Digital food. How new digital ideas can bring your business in the ho.re.ca sector to success

By Marco Ilardi

Welcome to the new digital age! The technological revolution is already affecting the Food & Beverage and Ho.Re.Ca markets. The Covid-19 pandemic, left us with the awareness that digital technologies are now more important than ever in the kitchens or in customer service management, in order to stay ahead of the competition. Competing in this market means a relentless search for "high-level" performances and requires tools capable of satisfying them on a global scale and, at the same time, on the real needs of a single venue. Thus the need for customized software, tailor-made for the specific needs of each business.

From management software for Ho.Re.Ca and IPSAR, through tailored apps for starred restaurants such as Don Alfonso 1890, up to applications for delivery and futuristic entrances into the Metaverse, Marco Ilardi leads restaurateurs, pastry chefs, hoteliers, chefs and every professional figure in the sector, on a journey to discover the main programs created by his company, Micropedia, in response to the request of his customers to become the real protagonists in the world of Food today. You must be among them too! Buy now the digital recipe for climbing your business!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Youcanprint
• Release date: Dec 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9791221447491

Book preview

PREFACE

Edited by Don Alfonso Iaccarino

Naples, a city steeped in history, a place of interweaving of ancient cultures, kissed by this sea that has transported unrivaled civilizations, knowledge and millenary traditions. Surprising reality, unique in the world, whose inhabitants, the genetic result of a multifaceted variety of peoples and ethnic groups, retain in them the marvelous ability to interpret and live life with an absolute value, which we can enclose in a single word: Art!

Oh yes, gentlemen, art is everywhere in Naples, you can breathe it in the streets, in the neighborhoods, in the bars, in the museums, on the buses, in the subway, in the ports, in the theatres, in the schools, in the libraries ...

The Neapolitan people themselves are the artistic result of the mixture of very high qualities: acute intelligence, shrewdness, radiance, spontaneity and generosity.

Naples offers art in all its forms. In fact, ancient Parthenope has been the mother of countless artistic achievements throughout its history, because it has always had not only art rooted in it, but the art of creating art.

From this definition we can safely say that in addition to canonical figures such as the singer-songwriter, the director, the theater producer, the painter, the comedian etc., even those who create impeccable computer software, such as Marco Ilardi, keep within themselves that DNA capable of making them creative , intuitive and artistically brilliant.

Marco, therefore, gives life to real computer works of art, in a sartorial way, like the most beautiful suit sewn with the most refined wool; he paints his canvases, following inspiring indications with wisdom and in that special way that his Neapolitan being gives him.

Here at Don Alfonso 1890 we have created some extremely performing software with Marco, which have represented a very valid support in the organization and management of corporate communication, contributing greatly and impeccably to the global performance, based on the quality of what every day we do for the guest.

When Marco told me the work he was carrying out with the drafting of this text, I was pleasantly struck and admired. Having personally benefited from his skills and professionalism, I feel prompted with this short but heartfelt preface to warmly recommend reading this book, so that it can be a tool capable of shedding light on the many possible innovations to be made in your restaurant and … who knows, many other new and profitable ideas will inspire you!

INTRODUCTION

Undoubtedly we are in the midst of an incredible period, in which the necessary recovery is testing man's ability to emerge victorious, always and in any case, from the contingent difficulties.

The Covid-19 pandemic, in fact, represented a real watershed for the world and, in particular, for the Food & Beverage and Ho.Re.Ca sectors.

Watershed in what sense?

In the sense that for them we can truly speak of a before and an after, meaning two actually very distinct and strongly different periods, despite being, on closer inspection, separated by only two years.

Here, in such a short period of time, a radical innovation has been implemented in the way of thinking and using the services of these sectors, the synthesis of which can be fully expressed by the word digitization.

The digital event has in fact revolutionized the Food Industry in a profound way: from production processes to distribution processes, from marketing to the disruptive role of social networks, up to customization.

In short, we can rightly say that the entire agri-food world is rewriting its identity card in a digital key.

And this is paradoxical if we think that food represents in our experience the most physical and concrete that exists: a reality capable of activating all our senses and simultaneously involving physical reactions, emotions and social interactions.

At the same time, however, it has been one of the hottest topics in the digital world for several years.

Just think of the boom in photos of dishes, toasts, companies of friends or relatives sitting at the same table, which invade social channels, or the universe teeming with reviews of restaurants and clubs on dedicated portals (TripAdvisor above all).

And let's consider how all this has become part of our habits: how often we base the choice of a restaurant, a pizzeria, or what to order in that restaurant or pizzeria, on the basis of what we read and see on these platforms ? Like it or not, we must not only accept their existence, but also and above all the objective influence they exert on us.

Another area that is becoming increasingly popular is that of online and app bookings. Delivery services and digital marketing linked to food are also rapidly expanding.

If desired, the list could go on for pages and pages, but what emerges from it is that the innovation introduced by the digital transformation in the food industry is undeniable and by now deeply rooted, so much so that we can rightly speak of a process of irreversibility at its core. alas, therefore effective!

Naturally, all this also has significant repercussions on restaurants (large or small), on stores, on all types of points of sale that are part of the supply chain.

And what does all this translate into?

In an unprecedented virtuous circle, made up of

- cost reduction,

- increase in efficiencyAnd

- quality improvement.

• WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?

This book is aimed at all those who work in this virtuous circle, from managers to insiders, from technicians to customers, who revolve around the F&B and Ho.Re.Ca. and allow its existence and prosperity every day.

Chefs, restaurant managers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, pizza makers, pastry chefs, food and delivery startups, bars, IPSARs and countless other members of the chain.

It is written for all young and otherwise young insiders: for digital natives, who know how to move in the web maremagnum, but need support in vision, in marketing, communication and management strategy; as well as for the wiser ones, with a strong and consolidated know-how in experience, but who are visibly limping on the digital level.

• WHY THIS TEXT?

I want to clarify that this volume was born without any claim to teach or explain anything to anyone!

Indeed, it simply wants to be the story of skills and experiences, acquired over years of work in direct contact with the needs of the sector. Beautiful and demanding professional years in which, as an entrepreneur and business owner, I was able to put my skills at the service of my passion.

In fact, I have always looked to F&B and Ho.Re.Ca. with two different pairs of glasses: the consumer's and the programmer's.

I love food and the computer universe that opens up around it. It will be that we immediately attracted each other, it will be that I found myself open to the infinite IT variations that my work can create on the subject, even if at the beginning of my career I was tempted to dedicate myself exclusively to just one other sector, but I saw in food an unmissable channel, in fact for several years now I have had the opportunity to deal mainly with customers from these sectors.

Today my Software House, Micropedia, already has numerous and fruitful collaborations in these fields, so I can proudly say that it was ready to make an appointment with history to give its contribution during the current boom of post-pandemic recovery.

This means that, while numerous realities have had to reinvent themselves and, in a certain sense, start from scratch, today our hands are not empty, on the contrary, they are already professionally accustomed to being active in tackling sector problems, which concern all the stakeholders involved and to bring back sensible and effective solutions to ensure that everyone is satisfied.

Therefore, we are used to fluently speaking both the language of food and that of digital and to put them into communication in an optimal and decisive way for all those customers who request our services for the sake of their business and the development of hospitality spearheads tourism in our beautiful country: food and lodging.

• BOOK STRUCTURE

As anticipated, what you have before your eyes is not an instruction manual for you and your company, but a story of my and my Software House's professional growth and flexibility and of the prolific encounter with the world of food and the hotel industry .

I have deliberately introduced my work starting from a concise autobiography, which focuses exclusively on my training and my professional and entrepreneurial choices. Personally, I don't like those specialized books that devote too many pages to the author's self-praise, this is not the aim of the work.

But I wanted to give the reader a cross-section of my professional life, to help him enter the heart of each chapter better and more directly and in the sense