Trainer's Tip
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TOPICS WORTH READING ABOUT | ||
 Trainer's TipGet the most out of FOOD-TRAK in the least amount of time using the power of FOOD-TRAK exception reporting. You'll see transactions that are exceptional (often too much/too little) which saves you from having to sift through a lot of data to find the pertinent info. Consider adding these reports to your analysis repertoire. Read more... |
 Fundamentals & Advanced TrainingFOOD-TRAK University is now offered in person or online! Attend our popular Fundamentals course in person at our Scottsdale, AZ headquarters or from the convenience of your office or home online! Both courses offer multi-day comprehensive virtual classes for Fundamentals and Advanced Recipe & POS. This interactive training experience is with a live instructor and includes a comprehensive training guide. Mark your calendar! Click here... |
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 Development NewsIn a production environment, one of the best ways to maintain a desirable cost of goods is to reduce overproduction. Production forecasting is both a science and an art. After forecasting and ordering the correct items and amounts, it becomes important to produce the recipes correctly and track leftovers. Read more... |
 NEW! FOOD-TRAK University Crash CourseLooking to get someone up to speed on FOOD-TRAK basics? Consider the Crash Course - a compilation of FOOD-TRAK University courses covering database and template management plus invoice and inventory entry. In addition, it includes an hour of consultative training time on any topics you'd like to discuss. Total training time is 7.5 hours that can take place in one or more sessions when convenient for your team. Read more... |
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Client Spotlight - Binghamton University
Interview with Megan Gorski, IT Manager
Binghamton University is a highly ranked public university in New York with 20,000 enrolled students - 7,000 living on campus. The campus operates 4 multi-venue residential dining centers and roughly 25 retail outlets. Their previous food and beverage system had issued an end of life notification, so they were under the gun to find another solution. At the outset of the project, the team was highly focused on FOOD-TRAK’s production plan reporting. In order to hit their dining hall budget numbers, they were relying on FOOD-TRAK to help them produce recipes correctly and minimize overproduction. What was your selection process for FOOD-TRAK? "We contacted 3 companies. The first didn't respond at all, the second had a long history of work with universities and the third company was FOOD-TRAK. We set up an informational call with both. During the calls, the second company said no to everything we asked for whereas FOOD-TRAK said 'yes - and, if we don't have what you need, we can build it for you!' We felt the other company didn't care at all about our business, and would make us simply adjust to their model." How did the implementation process go? "The database was built by the FOOD-TRAK team during 2021/22 Fall Semester but we, like everyone, had staffing issues during the pandemic, so we pushed the go live date to 2022 Spring Semester. The FOOD-TRAK implementation team kept me on track and was wonderful throughout the entire process. Our people are change resistant, so the idea of implementing a new system was difficult for them. I set up internal meetings and asked our staff what they would love to have in the system. As a result, we asked FOOD-TRAK to enhance their production reporting to include a report option that was exactly what our culinary team was looking for." What is the best part of the system for your operations? "Inventory! We take weekly inventory and in our previous system, we had 2 people in every area involved. 1 to do the count and 1 to record the inventory quantities. Those manual forms were then sent to our purchasing team to be input into the system. When they completed the entry, they sent it back to the team to review for errors. It took 2 people all day Thursday and half the day Friday for that manual entry - not to mention 5 reams of paper every week! Now we use scanners and there is no need to tie up 2 staff members to enter inventories. Originally, we purchased a scanner for each residential dining hall, but we are expanding the use of scanners to all retail outlets since we are so pleased with the time savings." How about recipes? "The FOOD-TRAK team built recipes (ingredients and recipe instructions) for our first 35-day cycle menu. That gave our team a jumpstart and since then, we have implemented FOOD-TRAK nutritional analysis capabilities and continue to build new recipes. In the past, we had to use two separate systems, one for nutritional data and another for recipes. Now, thanks to FOOD-TRAK, everything is in one system. Allergens are extremely important to track, especially for our students living in the dining halls. We provide calorie and allergen details on our menu boards, our website and as we host events, our guests appreciate the allergen information we share with them." What is your goal to expand your use of the system? "We’ve been importing invoices from Sodexo’s Market Connection system directly into FOOD-TRAK which has been a huge time saver for us, but our next step is to have all of our outlets use more of the software's procurement tools. We would like to expand the use of FOOD-TRAK in our retail operations, so they can take advantage of the same production tools our dining halls use." How has your experience been with FOOD-TRAK? "We have a good partnership. After such a long relationship with the prior company, we felt the FOOD-TRAK team made everything easy for us. The stakeholders scheduled 30 minute calls every two weeks with me to review our processes and needs, and as we nearing the end of our first semester they don’t even have any questions to ask."
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Calgary Stampede |
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Gulfstream Park |
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Golden Gate Fields |
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Maryland Jockey Club |
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Santa Anita Park |