Name: Matt Phipps
Title: president, chief executive and founder, Blendz Franchise System Inc., Campbell, Calif.
Birth date: Oct. 22, 1971
Education: bachelor of arts, economics/business management, University of California at Santa Cruz
Career: founded Blendz in 2003, after six years of working for, and later owning, brand marketing agencies serving high-tech clientele; previously worked in marketing departments for Cisco Systems and Borland Software
Manages: 25 employees
Family: married
Pastimes: mountain biking and martial arts
POS system: Digital Dining hardware and software
Enterprise accounting and human resources applications: Intuit Quickbooks Pro with interfaces to Digital Dining and ADP for payroll
Other applications: CostGuard inventory software; FranConnect intranet and customer management software; DD Review add-on application for Digital Dining for real-time, chainwide polling of stores for operations and financial data
Working on the marketing side for companies like Cisco Systems taught Matt Phipps a thing or two about the power of information technology, or IT, to foster operational growth. So it's no surprise that the president, chief executive and founder of Campbell, Calif.-based Blendz considers technology a linchpin for expanding his circle of quick-service restaurants. The chain, whose menu features such fare as fresh fruit smoothies, salads, soups and panini sandwiches, currently comprises four company-owned stores and one franchised unit. Another 11 units, 10 franchised and one corporate-owned, are slated to open by the end of 2007.
"Technology allows us to do more with less," says Phipps, who plans to expand his chain aggressively during the next four years. "It permits us to communicate and support our franchisees and operators with the same level of detail no matter where they are in the country, which is essential to growth. It also puts us at the cutting edge of convenience for our customers and increases order speed and accuracy."
The restaurateur adds, "Nothing will ever replace the requirement for great people skills, but technology can take over certain tasks [and] that [will] enable our employees to focus on [the] customers."
Phipps views technology as "a great equalizer" for restaurants and, as such, requires franchisees to deploy the same hardware and software as company-owned units. By fully embracing IT from the beginning and continuing to deploy new applications, he indicates, small foodservice startups can sharpen their competitive edge by functioning in the same manner as larger, established organizations.
What is Blendz's current IT project, and what do you hope to gain from it?
Implementing a new inventory management application with a direct interface to our POS and accounting systems, as well as to our vendors' order systems. Keeping track of food product is critical to any well-run business. This new program will truly streamline much of the tedious operational and accounting tasks, as well as give our operators much tighter control over their food costs.
What application are you using for this inventory-procurement system?
CostGuard will be the application that manages my supply chain and vendors. Every piece of inventory will be monitored by this system, and it will tie in with our Digital Dining POS system as well. Every time a salad is ordered, the appropriate amount of inventory will be reduced. Based upon set pars and reorder amounts, a purchase order can then be automatically generated.
Will this be a Web-based tool?
The system is not Web based but is a third-party application designed by At-Your-Service Software out of New York.
How will your supply chain practices change as a result of this new technology?
It is important for us to streamline and optimize our current supply chain and the amount of vendors we use before we roll over to this new system. This is the chance for us to truly look at best practices and implement those as we use this new system of management. We will probably end up with about three to four vendors who will interface with this system — some directly and others indirectly.
Describe how you envision using this inventory-procurement system.
This ideal flow will have a manager monitor the inventory in CostGuard and run a report to see what needs to be ordered. A purchase order will be generated and transmitted to the vendor as an order. Once the order is received and verified, the manager will release the purchase order to an invoice. The invoice can then automatically be imported into our accounting system to be paid. You have to love automation!
Why is technology important to start-up foodservice operators?
Start-ups have unique challenges in that [executives] must run all aspects of [the] business, usually with very limited resources. Be it a professional-looking website, an automated voicemail PBX system, an intranet for internal communication and resources or 'smart' gift cards [redeemable] at every retail location, technology can drastically save time and money, thereby stretching start-ups' resources while setting them apart from competitors.
What applications are essential to start-ups, and why?
Aprofessional looking, informative website tops the list. The Web is the way research is done today, and operations without websites will miss out on a huge potential customer base. Email is the second basic technology. It is the communications vehicle that allows you to be global and work from wherever you produce best. Beyond these basics, every company will probably have different technology needs. For Blendz, deploying integrated gift and frequent dining cards that work across all locations [represented] a huge leap that set us apart from other start-up restaurants.
How do you feel about customized technology products, vs. off-the-shelf systems?
There are amazing technologies out there that can fill almost every need we might have, without creating custom solutions. In my agency days, we always told clients that a custom solution was the way to go. But technology is so versatile now [that] businesses can outsource a huge portion of their operations and save valuable dollars and personnel while having experts in that technology field continue to enhance the product.
What's the biggest IT challenge you've faced at Blendz?
Rolling out a corporate headquarters version of our Digital Dining POS system. The challenge was to establish the base system off which all locations would be built and then re-deploy all the locations without having any downtime during open hours. There were a few sleepless nights, but we got it done.
What challenges do you anticipate going forward?
Keeping up with technology and choosing the right [applications] to implement. There are so many advances and so many options to choose from. It will be crucial to evaluate technologies and stay on the cutting edge without going broke by picking the wrong ones.
What new technologies would you like to see developed for the restaurant industry?
Anything that can increase communication with customers. And how about a way for customers to place orders via cell phone and pay for them before they even walk into the restaurant? Cool!