Kew replaces catering IT

The Royal Botanic Gardens has signed a contract to install new retail catering management systems and upgrade its existing retail and hospitality management IT.

The Kew-based organisation, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2003, today announced it was upgrading and expanding its existing retail IT management systems to improve its ability to manage its business.

Midas retail IT software, from provider Sanderson, will be installed across its two sites - Kew Gardens in Surrey and Wakehurst Place, West Sussex - to manage its catering arm, in addition to its retail, mail order and wholesale operations, to increase operational efficiencies across all channels.

Midas will replace two existing retail applications to provide the Royal Botanic Gardens with one view of product and stock files, allowing it to accurately place and track orders.

New electronic point-of-sale (EPoS) units will be installed at all seven catering outlets at Kew and Wakehurst Place to help improve the quality and speed of customer service as a result of increased staff productivity and efficiency.

The new systems will also provide its finance department with a consolidated view of its operations for enhanced audit and control of its retail function and better-informed management decision-making processes.

Mark Jackson, project manager at Kew, said in a statement: "We are confident that Midas was the best match to our requirements."

Miya Knights

A 25-year veteran enterprise technology expert, Miya Knights applies her deep understanding of technology gained through her journalism career to both her role as a consultant and as director at Retail Technology Magazine, which she helped shape over the past 17 years. Miya was educated at Oxford University, earning a master’s degree in English.

Her role as a journalist has seen her write for many of the leading technology publishers in the UK such as ITPro, TechWeekEurope, CIO UK, Computer Weekly, and also a number of national newspapers including The Times, Independent, and Financial Times.