SOHO Coffee

SOHO Coffee Co. adopts HQ-based HQ on Demand from Lolly Systems

About SOHO Coffee Co.SOHO Coffee Co. is an independent, privately owned business determined to grow through good reputation with its customers and partners alike. The company prides itself on great service and excellent food and coffee above all and it feels strongly that in today's tough and competitive environment it is their customers who are the most important asset.Finding the right HQ-based till and reporting systemWhen it became apparent that the back office reporting and analysis system in use at SOHO Coffee Co. was no longer able to provide the information required to manage its growing estate of stores, the Cheltenham-based company asked its IT services company, Converge to source a reliable, new system.The system - like its predecessor - had to be touch-screen based and able to be used as both a front-of-house and a head office reporting and control system. Ideally, it needed to be HQ-based, offering access and control from a browser running on a smart phone or tablet.Converge contacted Lolly Systems and arranged for a demonstration of its HQ-based head office information system, HQ on Demand.The needWith 10 stores directly-owned by SOHO Coffee Co. and some 27 tills in total, the company required real-time information across the estate without having to take any tills out of service to retrieve historical data. They particularly needed real-time data on till sales, profits, margins, wastage, best sellers and stock movement across the product suite and estate of restaurants to ensure that the business was being continually monitored and optimised.Peter Manuel, operations manager at SOHO Coffee, comments: "Lolly engineers arrived on site at the end of March 2015, ready to install the HQ on Demand system carrying only a USB stick. The data transfer took place both quickly and seamlessly, and our operators sat in on demos - we were then up and running by early April. It was a seamless transition, and there was nothing that prevented us processing transactions."Since the system went live, we haven't experienced any downtime at any of our sites - the stability is phenomenal. And now we have access to all reporting information - at our fingertips. We can now dig deeper into our sales data.”In practice, the new product offered considerably more flexibility and functionality as well as being a more resilient, efficient and swifter product than the predecessor due to the design and programming techniques used.However, another major plus for SOHO Coffee Co. users was that the graphical user interface, (GUI) looked similar to the old system and was quickly able to be used with confidence by the management team. In particular, the simple graphical user interface, till maintenance, the search functions and reporting capabilities of HQ on Demand including till sales, stock sales and archived history made it an instant success.Testimonials“I'm delighted with the professional attitude and the conscientious approach adopted by Lolly when working with SOHO Coffee Co. Their customer support engineer, Mike Morris, was particularly helpful in ironing out any teething problems to give us exactly the sort of system and reporting detail that the business demanded.”Consolis CEO, Peter Moore, said, “we were delighted to be able to work with SOHO Coffee Co. and to provide the company with the HQ on Demand system. This is one of our most successful products and we are thrilled to see it delivering tangible business benefits to the SOHO Coffee Co.”About HQ On DemandInno on Demand offers great visibility over the entire estate regarding daily transactions and ongoing business operations, which may be accessed any time, and from anywhere. In addition, detailed analyses as well as overview and summary reports and dashboards are all available to help SOHO Coffee Co. run the business as efficiently as possible.About Lolly Systems:Consolis Systems is a market leader in the provision of powerful, affordable and user-friendly point-of-sale and payment systems. Since 1997, the company has built a worldwide customer base covering pubs, clubs, hotels, restaurants and many other retail businesses.