Customer Stories: GUSTO Espresso Bar.

Gusto Espresso Bar has been an icon in Sydney’s Bondi Beach since the early 90’s. Renowned for it’s friendly service and great coffee, the business has expanded into 5 sites and has successfully partnered with Bake Bar, an artisan organic bakery to open new sites offering the best in coffee and locally baked goods. Aside from these retail outlets, Bake Bar has also established a wholesale bakery business in Alexandria to service the chain. The group currently has around 80 staff including bakers, baristas, kitchen staff and retail assistants.

FileMaker Pro was introduced to Rafi Aruch, the founder of Gusto, on a visit to the Apple Store in Bondi Junction. The Apple business manager determined the diverse needs of the group, and suggested that a custom FileMaker solution – paired with ipads and iphones as the key input devices – would provide Gusto with the flexible and sturdy solution they required.

The key business areas that needed to be addressed were:

• Personnel management (rostering, time sheets, wages, records)
• Purchasing and order fulfillment (purchase orders, acceptance of orders, invoicing.)
• Sales data collection and reporting.

David Lancaster from the FileMaker Pro consultancy Radion Business Systems was selected to develop and design the solution. After a month of consultation the foundation of the design was agreed. 6 weeks later, the Gusto Coogee café implemented the ‘GUSTO’ App. Onsite staff training was carried out in both device and application functionality, and after a few weeks of testing, massaging and modifying, the app was ready to be implemented across the group.

David then contracted the FMStudio to provide hosting services.

12 months on, the solution is now used across the brand with more sites planned in the near future. Over 80 staff are using their iphones or ipads to access the solution 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, connecting to the FMStudio’s dedicated FileMaker servers in Ultimo, Sydney – via wifi or 3/4G.

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Problems, Solutions and Benefits.

1. Wages and Rostering Management.

Problem: The system in place was complex and paper-based, time consuming for Managers, and often inaccurate. Staff were paid by roster hours rather than actual work time, and reports were produced by offsite accountants resulting in double entry of data.

Solution: With the new GUSTO APP, staff now sign in and out via ipad as they enter and leave the site. This input, matched with rostering data and personnel wage tables, allows managers to produce accurate wage slips for every employee by simply running a wage report on demand.

Benefits: Time saved – around 30 hours a week across the group. The system encourages staff to be on time and accountable. Business owners have remote access to wage data in real time. Changes in pay rates and conditions are immediately updated on site. All data can be accessed by offsite accountants in real time.

2. Purchase Ordering.

Problem: Purchasing had always been done over the phone, which left room for error and often lead to supply issues. Supplier invoices were the only record which made it difficult for managers and accountants to cross check, and a variety of staff were required to both order and accept goods.

Solution: All purchasing is now done via the ipad. Creation of orders is completed on ipad with a simple interface that is, when completed, signed off and emailed directly as a pdf to the supplier with a one button touch. Orders are accepted via another user-friendly interface that automatically flags incorrect prices or undelivered goods. Credit notes can be immediately issued. The order creation and acceptance process produces a pro forma invoice that allows for future cash flow analysis. A photo of the paper invoice taken with the ipad can be stored in FileMaker with the order and the receiving staff member’s signature.

Benefits: All purchasing and acceptance of orders is documented and checked on site. Undelivered and incorrectly priced goods are easily tracked and corrected. Supplier relationships are improved and maintained. Overall, the procurement and logistics features have saved time, confusion and money, while the pro forma invoices allow owners to produce accurate cash flow predictions.

Conclusion.

These are just a sample of the benefits that the Gusto/Bake bar group has realized through the implementation of this custom FileMaker solution. Having the GUSTO APP running on ipads and iphones and hosted and served centrally by the folks at the FMStudio, the business owners, staff and accountants are all working together within the one system, saving significantly on time and money.

As an organization they are now able to continue their steady expansion without the fear of adminstration overload nor the large costs associated running their own IT department.

Hosting benefits.

Having their system hosted by the FMStudio has many benefits for the Gusto Group. The owners and accountants can react in real time to day to day issues, and if the owners require changes to data and metadata, Radion Business Systems can make these quickly and easily, confident that automatic back up and security of data is ensured.

Having a trusted, professional FileMaker Hosting Company partner with the Gusto Group, provides this critical piece of core infrastructure, and priceless peace of mind.

Article written by: David Lancaster ~ Radion Business Systems. August, 2015.