An Online Multi-tenant Restaurant Management System to Expedite

The Ordering Process.

By
BSCLMR154720

A Proposal

submitted to

St. Paul’s University

Department of Business And Computer Science

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Bachelors degree of Computer Science
Contents
1 Introduction 2
1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3.1 General Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3.2 Specific Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Justifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.6 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

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1 Introduction
1.1 Background
Restaurants: places where people pay to sit and eat, have been available for a long
while. Record exist of such an establishment in ancient Egypt which offered only
one meal. The Romans also had the popina, a wine bar which in addition to a
variety of wines offered a limited selection of simple foods. In order to cater to
travelers, inns - precursors to the restaurant; were set up along busy roads and at
intersections. These inns offered food and drink to weary travelers and in some
instances, a place to rest. Restaurants cater to different clientele, with different
styles of cuisine, price brackets and religious requirements. Most restaurants offer a
choice of dishes and drinks which people order from written menus. Several types
of restaurants exist, primarily distinguished by the type of food they offer(e.g Steak
Bar), the cuisine (e.g Indian Food), and the style in which the food is served (e.g
Take Away Meals). Restaurants have also been ranked based on the quality of the
services the offer. The modern restaurant is a French invention and the French
continue to make major contributions to the industry. The Michelin Star regarded
as the highest possible accolade in the field are awarded only to the restaurants
with the most outstanding cuisine and services. Traditionally, restaurants acquired
revenue through payments made either before or after meals were served. Like any
other venture, financial records were kept detailing the services and meals offered as
well as the prices charged. Such systems of data keeping are heavily dependent on
paper. In the case of small restaurants run on family labor, such formalities are not
observed, the entire enterprise running on word of mouth and mental records.
As the world takes a firm foothold in the world of process automation, restaurants
opt to use advanced systems that not only simplify their process, but also make them
more efficient. Through software engineering companies, different institutions are
able to acquire systems designed to cater to their particular needs. Such systems
involve, automated inventories and online reservations and ordering capabilities.
Compared to the rest of the world, the African restaurant scene is moving at
a crawl due to specific challenges. This proposal aims to make available a generic
management system that can be adopted across the industry.

1.2 Problem Statement

Most Kenyan restaurants rely heavily on paper systems, and in some cases, no formal
systems are in place. In the restaurant industry, paper based systems involve manual
recording of orders, and issuing of receipts which customers then use to obtain meals.
There is a big room for errors while using the traditional system. The staff may lose
the paper or forget the order, record or deliver the wrong meals, or customers may
get served in the wrong sequence leading to bad customer service. This system may
also lead to high chance of incorrect charging when it is time to settle the bill and
more time wasted sorting out mistakes. Table reservation services are rarely offered
and the menus of the hotels are inflexible. The prices cannot be customized if or
when they increase or decrease, or when the food section needs changes or updates.
The staff has a difficult time trying to communicate which foods are available and

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which ones are not due to a heavy workload. The traditional system pose a health
risk. High levels of hygiene need to be maintained while handling food and drinks,
which is difficult to accomplish in a high throughput establishment as staff do not
have the space to properly clean and maintain assets regularly. Furthermore post-
COVID measures that call for social distancing are difficult to enforce in a crowded
place. Internet availability is on the rise, and so too is the use of smart phones;
personal computers are also quite easy to acquire. However businesses are not in a
place to take advantage of these advancements because they lack the expertise or
the resources needed to acquire management systems. Business owners are also not
able to profit from the wealth of data generated by their firms, which would greatly
improve their ability to make informed business decisions.

1.3 Objectives
1.3.1 General Objectives
With an online multi-tenant hotel management system, the hotel will be able to
take orders both online and in house, improving the efficiency of the process. Such
a system will also provide them with the ability to offer table reservation services,
maintain a flexible menu, and keep track of their inventory and sales.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of the system are:

a) Provide an online ordering platform: The system will provide a platform through
which user can place orders at their own comfort. This will improve customer
satisfaction, while eliminating most of the traffic within the premises of the busi-
ness.

b) Ease In House Ordering: By automating the ordering process, orders made in

house will be clearer and less prone to errors. Furthermore this will reduce the
amount of time spent processing orders.

c) Maintain a digital ledger: The system will keep, based on processed orders, metic-
ulous financial records that can be called upon when making business decisions.

d) Maintain a digital inventory: To facilitate smooth operations, the system will

maintain an inventory that will both influence and be influenced by orders. This
will be crucial as it will be the determinant of what orders can be placed.

1.4 Justifications
The specific objectives of the system will provide a host of benefits to local restau-
rants, and food vendors. The system will enable restaurants to receive and process
orders in a timely and accurate fashion. It will also provide business owners with
the right data to expand their businesses. They will also be able cut costs that are
as a result of inefficiencies. Customers will benefit by being able to place orders

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at their own comfort. Staff members will have ample time to take and deal with
orders. All these benefits and problems that they solve justify the development of
the system.

1.5 Scope
In scope, the management system will be limited to functionality that relates to the
fulfillment of the specific objectives.
The system will:

i) Manage an inventory or menu of foods and drinks that can be purchased through
the ordering system.

ii) Manage and facilitate the placement of purchase orders, both in house and
online.

iii) Manage and facilitate the reservation of seats.

iv) Secure and organize financial data pertaining to placed order.

The system will not:

i) Maintain an inventory of materials required in the preparation of food and

drinks, eg. Quantity of tomatoes and raw meat required for a certain dish.

ii) Record payments made to employees, either as salaries or bonuses.

1.6 Limitations
Use of the system will be faced by certain limitations. Among these is the lack of
knowledge required to handle the system by the staff. Users may face challenges
while using the online ordering system as it may be unfamiliar to them. Both the
installation and management of the system will require a high degree of expertise
which might be difficult to obtain. Inaccessible internet connection might also pose
a challenge to the availability and efficiency of online services.