Catering software can help chefs and catering directors spend more time focusing on great food and service by automating administrative tasks like creating proposals, invoices, and managing inventory. Two food and beverage directors discussed how their new catering software systems saved them time by streamlining operations and interfaces. While an initial investment, catering software pays off through increased efficiencies and the ability for staff to better serve customers instead of getting bogged down in paperwork.

1. Summing It Up
• Catering software can lend an
extra hand by automating many
essential activities performed
by an exective chef or catering
director.
• Software programs can
interface easily with other
operational systems throughout
the club or resort.
• Make a list of key features that
are most important for you.
Then, research software
providers thoroughly before
making a commitment to buy.
• Learning a new program
can be daunting and time-
consuming—at first. But
eventually, catering software
can pay off by eliminating
operational inefficiencies.
• Before receiving approval to
buy catering software, food and
beverage managers must be
prepared to present clear
benefits to their properties’
ownership and directors.
S
teven Leviton, Food and Beverage Director and Head
Chef at Briarwood Country Club in Deerfield, Ill. (a
suburb of Chicago), realized about three years ago that
he needed a new software system, especially for the catering
side of his operation. The old program that Briarwood was
using required too many steps and hindered responsiveness
for all phases of a catering job, from proposals to invoicing.
Leviton wanted a system that would be easier to use, provide
a better interface with other club software, and,
most of all, offer the ability to make changes and
access information more quickly.
After talking with people in the industry and doing
online research, Leviton chose a system that can not
only create proposals and invoices quickly, but also
offers built-in e-mail and faxing capabilities, which
help get details into clients’ hands in a more timely fashion.
The new system also helps Leviton plan and document event
details more efficiently, by allowing all event and menu histo-
ries to be transferred automatically to the next year’s calendar.
Using previous or similar events as a starting point, the staff
can easily make changes and edits according to the new client’s
specific needs, without starting from scratch.
“The biggest benefit to me is time,” Leviton says. “[The
new system] gives me time to get back to my staff
and members, which is the most important part of
my job. I don’t want to have to be behind a desk.”
Making Technology Handier
Eric Hyde also knows how much time a special-
ized software system can save. After using programs
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KEYBOARDCATERING
Today’s TechnologyToday’s Technology
Catering
software can
help lend a
lot of “extra
hands” in the
kitchen.
Catering software can help chefs and catering directors
spend more time focusing on great food and service.
By Ann McDonald, Contributing Editor
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2. 52 Club & Resort Business OCTOBER 2006 www.clubandresortbusiness.com
in several other food and beverage management
positions at hotels, Hyde now hopes to imple-
ment a new system at Quail Creek Country
Club in Naples, Fla., where he recently became
Food and Beverage Director.
Currently, Quail Creek operates using
Microsoft Word and Excel spreadsheets, as well
as manual inventory counts, to manage its F&B
business. In addition to finding software that will
integrate easily with the club’s main system and
help with back-of-the-house catering issues,
Hyde also sees the potential to execute banquets
more efficiently, by equipping the dining room
staff with hand-held electronic devices.
“Basically, one of the main things I’d like to see
is help in getting checks to customers faster,” he
says. “When you have a cocktail reception with
300 guests on separate checks and all with
different servers, you don’t want to make them
sign a check every time they get a drink.”
The club’s IT Manager is currently looking
into various software packages, with the hope of
getting something in place for next season.
Beyond efficiencies in generating multiple
checks, Hyde says ease of use and inventory
control functionalities are also at the top of his
wish list for the new system.
Tried-and-True Benefits
Both Leviton and Hyde know from experience
that getting the go-ahead to invest in the tech-
nology that can help their catering and F&B
operations isn’t easy (see box below). They also
know that perseverance and persuasiveness can
lead to potentially huge payoffs—not just by
dropping dollars to the bottom line, but also by
enhancing staff performance and morale.
The people benefits to be gained are brought to
light by the experience of the Du Pont Country
Club in Wilmington, Del. (part of the Du Pont
Hospitality Group, which includes a hotel and a
country club). The Du Pont staff has now used
catering management software for over 20 years.
Because the club and resort
industry overall has been slow to
adopt new technologies, one of the
biggest tasks facing managers who
want to automate is how to convince
owners and directors to get—and
stay—on board for implementing
needed systems and upgrades. This
can be especially challenging in
areas like F&B that have traditionally
been viewed as cost centers, or
break-even operations at best.
To help show how Briarwood
Country Club would benefit from a
new system, F&B Director and Head
Chef Steven Leviton had upper-level
management, along with staff,
observe vendors’ demonstrations as
various software options were
assessed. This not only yielded valu-
able feedback from those who would
use the system, it also helped
management touch and see the
tangible values of automation.
“[Management] knew our
business had increased and
that we needed some more
help,” Leviton says. Letting
everyone see for themselves
what benefits could be gained,
he says, ultimately made
getting the go-ahead to
purchase what was deemed to
be the best system much less of a
hard sell. Management, in fact, left
many of the final decisions, such as
how many users would be author-
ized, up to Leviton.
Eric Hyde, Food and Beverage
Director at Quail Creek Country Club
in Naples, Fla., is now in the process
of researching different software
options to present to his upper-level
management. A House Committee,
followed by the full
Board of Directors,
will have to sign off
on the software that
he and the club’s IT
manager ultimately
recommend.
Hyde stresses the
importance of talking
with people else-
where in the industry
about their experiences, in order to
present a clear and practical picture
of how a club can benefit from the
technology.
“We know [the Board] will be
interested in the billing cycle, the
manhours involved, and the efficien-
cies provided, so we are researching
a lot of systems and getting testimo-
nials about how they’ve improved
operations like ours,” he says.
Eric Hyde, Food
and Beverage
Director, Quail
Creek Country
Club.
New software
has helped
everyone on
Briarwood CC’s
F&B Staff get out
from behind
their desks and
focus on meeting
members’ needs.
PHOTOSCOURTESYOFQUAILCREEKCOUNTRYCLUB
Getting Management To Push The Button
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3. www.clubandresortbusiness.com
When the club first implemented the
system, though, no one in the catering
office even used a computer.The club’s
catering business was truly a manual
operation, with staff members jotting
down notes from their discussions
with customers and maintaining paper
files for all of their events.
Once the new system was installed, it
didn’t take long for the club’s catering
department to see how big of a differ-
ence automating their activities could
make, reports Andrea Hagelstein, Sales
Catering Director.
“We were all intimidated at first, but
we quickly saw it wasn’t that bad,” she
says.“We had one-hour training classes
a few times a week, and had a manual
we could follow. After a few weeks, we
all felt comfortable with the system.”
As it has many times since that initial
implementation, the club will soon
undertake a new training course for the
software’s latest upgrade. Whether
automating for the first time or getting
ready to upgrade, Hagelstein recom-
mends making a list of the important
things that the new or improved soft-
ware should do.
“Be aware of your organization and
what its current needs are, and also
look ahead to your needs in the future,”
she says.
One of the most valuable features of
her club’s system, Hagelstein adds, has
been its ability to customize certain
features. Because Du Pont can run
events at two locations—the club-
house or a mansion on the premises—
it has found value in being able to run
separate reports for each venue,
instead of using a standard revenue
report. The software also allows
reports to be sorted quickly and easily
by account name or event types, and
enables searches for specific menu
items, to see how often they have been
ordered in a given month or year.
Does Not Compete
Even with these examples and many
others like them now coming on stream,
the use of catering and foodservice
management software remains a rela-
tively new phenomenon in the club and
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4. resort industry. A surprisingly large number of
operations still rely on paper files or Microsoft
Word and Excel programs to manually track
inventory, create proposals, and manage budgets.
That’s going to have to change, experts feel,
for any operation that’s serious about increasing
its catering business. According to Michael
Roman, President of Catersource, a culinary
education company based in Chicago, the
catering industry now brings in $18 billion
annually—a figure that has doubled just over the
last three years.
While many clubs and resorts have caught
on that catering can be a great profit center, so
too have universities and a host of other insti-
tutional and commercial competitors. Any
property that wants to stay in the game will
have to rely more heavily on technology, to free
up its staff from the burdens of managing
larger volumes of inventory, recipes, orders and
all of the other aspects of event planning and
execution.
But, the good news is that user input on
earlier versions of catering software has led to
enhancements that now automate many of the
administrative activities previously performed
by executive chefs and catering directors, such as
costing food items and menus, writing
proposals, working with food equipment sheets
and controlling food and labor costs. Today’s
programs can automatically generate a shopping
list, pull prices for certain menu items to help
with budgeting or costing, do nutritional
analyses, transfer information from menu histo-
ries and past years’ calendars and keep track of
inventory and recipes.
Du Pont CC’s
Catering Sales
Director Andrea
Hagelstein
(left) review
details of an
event generated
by the club’s
electronic booking
system with Paige
Hitchens, Catering
Sales Manager.
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Clubs will get the best return on
their technology investment, industry
experts advise, when they take an
active role in determining what they
need and, then, clearly communicate
those needs to software vendors. But,
Roman, of Catersource, stresses the
important of doing a lot of research to
find out all you can about a software
provider before buying anything.
“Talk to people who have used the
system,” he advises. “Search online for
complaints, and find out about all the
extra charges for support and tech-
nical issues.”
Restoring the Human Touch
Once the right mix of features and
benefits is achieved, technology can
be a huge help towards reducing the
time chefs spend on non-production
activities (currently estimated as 15
percent of their overall time), so they
can concentrate on what they do
best: developing creative menus and
ensuring the delivery of top-quality
food.
At the same time, catering directors
can actually focus on spending less
time doing paperwork, and more on
meeting with clients and working
with them to ensure the best possible
event experience.
After all, while there are many effi-
ciencies a software system can provide,
a computer can never replace the
importance of face-to-face relation-
ships—the very foundation of the
hospitality industry.
“As a catering department, we still
need to connect with our customers,”
reminds Hagelstein.“Computers should
be off to the side during customer
meetings and only used to check space
or enter information. You should never
let it take the place of eye contact and
interaction.” C&RB
To comment about this story,
suggest topics you’d like to see
covered in future issues of C&RB,
or just ask a question, contact
editor@clubandresortbusiness.com.
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