With folks asking us why we built an automation company, we thought it would be good to share a story with you that would give you an idea of how this happened.
The founder who has spent over a decade with PoS (Point of Sale) software and hardware in the retail sector having worked with nearly every hardware available and customizing the solution to their needs realized that PoS wasn't helping them scale.
During one of his casual coffee meetings with a hospitality chain, there seemed to be multiple operational challenges that were burdening the chain. This led to multiple discussions with internal stakeholders, evaluating multiple other solutions that could be helpful.
After about 4 months of deep dive into the challenges and talking to multiple vendors (yes, some of them were Automation experts), the team arrived at the following conclusions:
- No solution could solve all their challenges.
- Most of them were expensive and complex to implement.
- They were really expensive for #restaurant owners.
- Support after purchase was a scary affair.
- Fear of being stuck with a white elephant was looming over their head.
After this conclusion, the team decided that there could be a better way to do it, and they needed to start focusing on each problem statement and work on building a complete customized solution.
Thanks to the #restaurant chain, they agreed to work on a pilot. The problem statement started with #reconciliation, and they needed to process 8000 bills a week. This was a tremendous challenge and the team spent the next few weeks with the customers' employees in their office trying to figure out the right solution.
After this customer evaluation and problem statement, the team built a custom solution in about 3 months. Once done, it was implemented in about 2 weeks across key locations. In the first week, they managed to #reconcile about 4500 bills in a matter of hours, which usually took an entire week.
The next few days were spent on a quick check to ensure the system was efficient. The accuracy was about 85% and saved about 7 working days for the #restaurant.
Once this was done, there was no looking back. In a matter of about another month, all the other #restaurants were up and running.
By the 3rd month, the system was processing about 8000 - 10000 bills a week.
Thanks to the #aggregators with businesses focussing on #takeaway orders, the system was tuned to sort and identify bills based on the discount offered payment receivables and reconciling the #weekly #monthly statements from the aggregators.
This was a huge relief to the restaurant as they had to delay payments, as receivables were stuck and created a vicious financial challenge for the organization.
After this proof of concept, there was no looking back. Today we have several #clients who vouch for the time, money that it has saved them. Also, employees are happy as they are able to focus on running the business and not reconciling bills.
The biggest learning for us with the clients we have worked so far:
- Every client has individual specific needs.
- No two clients have the same set of requirements.
- They want someone who works with them in solving their challenges and not just software.
- For them, the value addition is time saved and reducing employee fatigue.
- We are with them at every step to help them start using it and training their team on how to use it to its full potential, which is what they appreciate and love.
- Automating a simple or complex workflow doesn’t bother the client. For them, they need the challenge solved and that’s what we do.
If you are a #retailer or a #restaurant owner who has business challenges and want to solve them, write to us sales@mindfulbots.com or just fill the form below and we will be happy to set up a discussion.