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Mobile Reporting

Eurest uses mBPM^TM to provide mobile support to operational reporting and controlling activities using wireless data communications and Java-enabled mobile phones.

Eurest

Eurest Portugal was founded in 1974, and is responsible for supplying more than 160.000 meals per day, prepared and served by about 5000 employees. Eurest is part of the Compass Group, the international leader in food services, with more than 400.000 employees worldwide, in more than 90 countries, and presence in all continents.

Eurest Portugal operates in public catering, highways and colective catering (schools, companies, hospitals, among others).

The Challenge

The operation of a large number of highly distributed food service units is an enormous challenge. In order to control the entire operation, middle and senior managers must have access to daily reports from each service unit with rich information about meals, stocks, sales, headcounts and losses, among others. Some of the biggest units are suitable for deploying traditional Information Systems using PCs and broadband connections to the internet, therefore making this reporting procedure easy to achieve. However, the great majority of units is not suitable for having this type of infrastructure, and demand a lighter, cheaper and more flexible infrastructure.

Eurest challenged TEKEVER to create a solution for this challenge, using regular, cheap mobile phones, and wireless data communications to support operational reporting activities throughout the organization. The solution would have to be extremely user friendly in order to be used by food service personnel, simple to deploy and manage over such a great number of distributed units, flexible to support an evolving number of reports and KPIs, and be fully integrated with the existing information systems.

The Solution

The project team was composed by leading personnel from Eurest Business and IT Organizations and by senior consultants from TEKEVER. The solution was created using the mBPM^TM Platform, providing access to field personnel using the the mBPM^TM Java Mobile Channel. Management personnel can access operational reporting and KPI information  over the Web-enabled back-office built using the mBPM^TM Web Channel.

Using a regular mobile phone, the Food Service Units' personnel reports all operational data using a highly efficient user interface available through the mBPM^TM Java Mobile Channel. With the ability to run offline, the mobile application installed on the device manages the information that must be reported by each unit everyday, requesting the user to input the necessary information with a simple and intuitive process. The information is then transmitted to Eurest Headquarters using GPRS, where it is compiled and made available to all middle and top managers.

The solution is capable of coping with constantly evolving business requirements, providing seamless wireless update. This is easily achieved with mBPM^TM's ability to synchronize solution models over all user interaction channels.

By implementing this solution, Eurest can now have real-time and consolidated information about their entire operation, and management evolved from a monthly to daily-based control over all Service Units, with a light, cheap and flexible infrastructure.

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