Hard Rock Café Singapore: Wireless Technology Innovation
             The first Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) opened its doors to the public on June 14, 1971, in London, England. Founded by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, two enterprising and music-loving Americans, HRC was an instant classic, attracting droves of customers with its first-rate, but moderately priced casual American fare, warm service and ever-present rock 'n' roll music and sensibility. Although it was initially decorated with an eye toward eclectic Americana, HRC has ultimately become the world's leading collector and exhibitors of rock 'n' roll memorabilia. Hard Rock began its global expansion in 1982, when Tigrett and Morton agreed to develop their own Hard Rock Cafes in various parts of the globe. (http://www.hardrockcafe.com)
             One of the franchises of Hard Rock Café is Hard Rock Café Singapore owned by HPL, the company that "owns 50 percent of HRC Holdings which holds the franchises for the operation of HRC in various Asian countries (Chan, 2004)." The problems that first beset HRC Singapore are: (1) time spent by waiters going from one table to another and taking orders, (2) the kitchen staff had to wait for the waiters to physically bring the order slips before they can start cooking the orders, and (3) the cashiers need to manually input orders taken by the waters and process the bill for the customers. The sum total of the problems basically is that it takes a lot of time and manpower to perform basic restaurant functions.
             To remediate the situation, HRC Singapore performed a business process reengineering (BPR) of their order taking, order processing and billing. The implementation of wireless technology was the solution they favored and the "hip restaurant has overhauled its older order-taking processes, investing S$100,000 (US$58,546) in a new wireless point of sale (POS) system. (Chan, 2004)" By integrating the handheld HP iPAQ ...