In today's fiercely competitive foodservice environment, restaurant operations must be run as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. Unit managers and corporate personnel spend countless hours managing a complex order-to-pay cycle with their numerous distributors. Accounts payable pays off of inaccurate "dirty" invoices because it is too time consuming to properly reconcile the order, confirmation, invoice and price information. Corporate purchasing professionals negotiate strong contracts on behalf of their members to maximize rebates and reinforce brand quality, only to find the units aren't taking full advantage of the programs.

For chain restaurants, promotional programs are important tools in acquiring new customers, increasing profit margins and boosting franchise equity. At the same time, these programs come with significant risks. If you undertake a promotion without timely visibility into product movement and inventory levels in the supply chain, you're at much greater risk of costly stock-outs, overstocks or last minute product repositioning that can negatively impact all parties involved.

ITN's Procurement solution is a hosted, web-based ordering solution that streamlines all stages of the order-to-pay process for unit managers while giving corporate headquarters much-needed control over unit level purchasing. Benefits of this solution include:

• Improved unit purchasing compliance
• Increased unit productivity by simplifying the order-to pay process
• Reduced overpayments and reconciliation errors
• Increased contract volume and rebate attainment
• Prevented costly stock-outs, overstock and product repositioning
• Increased profitability of limited time offers (LTOs) and promotions
• Improved quality and food safety
• Improved communication across the organization and with trading partners