IHOP franchisor views sales information instantly from 143 restaurants

Miami is home to the company that operates one of the region’s favorite family restaurant chains: International House of Pancakes (IHOP). In Florida and southern Georgia, 143 IHOP sub-franchises are managed by FMS Management System, Inc.

BENEFITS

Since deploying Microsoft Dynamics GP, FMS Management has opened 24 new restaurants without needing to add new staff to its financial operations.

Business Challenge

To run a far-reaching franchise business like this one effectively, top executives must be able to access financial reports in a timely way; but using its Unix-based system with limited reporting capabilities, FMS was having difficulty obtaining the reports it needed. Comptroller Moez Lakhani acknowledged, “We didn’t have timely reporting, and we couldn’t drill down to the information we needed to manage the business efficiently.”

Solution

To implement a solution that would integrate all its financials and provide real-time insight, FMS selected Miami-based Solutions@MBAF, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Solutions@MBAF helped FMS switch to Microsoft Dynamics GP 8.0, an enterprise resource planning system, and Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

Solutions@MBAF designed a process to integrate sales data from point-of-sale terminals in restaurants into the Microsoft Dynamics GP solution. As a result, FMS Management gained real-time access to the financials of all its restaurants, with automatic updating allowing employees to compile reports, review financial information and view whatever level of detail is required. In addition, Solutions@MBAF developed a franchise revenue management system that quickly calculates royalties as well as rental and advertising fees.

Accolades

“It was obvious from the beginning that Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft SQL Server would be everything our old system wasn’t. In addition to providing all the functionality and flexibility we needed to run our business more efficiently, it is a Microsoft product. We knew that, with Microsoft support and development, Microsoft Dynamics GP would be an industry standard, just like Microsoft’s Excel and Word.

With Solutions@MBAF’s Microsoft technology the information we need is immediately accessible. We can call up, review and drill down to get exactly what we need for managing out business effectively.”

Moez Lakhani
Comptroller