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Hooters IT Department Recieves Nations Restaurant News Technology Innovation Award

October 18, 2007 // Franchising.com // Hooters of America, Inc. was awarded the 2007 Nations Restaurant News Technology Innovation Award for its implementation of the new ITWERCS Enterprise Point of Sale System in all of its 123 corporately owned and operated restaurants. The system was developed over several years by the in-house technology team, and represents a great stride forward in managing Point of Sale, Inventory, and Labor. Chris Duncan, Vice President and Wes Marco, Director of Information Services, accepted the award today at Nations Restaurant News FS/TEC Show in Atlanta, Georgia on behalf of their team and all of the operators of Hooters Restaurants. The Hooters IT Team and Hooters Operations worked diligently to roll this system out over the past six months, completing the project in August of this year.

The Information Technology Web Enabled Restaurant Control System (ITWERCS) is unique in that the Enterprise system controls all aspects of the Point of Sale. Through Electronic Data Interchange, orders are placed in the back-office system and received in by exception, up to and including scanning of the vendor invoices for electronic transfer up to the corporate office. Details of every transaction are sent up to the enterprise on a real-time basis, allowing for immediate reporting on store performance across the country. The system boasts an Expeditor Kitchen Display System to track ticket times, serving times and to alert managers of possible delayed orders.

ITWERCS has integrated Gift Cards, Credit Card Payments and Pay at the Table handhelds to make it easy for customers to pay their checks. Connectivity to the Enterprise is fast and reliable thanks to Microsoft Smart Client technology, which allows the system to be used on lower-speed WAN connections as well as high-speed internet connections. Hooters IT Team has also installed ITWERCS in four Franchise locations, with plans to roll out many of the franchise locations in the coming year. ITWERCS is not currently available to outside concepts, but plans are in place for a public launch in late 2008.

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