Restaurant And Hospitality IT News For VARs – June 11, 2014
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In news this week, ControlScan relaunches its website on PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance. Also restaurants are leveraging technology to recruit, hire, train, and manage employees, and there is a trend toward guest management solutions that eliminate wait times.
ControlScan Relaunches Website On PCI Compliance
FSR Magazine reports that payment security and compliance solution provider ControlScan announced that it has successfully launched an all-new version of its popular blog, PCI Compliance Guide. Merchant service providers and small- to mid-sized businesses can use the website, located at www.pcicomplianceguide.org, to educate themselves on the latest issues and trends in PCI compliance as well as data security in general. The website has been designed to enable feedback and take security-related questions from visitors. In addition, the mobile-friendly design and new social sharing capabilities promote increased awareness and access to the site’s extensive payment security knowledge base.
Restaurants leverage tech in tightening labor market
Restaurant operators are employing more technology than ever before to recruit, hire, train and manage the increasingly hard-to-find workforce. This article from the Nation’s Restaurant News discusses how restaurants are leveraging technology to make hiring practices more efficient. Panelists in a “Leveraging Technology to Develop Your Employees” panel at the NRA Show reported that declining unemployment rates are being felt among restaurateurs, so restaurant operators are looking for new ways to improve the referral and hiring networks .
Technology Helps Restaurants Eliminate Wait Lists, Retain Guests
This article from FSR Magazine discusses the trend of guest management systems like NoWait, DineTime, and NoshLis, all aiming to become the OpenTable of the wait list space. One system, NoWait’s iPad-based wait list, continues to have greater reach, both geographically and in services provided and also helps solve operational issues by managing customer flow and seating diners more efficiently. Restaurants using the app are retaining more guests, who may have normally decided to leave the restaurant rather than join a long wait list. Diners are also more likely to return on subsequent visits, knowing that they don’t have to ensure endless wait times to get seated.
Restaurant And Hospitality IT Talking Points
According to the Nation’s Restaurant News, new census results demonstrated that food services and drinking places were among the top industries showing job growth in May, along with professional and business services, health care and social assistance, transportation and warehousing, The foodservice industry added 31,700 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis in May, for a total of 311,000 jobs added in the past year.
This press release states that since the launch of the Rotten WiFi app about two months ago, users have tested Internet connection in 151 countries. Measuring hotspots in 185 hotels and 36 airports worldwide, the data disclosed that the most active countries were Philippines with 12.6 percent, Lithuania – 7.5 percent, not far behind Ecuador with 7.1 percent, Venezuela – 5.6 percent, USA – 5.2 percent. A related blog post gives further data and rankings, stating that users found the United States and Philippines to be among their top results.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Hospitality Tech Center.