Hesburger: ERP system overhaul
Hesburger’s comprehensive ERP system is the heart of the entire restaurant chain’s operations, customised to meet the needs of a modern and growing business environment.
Project highlights:
- A new scalable ERP system that connects nearly 500 restaurants, 5800 products, and 100 000 daily sales events.
- Modular architecture allows for long-term and flexible development.
- The first module was deployed into production in under six months.
Client
Hesburger
Industry
Restaurant
Platform
Employee software /
Enterprise resource planning
Services
Service design /
User interface design
/ Software development
/ Maintenance
Starting point
Hesburger’s old Enterprise Resource Planning system was in need of an update. The previous technology no longer had developers available in the market, and the experts at Hesburger had either retired or were in the later stages of their careers.
It was also difficult to develop the old system to meet the growing demands of restaurant operations and integrate it effectively with other modern services. Moreover, maintaining the cybersecurity and performance of the old system at the level required for a Europe-wide business would have been a challenge going forward.
Hesburger had also grown significantly as a company with its international expansion, and the old system was standing in the way of new business opportunities. Our task was to build a new ERP system that would support modern fast-food culture and that could be developed in a scalable way well into the future.
Strategy
The new system had to be built without slowing down Hesburger’s daily operations. The customised solution allowed for the system to be built module by module – with new and old systems running simultaneously during the transition phase. We tested the strategy agilely with the proof of concept for self-service kiosks, which was designed and brought into production in just six months.
ERP user groups
Restaurant and shift managers
Restaurant and shift managers can view all relevant daily operational reports for their own location through the ERP system. They also have maintenance rights as required for their job duties.
Regional managers
Regional managers have broader access rights – it is essential for them to see the overall picture of all the restaurants in their region.
Finance department
Hesburger’s finance department uses the ERP system for accounting and reporting tasks. The system conveniently provides basic reports in an automated manner – with nearly unlimited possibilities to create customised reports as needed.
Support
Hesburger’s support services have the broadest access rights in the organisation. They are responsible for, among other things, technical support for the restaurants, managing location and product information, user management, and creating offers and campaigns.
Features
Hesburger’s ERP currently consists of 8 modules and approximately 50 tools. The modularisation provides the system with nearly unlimited expansion possibilities and compatibility with integration technologies.
Our development principle has been to favour technologies with a longer track record, which we believe will remain relevant for the next 10-20 years. As a result of our collaboration, Hesburger owns the software, source codes, and rights – this is another major advantage compared to off-the-shelf software, in addition to the customised development tailored to business needs.
Basic information
Management of all the fundamental data required by the systems in one place.
Locations
Information for the entire organisation and all locations, such as services, equipment registry, payment methods, opening hours, contact details, and sales channels.
User management
Management of staff user accounts and access rights for the ERP system and other employee tools.
Product information
Complete product register, from raw materials to finished products, including recipes, translations, and POS keyboard settings.
Pricing data
Management of sales prices, offers, and currencies by country and restaurant.
Sales
Detailed information on all sales transactions, products, and their variants.
Reports
Reporting of sales, production, stock movements, and service times by restaurant, including monetary amounts.
Marketing
Planning and management of marketing campaigns.
Maintenance
Management of terminologies and other metadata.
Device control
Device Management Service (Device Admin Portal) is a tool we developed as part of the ERP system to monitor and maintain all of Hesburger's business-critical devices across locations. It is used by device installers, Hesburger's support services, and software developers.
The portal makes it easy to check the status of devices and run software updates on all devices. Any individual device can be remotely started or shut down through the portal.
Continuous monitoring
Quick response times are crucial for Hesburger and any disruption in operations has immediate business consequences.
The ERP system is set up to notify about potential issues immediately. In addition, a dedicated Sentry system gathers error messages from various sources in one place, which speeds up the handling of exceptional situations.
