HotSchedules, provider of mobile and cloud-based technology for the restaurant and hospitality industries, today announces the launch of Bodhi, an open platform-as-a-service, to promote lower cost integrations and the rapid development of mobile applications. Bodhi empowers restaurants and retailers to collect and leverage their data to improve insight and drive business transformation at a small fraction of today’s costs.
Historically, restaurants have had to wrestle with multiple closed systems to get the data they need to gain insight into their business. Today, the Internet of Things (IoT) is creating an explosion of data for restaurants, but there is no system to bring that data together. Independent solution providers have struggled to integrate with the multitude of Point-of-Sale (POS) systems used by the industry. This limits the choice of apps available to restaurants to those provided by the POS vendor, often with a limited mobile footprint.
Bodhi eliminates the barrier between restaurants and their data and opens up a marketplace for restaurants to find new apps that can work with their systems. Bodhi’s restaurant middleware collects data from any source, consolidates real time data in the Bodhi Cloud and delivers data through Bodhi Mobile apps or to 3rd party solutions through the open Bodhi API. Restaurants can work more productively and respond effectively by acting on key performance indicators in real time. Independent solution providers anywhere in the world can integrate their existing solutions, build and host new mobile apps on the Bodhi platform and increase their reach by offering their apps to HotSchedules’ customers anywhere in the world.
Examples of the data restaurants can access with Bodhi include:
- In-store data such as POS, scheduling systems, IP-enabled restaurant equipment and devices like fryers, sensors and beacons
- Near-store data from location-based apps like weather, calendars, traffic and social media information (such as Yelp, Google Places and OpenTable)
- Above-store data such as inventory management, ordering, marketing and accounting systems
HotSchedules President and CEO, Anthony Lye noted, “It’s unbelievable to see how much data surrounds restaurants and how little of it can be put to good use. I think of Bodhi as the liberator of data. We’re setting it free so it can go to work for you.”
The data collected can be used in a number of ways. A few simple use cases for Bodhi might include:
- Displaying key performance indicators such as live sales, guest counts and transaction data on mobile dashboards, regardless of source POS system.
- If bad weather is forecasted, Bodhi can alert managers at affected areas and recommend shift changes.
- As employees walk into the store, a Bodhi mobile app detects the user location and prompts the user to clock in (or clock out when they leave the store).
Dipock Das, HotSchedules Vice President, Technology said, “By delivering pre-built integrations to the POS and simplifying cloud and mobile development, Bodhi shifts the focus so that Restaurant IT and developers can create, deploy and operate apps that deliver value to the industry, much faster and at lower cost instead of struggling to integrate disparate systems for single point solutions. We want to give developers the tools they need so they can be heroes to the business.”
In addition to delivering pre-built integration to key data sources essential to the restaurant and retail industry, HotSchedules is partnering with independent software vendors (ISVs) to integrate their solutions and bring new applications to the market. Bodhi’s initial partners include PlotWatt, which helps you save money by tracking the energy spend of appliances, Humm Systems, which provides feedback from your customers, and Shopamani, a digital wallet for customers and marketing and loyalty solution for restaurants. Kerem Sozugecer, Founder and Managing Partner at Shopamani said, “Working with the Bodhi team at HotSchedules has been great. Bodhi is incredibly easy to integrate with and we’re excited to make our data available to customers in the industry.”
Additional partnerships will be announced the the coming days.
About HotSchedules
HotSchedules provides mobile and cloud-based technology for the restaurant, retail and hospitality industries. The company delivers a comprehensive suite of cloud-based software designed to automate operational challenges such as recruiting, training, scheduling, business intelligence, shift communication, labor and inventory management. Its world-class products include HotSchedules, Jobsabi, Bodhi, Manager’s Red Book, Logbook, Macromatix and Schoox. HotSchedules is proud to serve more than 1.8 million users in over 110,000 locations across 26 countries. For more information visit: http://www.hotschedules.com.
