Dome Cafe Group Looks to the Future with Task Retail Technology Point of Sale Innovation

SYDNEY, Australia – October 7, 2014 –Task Retail Technology announced today it has been selected by Dome Café Group, a major cafe franchise with 112 stores including locations in Australia, Asia and the Middle East, for its innovative point-of-sale (POS) solution that will reduce operating costs and increase customer loyalty.

Faced with a need to upgrade its legacy POS systems, brought about by Microsoft Windows XP end-of-life, the management team at Dome turned challenge into opportunity by looking for a new solution to position the company for its next 10 years of growth.

"We cast the net worldwide, reviewed and sifted through an extensive RFP process lasting for over a year which involved our directors, business development, IT and Operations teams,” said Bill Lee, IT manager, Dome Café Group.

“The goal was pretty simple. We wanted an in-café solution which would help to create a point of difference in delivering our guest and customer experience, and one which enabled continual development of functionality and features.”

Dome found that solution in xchangexec™ Suite from Task Retail Technology. Its new POS system from Task is currently in pilot, with six cafes to be to be completed by the end of November 2014 and the full network roll-out to be completed within six months.

Powering Task’s xchangexec Suite platform, every Dome cafe in the network will be equipped with new POS hardware from J2 Retail Systems (a number of existing outlets have also chosen to upgrade). The back-end is in the cloud via a Task Retail Technology shared server.

As well as this new POS backbone, Dome will take advantage of a number of additional modules from Task, including a mobile ordering and loyalty app, tablet ordering system, interactive digital signage, and a kitchen display system (KDS) to increase the speed and quality of customer service.

According to Mr Lee, Dome chose Task for both its technology and its people.

“It was the right solution for us but, just as importantly, Task’s leadership team showed a level of open mindedness and willingness to work with us and tailor its solutions to our business. Together they showed agility to respond to our ongoing brand development and innovation requirements.”

Rather than simply upgrading its POS systems in a like-for-like manner, the highly successful European-style cafe franchise took the opportunity to take stock of how its business had changed since the existing system was put in place and look ahead to the future.

“Over the past 10 years we have become much bigger as a business and now operate in eight different countries. Most importantly, our customers’ behaviours and expectations have changed.”

“For example, people’s familiarity with and use of technology, especially when it comes to the use mobile devices like phones and tablets, is different now. The switch to Task Retail Technology is about catching up to that change and then thinking ahead to put us ahead of the curve.”

In the front-of-house, that means tablets to allow customers to place orders at their tables and new interactive digital media, integrated into the xchangexec Suite back-end, which will allow the company to upsell, run customer polls and show video content.

Working with Task, Dome will also deploy a mobile phone app which will allow regular customers to place their order before they arrive at the store and receive loyalty benefits for their repeat custom.

Behind the scenes, the new Kitchen Display Systems (KDS) be a major change. Dome will move away from printed dockets, with orders for baristas and kitchens instead appearing on dedicated touch screens, increasing speed and allowing staff to better manage orders, not to mention providing individual cafe managers with more data on the service process.

“The KDS can show an order from the moment it is taken to point it is ‘bumped’ and ready for service. Our staff will be able consolidate orders at the press of the button. And at any given time a barista can see how many cappuccinos, flat whites, etc are required to make,” Mr Lee said.

Mr Lee believes these new technologies will reduce operating costs and increase customer loyalty.

“It gives us a platform to do much more around customer loyalty. On the back-end, having more clarity on things like speed of service will provide benefits. And even training and induction is likely to improve thanks to the flexibility and design of Task’s user interface,” he said.

He also believes the flexibility of Task’s solutions will enable Dome itself to be bring more creativity to bear in the future.

“It gives us the ability to develop our own functionality down the track. It’s not one-size fits all. That’s what a good technology solution should be, an enabler for the business rather than something which restricts thinking.”

About Dome
Dome Café Group began in 1993 with its first store in Cottesloe, a beachside suburb of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It has grown to become the State’s most popular cafe brand and expanded into Dubai, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and the Maldives. For more information visit www.domecoffees.com.au.

About Task Retail Technology
Task Retail Technology (TASK) is a provider of innovative, transaction-based solutions to customers across the Retail, Hospitality, Casinos, Hotels and Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industries. TASK’s award winning xchangexec™ suite of software delivers tangible, commercial benefits to its customers through an array of integrated solutions including point-of-sale software, business intelligence reporting and analytics, mobile application development, multi-media content design and CMS, interactive hardware and professional services. Winning innovation and a strong focus on customer service has driven TASK’s cross-industry and international growth, including expansion into New Zealand and USA. For more information visit

www.taskretailtechnology.com.

xchangexec™is a trademark of Task Retail Technology Pty Limited