MamaDuke Restaurant

Case Study: MamaDuke

MamaDuke is restaurant/caf�/bar and catering business based at the Caufield campus of Monash University, one of Australia�s most well regarded educational institutions. Its food and beverage services, in-house events and catering services contribute to campus life, not to mention the caf� and food culture of the local area. MamaDuke sought to expand its catering services online in an effort to reduce overheads associated with time spent by staff taking and processing orders and receiving payments. The costs of hard-copy distribution of designer menus showcasing MamaDuke food was proving a significant barrier to expanding their catering services due to a regularly changing menu.

A custom shopping cart & eCommerce system

WebDynamic™ proposed a traditional shopping cart system that could be customised to fit with their catering menus, and which would act both as catalogue for their products and an ordering system for their catering services. A credit card payment gateway was integrated for regular paying customers, and customisations were made to ensure compatibility with the payment system used across the university. The shopping cart system was linked to the client�s merchant services account to receive payments directly into their bank account.

Professional photos of all menu items were arranged and the entire product line was loaded into a simple-to-use web login interface that staff could maintain and update as the menu changed. An impressive new website was built to showcase MamaDuke facilities, including a blog for members to post to and a photo gallery for visitors to upload photos of their events.

Showcasing a unique service online

As catering services are more difficult to promote online than tangible, off-the-shelf products, WebDynamic™ sought to develop a feature-rich website that brought MamaDuke�s services alive in front of prospective customers eyes and lent credibility to the MamaDuke brand. From a functional perspective, the eCommerce system allows visitors to seamlessly browse and build a catering order online. Not only can non-university staff complete a purchase by providing the usual credit card details, university staff also have the convenience of simply entering the payment reference details of their university department. Once payment is automatically debited and deposited into the client�s account, the order is completed by staff on site, who receive the necessary details via email.

Streamlining and expanding an efficient sales order system

In the months following the launch of the MamaDuke website, the eCommerce system drastically reduced the workload of catering staff whilst allowing for expansion of the catering service into a number of new private venues surrounding the campus area, increasing the overall profitability of the MamaDuke catering arm. The total time saved using the new system over the conventional order management system has been calculated at 25 minutes per order. Based on staff costs alone this has almost doubled the profit margin on the average order, while streamlining the order process for both MamaDuke staff and their customers.

�Since adding eCommerce to our website the profitability of our catering services has increased dramatically. By allowing our staff to do what they do best instead of wasting time on manually following up payments and order details we have not only reduced our overheads, but increased our overall productivity considerably.� � Salvatore Malatesta, Managing Director