Outback Steakhouse

Overview

Outback Steakhouse International manages restaurants in twenty countries around the globe. Financial transactions occur in more than a dozen different currencies, and conversion rates for each can change daily. For years the company used an internal data warehouse system and manually entered all financial information and corporate communications. As the business expanded, however, a more dynamic and automated solution was needed.

Challenge

Zertia was called in to design a solution to handle financial reporting, ordering, distribution of marketing materials and other administrative work. Zertia recommended a web-based application that would integrate with the company’s financial and reporting software to allow international locations to upload and interact with data. The solution had to include:

• A common interface that would be easy for franchisees to navigate, regardless of their level of computer expertise.
• Dynamic financial analysis and reporting tools that could deal with numerous time zones, currencies and frequently changing conversion rates.
• A security hierarchy to protect data from outside interference and regulate internal access.
• Applications that could handle extremely large files without data corruption or significant delays.
• The ability for Outback corporate to change content and upload new materials for marketing promotions and other events.

Solution

Zertia’s design team worked to web-enable the existing data warehouse, keeping as much of the familiar structure as possible while improving the interface and reorganizing the underlying applications. The solution included:

• Simpler menus.
• Options determined by user ID to avoid unnecessary steps.
• Ability to update the site in-house with easy-to-use administrative tools.
• Faster, more efficient means of distributing and exchanging critical business information.
• More timely and comprehensive reporting on profit and performance.
• Enhanced security for internal data distribution and for the system as a whole.

By virtually eliminating manual input of franchisee information, the new system freed accounting, marketing and administrative staff to concentrate on more productive tasks. Faster access to critical business information meant a clearer and more immediate picture of actual performance.

Outback Steakhouse International’s Intranet update has been a huge success, said Controller Becky Hranek. “Zertia designed a fabulous site. We’ve had nothing but good comments from our franchisees."