With its original paper-based system, Burger King simply couldn’t keep up. But with fast expansion and consolidation in a competitive business, Dennis Jones, managing director and Mark Backhaus, director of development, needed to have their fingers on the pulse.

“One year ago,” says Jones, “we had lots of data, but our problem was that when we produced reports from our (then) 59 restaurants, we had a pile of papers. We did not have information on a daily or weekly period for the decisions that needed to be made. Clearly, we needed to upgrade our system.”

“Our primary goal was to get a handle on this information,” says Jones. “Plus we wanted the information to be presented in a single interface which would be available to all of our managers as well as the Directors. We wanted a system that would allow us to look at information in a timely manner so that we could react quickly to market forces.”

Burger King NZ currently has 65 restaurants in New Zealand and continues to expand and develop new restaurants every year. In March 2004 the brand celebrated its 10-year anniversary in New Zealand.

The right choice
“We looked at other products and the people associated with them,” says Zane Devy, IT Manager at Burger King NZ, “but they were mostly about selling a product. iQ4bis Inc., the team that implemented the iQ4bis system for us, first looked at our needs and tried to help us build our business. The iQ4bis software did everything we wanted. iQ4bis looked to be the best solution for saving us time and money.”

“We had some very specific requirements,” continues Devey. “First and foremost we wanted to reduce the amount of time we had to spend preparing analyses. We needed the ability to quickly assimilate the data, monitor developments and then react to things straightaway on a daily basis. Our marketing team wanted to be able to monitor the costeffectiveness of their promotions. Plus our individual restaurant managers needed the ability to keep a closer eye on their stores. iQ4bis addressed all of these needs and more.”

Fast implementation
“iQ4bis Inc. was great to work with during and after implementation,” says Devey. “We needed support or some special help they would come right out to see us, generally the same day. The people I have dealt with at iQ4bis have been fantastic and there are some bright sparks working there. They have offered us a lot of opinions and ideas that have saved us time and money.

Initially, only a select few staff were formally trained Devey says. “But the system is so simple that there was really little need for prolonged training. In fact, most of our managers and all of the directors are now regular users. Management is keen on the system which is and added incentive for everyone to take advantage of the benefits iQ4bis offers. We’ve found that once our people see how easy it is to use iQ4bis and the value of the information it produces, they become enthusiastic users.”

“Since implementation,” says Jones, “our accessibility to data is light years better. It seems natural now that this type of information is available. It has made decision-making more accurate and faster as the process is based on what we know versus what we thought we used to know. Plus because the information is delivered in a standardised graphical interface, we can identify patterns and trends very easily.”

Burger King NZ has since added iQ4bis Analysis Web, which has significantly improved access to the system. “All of our field staff now has access to the modules via the internet,” says Jones, “and they can use the system from any browser. This gives each person far more individualism in how they analyse information. And for the management team, within 20-30 minutes we can get a fairly comprehensive picture of what is going on anywhere in the company, whether it be on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.”

The right benefits
Customisation has provided even more benefits for Burger King. “We can define what we think is important and then develop that within the individual views,” says Jones. “Companies are beginning to have more and more data available to them but it is extremely important to make sense of it all. iQ4bis addresses that challenge.” iQ4bis has already made a huge impact with Burger King.

“The Wastage Module alone has saved us approximately $500,000 annually,” says Jones. “The improved information we get from the view has allowed us to reduce our wastage across the board by 0.5%. When you deal with the volumes that we do this leads to big dollar savings. The data was already in our system, but before iQ4bis, we couldn’t get a handle on it. Any company that needs to know what is going on can benefit from using iQ4bis.”

As a result of the success in New Zealand, Burger King Australia has also adopted iQ4bis as its business intelligence system of choice. “We are extremely happy with the product,” concludes Jones. “iQ4bis has made a big difference regarding the way we feel about our business because we have a much better understanding about what's happening around us. Most of our data, such as payroll and finance, can be viewed from the iQ4bis interface quickly and easily. Plus we can even incorporate data from our Mystery Shopper programmes which provides us invaluable feedback from customer perspective". All in a standardised format across the company.

Click here to register for free iQ4Bis Proof of Concept

For more information contact
Sunesh Samarasinghe
General Manager – Australasia
iQ4bis Software (NZ) Ltd
64 9 529 3767
sunesh@iq4bis.com

June 2005