And nerds business automate
Hi, a recent article on Habré about how a programmer tried to sell made me tell our little story about how we threw a challenge to the interfaces of the 90s and the entire automation of cafes, bars and restaurants in general, using modern technologies.
Below is a lot of revelation.
')
8 years ago, I opened a studio, we made websites ... Two years ago, we thought about how to help visitors to establishments save time and money, and launched a single discount system. We, just a group of students, managed to launch a card in 5 cities of Ukraine and Russia and connect more than 300 selective institutions to it. At the moment there are more than 20,000 owners of such cards.
About a year after the launch, we thought about how to improve the work of institutions, reduce costs and increase the quality of service. And faced with a tangible obstacle - a huge beast named "restaurant automation." You encounter it in cafes, restaurants, when shopping in stores. This is a system that keeps a total account of everything that happens in the institution. Namely: procurement, those. meal cards, sales, write-offs, inventory, etc. Now in the CIS market, most of these systems are a stationary solution. Many of them were developed in the early 2000s, when cafes and restaurants have not heard about the Internet and wi-fi, so there was no talk about cloud technologies yet. Most of them look like MS Access 98, neither the equipment nor the interface is often adapted for the touch, so the waiters have to press the buttons with a card, sometimes several times.
Using established contacts with institutions, we began to go and ask them about what kind of system they had, what problems they faced, what they liked and what they would like to change. This helped us to properly break the market and understand the needs.
We divided institutions into 4 main types:
Having decided on the types of institutions, we decided to focus on the segment that seemed to us the most promising and in which there are no big players yet.
Immediately after the start, we wrote out for ourselves a small list of principles that our product should possess:
As a result, we have a SaaS-service on a subscription based on an iPad application.
Immediately answer the most popular question: Why iPad and will there be a version for Android?
The iPad was chosen because it has a good price-performance ratio, and is fairly stable, but for Android, you would have to test the application for different versions, and what is most unpleasant is the different screen resolution. They came to the conclusion that ± 50 $ will not solve anything for the owner and therefore we are not going to support Android, at least in the near future.
Having spent several weeks on combining all ideas and creating backlog, we started prototyping the interface.
The first prototype was ready in a couple of days. We rushed immediately to the institutions, showing it to the waiters, administrators, owners, in order to get their feedback. In principle, this happens almost always when we change something in design. First, we give this to the waiters and cashiers for a weekly test, so that they can tell whether it is really easier and faster for them to accept and process orders. And only after that we roll out the update.
At this stage, we have the first angels. The guys from 908 believed in the project and helped us in six months to make a finished product from a prototype. We completely closed the studio and started our own project.
The first problems arose when we tried to teach the printer to print from an iPad. It turns out that there are only 2 manufacturers of printers that have the necessary libraries - Epson and Star. After we tried a dozen different models, we had to stop at Epson, because Ukraine has its official representative office, and it’s faster to work through it, especially in industrial volumes. We received a certificate and became the official distributor, wrote the application and placed it in the AppStore. Apple didn’t want to post it, demanded that we have Epson official permission to use their open library. This is a long history associated with marasmus and bureaucracy, I do not want to dwell on it. But in the end, we were the first in Ukraine to post a similar application in the Ukrainian AppStore.
In mid-November, we launched the registration. At the moment, we already have 20 customer establishments. We have not spent 1 cent in advertising yet and this is our 2nd article.
Project site - http://joinposter.com here you can see how everything works and read about the main differences from competitors.
You can download the free app and access the demo access - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/poster/id691098784
A couple of screenshots:
But how does he look in the institution
During these 2 years I have learned a lot for myself and learned a lot.
I understood why there are such small portions in a cafe :) I realized how hard it is, and at the same time it's cool to work on my project. I realized that if you are a programmer, there is no framework for you in any business. In one year, we were able to understand almost all the subtleties of the main processes of an absolutely unfamiliar sphere for us and automate them. I understand how highly valued such people are. When I had to call Japan to Star or America to Epson, as soon as they found out that I was writing a program for their printers, they gave me a personal manager who helped us figure out the specification. Previously, it seemed to me incredible, but you just need to pick up the phone and at least tell you about what you are doing. I understood that investors are people too and there is nothing terrible in them. I realized how hard it is to sell, even if your product is head and shoulders above and cheaper of everything that exists in the market. All the same, it will have to sell. I understood how important the team is, the goal to which we are moving, and the dream. The dream is to drastically change the service services in institutions for the better.
During this time we have come a long way. From two students, inspired by the idea, to a company of 20 people, which already has its own mentors. And now, a couple of minutes before the start of the corporate party, I wanted to share all of this with you, dear Habrayuzer. I sometimes write very disgustingly and can lose my mental connection, but I hope my article will help you to make up your mind and will give you strength and inspiration in the New Year in order to make the New Year different from the previous one.
PS This is my first article, and it was given quite hard. I hope for understanding, constructive criticism and interesting questions so that I can understand what Habrayusers are most interested in and in the next article tell you exactly about it.
Below is a lot of revelation.
')
Prologue
8 years ago, I opened a studio, we made websites ... Two years ago, we thought about how to help visitors to establishments save time and money, and launched a single discount system. We, just a group of students, managed to launch a card in 5 cities of Ukraine and Russia and connect more than 300 selective institutions to it. At the moment there are more than 20,000 owners of such cards.
About a year after the launch, we thought about how to improve the work of institutions, reduce costs and increase the quality of service. And faced with a tangible obstacle - a huge beast named "restaurant automation." You encounter it in cafes, restaurants, when shopping in stores. This is a system that keeps a total account of everything that happens in the institution. Namely: procurement, those. meal cards, sales, write-offs, inventory, etc. Now in the CIS market, most of these systems are a stationary solution. Many of them were developed in the early 2000s, when cafes and restaurants have not heard about the Internet and wi-fi, so there was no talk about cloud technologies yet. Most of them look like MS Access 98, neither the equipment nor the interface is often adapted for the touch, so the waiters have to press the buttons with a card, sometimes several times.
Using established contacts with institutions, we began to go and ask them about what kind of system they had, what problems they faced, what they liked and what they would like to change. This helped us to properly break the market and understand the needs.
Classification
We divided institutions into 4 main types:
- a small cafe or bar (sometimes tea, hookah), usually up to 10 tables, all checks and documentation are kept manually on the leaves
- average cafe or restaurant (using a budget solution or unlicensed software), usually one waiter’s workplace, up to 50 tables
- a large cafe, restaurant, fast food (its own system, iiko and analogues), several cash registers, a network of institutions
- seasonal places
Having decided on the types of institutions, we decided to focus on the segment that seemed to us the most promising and in which there are no big players yet.
Principles
Immediately after the start, we wrote out for ourselves a small list of principles that our product should possess:
- simple installation without instructions for a couple of minutes
- independent updates
- security and data storage in the cloud
- mobility
- low price
As a result, we have a SaaS-service on a subscription based on an iPad application.
Immediately answer the most popular question: Why iPad and will there be a version for Android?
The iPad was chosen because it has a good price-performance ratio, and is fairly stable, but for Android, you would have to test the application for different versions, and what is most unpleasant is the different screen resolution. They came to the conclusion that ± 50 $ will not solve anything for the owner and therefore we are not going to support Android, at least in the near future.
Prototype
Having spent several weeks on combining all ideas and creating backlog, we started prototyping the interface.
The first prototype was ready in a couple of days. We rushed immediately to the institutions, showing it to the waiters, administrators, owners, in order to get their feedback. In principle, this happens almost always when we change something in design. First, we give this to the waiters and cashiers for a weekly test, so that they can tell whether it is really easier and faster for them to accept and process orders. And only after that we roll out the update.
Investments
At this stage, we have the first angels. The guys from 908 believed in the project and helped us in six months to make a finished product from a prototype. We completely closed the studio and started our own project.
First problems
The first problems arose when we tried to teach the printer to print from an iPad. It turns out that there are only 2 manufacturers of printers that have the necessary libraries - Epson and Star. After we tried a dozen different models, we had to stop at Epson, because Ukraine has its official representative office, and it’s faster to work through it, especially in industrial volumes. We received a certificate and became the official distributor, wrote the application and placed it in the AppStore. Apple didn’t want to post it, demanded that we have Epson official permission to use their open library. This is a long history associated with marasmus and bureaucracy, I do not want to dwell on it. But in the end, we were the first in Ukraine to post a similar application in the Ukrainian AppStore.
Poster today
In mid-November, we launched the registration. At the moment, we already have 20 customer establishments. We have not spent 1 cent in advertising yet and this is our 2nd article.
Project site - http://joinposter.com here you can see how everything works and read about the main differences from competitors.
You can download the free app and access the demo access - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/poster/id691098784
A couple of screenshots:
But how does he look in the institution
findings
During these 2 years I have learned a lot for myself and learned a lot.
I understood why there are such small portions in a cafe :) I realized how hard it is, and at the same time it's cool to work on my project. I realized that if you are a programmer, there is no framework for you in any business. In one year, we were able to understand almost all the subtleties of the main processes of an absolutely unfamiliar sphere for us and automate them. I understand how highly valued such people are. When I had to call Japan to Star or America to Epson, as soon as they found out that I was writing a program for their printers, they gave me a personal manager who helped us figure out the specification. Previously, it seemed to me incredible, but you just need to pick up the phone and at least tell you about what you are doing. I understood that investors are people too and there is nothing terrible in them. I realized how hard it is to sell, even if your product is head and shoulders above and cheaper of everything that exists in the market. All the same, it will have to sell. I understood how important the team is, the goal to which we are moving, and the dream. The dream is to drastically change the service services in institutions for the better.
During this time we have come a long way. From two students, inspired by the idea, to a company of 20 people, which already has its own mentors. And now, a couple of minutes before the start of the corporate party, I wanted to share all of this with you, dear Habrayuzer. I sometimes write very disgustingly and can lose my mental connection, but I hope my article will help you to make up your mind and will give you strength and inspiration in the New Year in order to make the New Year different from the previous one.
PS This is my first article, and it was given quite hard. I hope for understanding, constructive criticism and interesting questions so that I can understand what Habrayusers are most interested in and in the next article tell you exactly about it.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/207370/
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