By MARK  BRANDAU

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(Oct. 26, 2009) Entrepreneurs always are looking for the next million-dollar idea, but restaurateur Michael Attias got his idea for a new business from a million dollars.

When Attias grew catering sales to seven figures at his 104-seat Corky’s Bar-B-Q franchise near Nashville, Tenn., in 2005, he formed Restaurant Catering Systems to market the specialized catering software that he had developed to aid his business. The Web-based software lets operators and guests order quickly and easily, enables customer referrals and loyalty rewards, and automates the marketing crucial to catering management.

“The integrated marketing functionality was created to lock in customer loyalty,” Attias said. “Something as simple as contacting customers that haven’t ordered in a few months thanks to our customer reactivation module will pay for the investment.”

While catering sales represent a popular way to add to the top line, many operators say they’re hardly icing on the cake. Sales of off-site meals have to be integrated into the whole business plan, not just tacked on as an extra service, which is why several restaurant companies are implementing operations software designed specifically for catering.

Many nationally franchised brands turn to Altametrics, a California-based firm whose eRestaurant software suite has a module for catering and event management. Mitesh Gala, co-founder and chief executive of Altametrics, says catering is a natural extension of serving food, but the tactic requires planning.

“You have to remember to look at the business holistically,” he said. “If you think catering is this silo that doesn’t impact other parts of the business, it’ll hamper your success. Make sure whatever you’re going to do is going to integrate, otherwise the left hand isn’t going to know what the right is doing.”

As operators take orders using Altametrics’ system, the food and labor requirements for those meals flow into those metrics measured for the whole location, automatically coordinating scheduling and purchasing. About 44,000 locations of brands like California Pizza Kitchen, Wendy’s and Rock Bottom Restaurants use the eRestaurant suite, Gala said.

Salad Creations, an entirely franchised system of 39 restaurants, has been testing Restaurant Catering Systems’ software for a year. Vice president of marketing John King sees catering as a “huge opportunity” and praised the program’s ability to improve order accuracy and follow-up marketing.

By MARK  BRANDAU

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“As you build up the catering side of the business, it can get rather chaotic,” King said. “Dedicated software is a terrific tool to stay on top of it.”

Restaurant Catering Systems stays on top of King’s chain as well, holding monthly coaching calls with franchisees. King thinks catering could become as much as 15 percent to 20 percent of Salad Creations’ business.

Another client, Moe’s Southwest Grill franchisee Guy Campbell, feels bullish about Restaurant Catering Systems’ effect on catering sales. Of his nine Tampa, Fla.-area units, the initial four to test the software grew catering sales 50 percent.

“It’s not just the growth in sales,” he says, “but the ease with which managers can deal with it. It takes a lot of follow up and marketing out of managers’ hands, and it allows them to get the order right and take care of the restaurant day to day.”

The program produces a steady stream of referrals, Campbell added.

“We’ve always had [business from] pharmaceutical reps,” he said, “but now we’re getting orders directly from the doctor’s offices. Sometimes it’s the person always placing the order, the receptionist, referring us to other people so she can get her bounce-back [loyalty rewards].”

McAlister’s Deli, the fast-casual chain of nearly 300 locations, does healthy catering sales without dedicated software—about 8 percent systemwide—but it plans to test a Web-based catering module in units near its Ridgeland, Miss., headquarters starting in January, said vice president of training Vickie Frisbie.

Currently, the brand manages catering orders with a blend of its point-of-sale system and pen and paper, Frisbie said. Catering software would allow McAlister’s to track customer data better and build reliability within those relationships.

“By knowing the group you’re delivering to, you can tap further into the broader audience you have,” she said. “That leads you to the sports complex, then the coaches, then the [athletes’] moms, who end up being your social-catering clients.…This lets you segment out your database and market with things that will drive more sales in that area.”

McAlister’s already sells lots of sandwich platters and gallons of sweet tea, Frisbie said, but it also will push its side dishes and holiday cookie platters to get more people thinking of the brand as a go-to catering option.

“The relationship of catering and the economy today is important,” she said, “and we’re making sure we have reliability and great relationships with our customers. To perform detailed sales and profit analysis is going to be critical to us in 2010 to continue to grasp that market share.”—mbrandau@nrn.com