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Skyline Chili Answering Custom Cravings With Help From QSR Automations and PCMS

By: Skyline Chili |  3 Shares     101 Reads

QSR's Flexible ConnectSmart Kitchen Solution Enhances Speed and Accuracy Within Skyline's Unique Operating Environment

Louisville, KY--(Marketwire) - QSR Automations®, a leading provider of in-store and online connected technology solutions for hospitality businesses worldwide, is working with technology alliance partner and reseller PCMS to provide a complete kitchen automation solution for Skyline Chili. Skyline is relying on QSR's ConnectSmart® Hospitality Automation Solution, including the ConnectSmart Kitchen (CSK) graphical software along with eXpert® hospitality controllers and KP-4000™ keypads. To ensure clean, trouble-free installations, Skyline is also using QSR's cost-effective kitchen video bracketing system.

"Because the Skyline experience is a perfect combination of table service and quick service, our operating requirements are extremely unique -- and we must depend on a solution that is exceptionally flexible and can be customized to meet our needs, today and in the future," said Brett Clark, chief financial officer for Skyline Chili. "With our PCMS point-of-sale system and QSR's kitchen management technology, we have greatly simplified our ordering and production processes for our in-store team members, and we are noticeably enhancing our guest service through improved speed and accuracy."

To ensure fast service and personal interaction, Skyline provides its quality food to its restaurants on a daily basis from its own commissary, and all orders then are prepared in an open kitchen right in front of guests. While also caring for drive-thru and carryout guests, the unique Skyline experience includes personalized table-side and counter service, with all orders delivered to guests within mere minutes. The robust routing options available with QSR's CSK are paramount to ensure orders are prepared and presented appropriately and efficiently for each guest. With Skyline's customized CSK configuration, drive-thru and carryout orders are prepared and packaged at one kitchen monitor at one end of the open kitchen, while dine-in orders are prepared and plated at the other end. The CSK also captures all speed of service timing data, making this critical information available in real-time on each kitchen monitor as well as for historical reporting and analysis.

In addition to very specific routing needs, almost every order requires specific preparation instructions. Synonymous with Cincinnati-style chili, Skyline's most popular dishes are its famous Ways (3-Way, 4-Way, and 5-Way chili dishes) and Coneys. And Skyline's guests are accustomed to ordering their Skyline dishes in their own unique way, even developing their own language -- such as a 3-Way-Inverted, where the cheese goes on the plate first, then the chili, then the spaghetti. QSR's CSK not only presents the items at the correct kitchen monitor along with all necessary modifiers, but also ensures correct packaging or plating of the items. For instance, consider two guests sitting at one table together where one guest orders two Cheese Coneys and the other guest orders one Regular Coney, one Cheese Coney, and one Extreme Cheese Coney (with habanero cheese). The CSK intuitively presents the information on the dine-in kitchen monitor so that the two Cheese Coneys go on one plate together, and the other three Coneys all go on their own plate, prepared correctly, for the second guest.

"We are extremely pleased with the high quality and rich features of QSR's kitchen solution, and we specifically selected QSR's ConnectSmart to provide for our future," added Clark. "To help keep our products unique, we hope to enhance our training initiatives by adding graphical menu cards and multi-media video at our kitchen stations for fully demonstrating procedures and assembly instructions."

By the middle of 2010, all thirty-seven corporate Skyline locations will complete implementation of QSR's ConnectSmart kitchen solution along with PCMS' Vision BeanStore point-of-sale system. Skyline will also be offering full support for the combined solution to its nearly one-hundred franchise locations, including installation assistance as well as restaurant level help desk and ongoing system management services.

"Our Vision BeanStore point-of-sale is an extremely definable system that allows Skyline to completely create different 'personalities' for each of their ordering stations to match the specific order entry needs for each station," said John Throckmorton, vice president, retail software and services at PCMS. "Through our successful history as a partner with QSR, we knew that QSR applies a similar philosophy to their solutions, and their ConnectSmart would be the perfect choice for Skyline."

About Skyline Chili

In 1949, Nicholas Lambrinides began serving his delicious secret recipes to appreciative customers. Since then, Skyline Ways, Coneys, and fast table-side service have been enjoyed by generations. Skyline Chili serves its Cincinnati-style chili in over 135 restaurants and hundreds of grocery stores, making it one of the truly unique regional taste sensations in America. Skyline Chili is dedicated to bringing friends and families together for an experience like no other. Skyline Chili is synonymous with Cincinnati-style chili throughout the world.

About PCMS

PCMS is an internationally-recognized, award-winning supplier of software and IT consulting services to a wide variety of industries, ranging from retail and manufacturing to financial, food service and healthcare. The company's partners include Microsoft, Symantec, IBM and VMware, and its client list includes such signature names as LensCrafters, Marks & Spencer, Bass Pro Shops, Meridian Bioscience, LaRosa's and Skyline Chili.

About QSR Automations®

QSR Automations® provides revolutionary in-store and online guest management solutions to hospitality businesses worldwide -- including online reservations, online call aheads, reservations, seating and wait list management, and kitchen automation. Since 1996, QSR has connected thousands of hospitality companies of all sizes and concepts around the world to enhanced productivity, improved profit, and maximum guest delight. QSR's innovative software and hardware products -- found within the ConnectSmart® Hospitality Automation Solution and ePic® Kitchen Management Solution -- focus and capture all activities around the guest to measurably increase efficiency and quality, creating positive and memorable guest experiences each and every visit. From front to back, with QSR you're connected.

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