SUBWAY

Subway



Table of Content

Introduction1

Task1:Assessment of information and knowledge needs:2

Task 2: Strategies to increase Personal Networking:4

Task3: Develop Communication Processes7

Task4:Design & improve appropriate system:8

Conclusion9

References11

Subway

Introduction

Task1:Assessment of information and knowledge needs:

Identify & critically evaluate the range of decisions to be taken

How many large specialty burgers were sold in the Northeast last weekend? How many customers had multiple burgers delivered during the big game on Sunday night? Is there enough labor in the restaurant to provide the proper service for hundreds of customers on any given day? Subway, the restaurant giant based in Wichita, Kan., uses networking and a sophisticated restaurant management system to help corporate and restaurant employees at 4,800 stores nationwide answer questions like these. Daily, the company relies on dial-up communications to poll restaurants or "field units" for data such as sales, guest checks and customer data. The polled data is posted to an IBM 3090 mainframe and upon dial-up, delivered as reports to 350 traveling area managers responsible for the performance of multiple restaurants. At the heart of the polling system are four Xylogics Annex communication servers speeding communications between two IBM RS/6000 hosts and a bank of modems. The RS/6000s, channel-attached to the mainframe and using TCP/IP, run Legent Corp.'s MLINK/ACM data transport product, making it possible to poll gigabytes of data daily. Subway attributes a polling success rate of 98 percent to a near fault-tolerant system and the automatic processes inherent in it.

Review and critically evaluate the type information and knowledge needed to ensure effective decision taking

In the Field The communications network enables better management within Subway restaurants. The typical field unit uses a 386 or 486 PC running Unix as a back-of-house processor. The Unix box is linked to point-of-sale terminals that enable employees to take ord ers and handle cashier functions. Restaurant managers use the Unix systems to tap Subway's Field Management System, an application portfolio developed in-house that provides tools for service planning and forecasting, operations control, business analysis, computer training and systems administration. The communications network makes it possible to deliver software upgrades to field units electronically. "The network is growing and it's our responsibility to make sure the capacity and reliability are adequate to support the business," says Tim Zimmerman, manager of communication systems. Communications with field restaurants are one aspect of networking at Subway, but they're essential to helping the company monitor business performance and deliver the best service possible. Subway officials admit the company stands at the threshold of developing a strategy for customer communications in the online arena. Rob Boverie, the company's media director, says there are three key potential online applications his company considers promising: support for direct-response efforts (CRM), delivering brand visibility; and support for a system that allows burgers to be ordered online. "The efforts we've implemented to date, and potentially will implement for this year, are designed to see which approaches will generate the best results," Boverie says. In the end, the company's future online strategies will be determined on understanding of these potential online applications relative to ...