THANK GOODNESS IT'S FRIDAY!!!

T.G.I Friday's

T.G.I Friday’s also known as “Thank Goodness It’s Friday,” is an American restaurant that serves bar food and alcoholic beverages. It was developed in 1965 on June 18^th in New York City on 63^rd street and First Avenue. Its headquarters is located in Carrollton, Texas. Friday’s started to become a chain having its second location restaurant build in 1970 in Memphis, Tennessee’s Overton Square District, which today is not open. Friday’s highest grossing location is at Haymarket Leicester Square. It opened in 1992 in Central London. It was the most popular branch and was the most financially successful branch winning the world record for biggest profit headquarters. Friday’s restaurant serves Atkin’s approved appetizers, entrees, and desserts. They are licensed to serve Heinz line of frozen foods and lines of snack items. The alcohol mixed drinks are licensed as well.

Chief Executive Officer

President and Chief Executive of T.G.I Friday’s is Richard Snead. He was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Miami, Florida. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in engineering. He spent 15 years as a project manager for Burger King constructing 80 stores. He also spent time developing international business for Lens Crafters in London and then later at Casual Corner Clothing. Only spending a year and a half at Casual Corner Clothing, he soon got a call from the Carlson Restaurants Worldwide to start doing business with them. Soon after in March 2002, he became CEO of T.G.I Friday’s. Every since he became CEO, he has been known for his energy and ability to listen and commitment to human- resources diversity. Within four years after becoming CEO, he helped double the number of T.G.I Friday’s location. When he started, there were only 90- unit chains, now there are 230- unit chains that operate in 48 states and 55 countries.

Business Strategy

T.G.I Friday’s business strategy is differentiation. Since Fridays' opened they focused on a unique design, products and services. They started in 1965 in Manhattan, New York. Quickly turning into a meeting place for single adults, and totaling 1 million the first year. The unique style of Fridays’ menu was the chalkboard. At this time most used paper menus. Making the tradition of welcoming Friday in at midnight on Thursday night, Fridays was somewhat like a New Years Eve party. They offered champagne, confetti, and noisemakers to bring in Friday. Another way of their differentiation strategies was the appetizers. With loaded potatoes and other unique eatery on the menu the company was able to become very successful. Many years later the look changed and stood out from the rest. They used tiffany lights and interior wood to create the best late night dining and appetizers spot. Eventually, TGI Fridays’ offered happy hour specials leading to the best after work hangout in 2002. Today most of the success is because they offered unique products and services long before others.

FEATURING HOT MEAL CHOICES

Ethical and Social Responsibilty

T.G.I. Friday’s abides by strong ethical and social responsibility policies. They believe in that all employees (including management) should conduct themselves in a respectful and honest fashion. Due to the fact that Fridays is so diverse in both employees’ and guests, it is vital that the workers understand this and act appropriate when dealing with these diverse situation (racism will NOT be tolerated). Some of the main ethical polices that Fridays has in place are Human Rights, Social enterprise, and Ecological impact. As far as the social responsibilities go, Friday’s main focus is hygiene. They even have a company called ECOsure that measures that cleanliness and over hygiene of the restaurant to see if you are meeting standards. Failing one of ECOsure’s visits can result in immediate shut down depending on how poorly the restaurant did on the test. This is why Fridays stresses the importance of their social responsibilities.

T.G.I. Friday’s Target Market is Driven by Value and not Price

TGI Friday's target market is the middle and upper middle class ages 22 to 55. TGI Friday’s business strategy is to spend 3% of revenue for advertising and promotion. Spreading the name in the market to improve its awareness is one of the company’s main focuses. The company is always looking to expand while maintaining the food and quality service. TGI Friday’s has more than 1,000 restaurants in 61 countries which is very impressive for only being around for 45 years.

Link to article: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/2/20/business/5652483&sec=business

Information Technology

Technology Organization Used

The information technology organization that is used is Micros 3700 POS System because it provides a restaurant point of sale system. It was a breakthrough in technology that allows restaurants to efficiently run through these easy to use micros. They are average sized computers that have every item that the restaurant sells. This is how they work; the server rings in the order on the micro, then it immediately gets sent to the kitchen where there is a screen that shows the cooks what they have to make. Some special features of the micro are S.I’s or server instruction that allows servers to make special request such as no pickle or extra cheese. Also, there is a B4 feature that allows you to ring in appetizers and entrees at the same time with a B4 for the appetizers means that comes out before. These micros are a piece of information technology that has emerged as one of the most crucial parts of how well a restaurant runs. This type of technology would classify Fridays IT organization as Top-Down Silo. The philosophical approach that Fridays restaurants’ use is a decentralized one. Corporate is constantly encouraging their stores to try out new information technology software to see if they can improve their programs. As of now most Fridays use ADOLFO; computer software that helps them crunch numbers and compare sales and food cost from the previous quarters and years. However because Fridays is decentralized they are regularly pushing new software to find one that can benefit them the most. (Always looking to enhance their revenue).

The Computerworld Honors Program

In reference to the information technology that Friday’s use, the organization has been honored by The Computerworld Honors Program. They have been honored for the Deployment of Hand- held Mobile Micros Server Terminals for tableside ordering and the Micros Kitchen Display System for break down orders and prioritization of preparation tasks. Since 1994, Friday’s restaurant has upgraded the integrated point-of-sale system by adding a mobile handheld device that quickly takes down orders. Stated in the previous technology organization post, that was the information referring to Micros 3700 POS System.

The positive impact for using this helpful device was productivity, improving customer service, reducing service delays, improving meal quality, and increasing table turnover. In reference to this, the links provided below is the article, The Computerworld Honors Program, which Friday’s was honored from and another article in further information for the Micros 3700 POS System.

Article: http://www.cwhonors.org/viewCaseStudy2008.asp?NominationID=837
Article:http://www.thefreelibrary.com/T.G.I.+Friday%27s+Selected+MICROS+3700+Point-of-Sale+Software+as+POS...-a019959766

Hardware and Software

Some of the hardware categories incorporated into Friday’s restaurants are some input and output devices. The input devices include a keyboard as well as touch screen computers for inputting meal orders. The brand of our computers is sponsored by Dell Inc. The monitors also have printers, which is the output device, to print receipts that are given to customers and for our own records. USB ports are used to make connection from the computer to the printer. Another hardware called the central processing unit has our system coordinated and it operates all of our software. We also use the random access memory hardware, which is an area for temporary memory. The temporary memory is basically for taking in orders so that they are held in the system until a transaction is complete. There is an option to save or have the completed order deleted out of the system. Order information can be brought up on every monitor located in the restaurant. Linux is what is used by our operating system software, which is the application software. The application software used to complete daily tasks is things such as payroll and inventory management. There are drivers for the printers and scanners that are a part of our system software. For our utilities software, the anti- virus and file security is used.

Networks

For all of our computers, there are some basic principles of networks that are used. The computer network that is used connects two or more computers so that they can communicate by sharing information. For the network interface, we use the Ethernet card. This card is most commonly used. A network cable is run from the Ethernet card to a hub or switch to plug straight into one of our other computers and printers. The kind of network communication media is wired. The cable types are called the twisted pair, coaxial cable, and the optical fiber. The cable types are all what makes up the wired communication.

Voice over IP that we use allows you to send voice communications over the internet and avoid the toll charges that you would normally receive from your long-distance carrier. At this time Fridays’ does have VoIP net work access is often used to make calls to other VoIP users anywhere in the world at no additional cost. Friday’s apply the four principles of network security by industry standard firewalls and password protection system, for confidentiality. Sensitive info, such as a customer’s credit card number, is encrypted prior to transmission, also for confidentiality. Friday’s authenticity is also protected because web browsers cannot manipulate the system by spoofing. We collect the domain names of visitors who visit our web pages. Because we employ a standard technology called a “cookie” to collect info about how the website is used. Friday’s provide direct links to guest recognition program, where personal information is submitted. For integrity the website can’t be taken over by unauthorized individuals or web servers. When on the website, Fridays guarantees that the information hasn’t been changed or tampered. As for availability, Friday’s parent company “Carlson Restaurant Worldwide“ makes no representation that these materials are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Fridays.com is available in many parts of the world, however the site is not worldwide. Also Friday’s has 3 domain names. They are rieserestaurants.com, tgifridays.com, and theplacetobeindy.com

Using Comtrol’s RocketPort products, this restaurant is able to connect peripherals such as printers, scanners, credit readers, mice, and keyboards; to one central PC. This eliminated five computers per restaurant, using Comtrol’s Ethernet-connected RocketPort Serial Hub. They chose this Ethernet solution for all 250 corporate restaurants to eliminate distance limitations and downtime—information is automatically forwarded to another printer on the network in the event one goes down at the grill, dessert area, or even worse ... the expeditor's station. Control’s family of serial hubs delivers:Ethernet connections to 4 or 8 serial ports, USB connections to 4 serial ports, TCP/IP addressing, for Internet-enabling serial ports, and RS-232/422/485 connections.All ports appear as "native" COM ports that can be assigned to, and controlled by, different servers. Many TGI Friday's are now offering Wi-Fi as an added amenity to their guests.

Conclusion

Friday’s use of technology information, hardware, software, and networks has all been a great source in operating the business successfully. When the organization started to upgrade their POS System to Micros 3700, that was a major big deal because it allowed available the entrees, appetizers, drinks, desserts, sides, coupons, etc to be displayed. It is the most useful due to the fact it sends all of the orders received directly to the kitchen with any special instructions. This allows the order to be started as soon as it is placed. With the hardware input and output devices, such as printers, USB ports, and the central processing unit, this allows all of the information to be accessed easier by the entire staff. The hardware and software is what keeps Friday’s operating as well. With the great technology that Friday’s uses, they all work out successfully, but the organization is always looking for a better hardware to incorporate into their restaurants.