits Of PocketTouch

• The software can be programmed to prompt the server to upsell. For example; if spaghetti bolognaise was ordered, the system prompts the server to ask if side orders are required, and whether any drinks are needed. Overall giving them tighter control of orders.

• Waiting staff can focus on providing a better and personalised customer service.

• Cost Savings, Atholl Arms Hotel now needs one less member of waiting staff for each shift.

To provide a fully integrated solution, ICR Scotland were able to recommend a range of Property Management System (PMS) providers that could be interfaced with their new ICRTouch EPoS System.

With experience in using mainstream hotel PMS such as Micros and Opera, which Zsolt found dated, he elected to use “HOP” Property Management System.

“Ian and his team at ICR Scotland are very experienced and knowledgeable. They spent time at the hotel, investigating the various aspects of the business before providing a bespoke solution that fitted my particular business needs.”

Hospitality, Hotels, ICR Scotland, PocketTouch, TouchLoyalty, TouchOffice Web, TouchPoint

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