Online restaurant information management tool: a case for Faze2 restaurant

Abstract

The 21st century has seen Internet systems increasingly becoming a trend of undertaking business because of the various benefits that they come along with. These include, but not limited to; convenience, easy demonstration of customer care, gaining competitive edge over rivals and efficient delivery of the products/services. This study was conducted at Faze2 restaurant, which offers services like reservations for functions and delivery of food particularly to MTN, UTL and Hima. Faze2, however, is faced with challenges like limited parking space and at times overwhelmed with the huge number of customer turn-up. The study aimed at addressing the problems faced by the restaurant through developing an Online Restaurant Information Management Tool (ORIMT) to allow customers place food orders and make reservations online hence allowing time for quality preparation and service. During the study, data was collected using interview guides as well as observation, which helped to determine and understand the user and system requirements. The tool was designed using Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) and Data Flow Diagrams (DFDs) and then developed using PHP (for the customers’ side) and VB.Net (for the management side); both of which run on a MySQL database. Besides the benefits that the tool will offer to the restaurant and its clients, it will also be of great use to future researchers wishing to venture into a similar project. Therefore, the researchers recommend that Faze2 restaurant adopts this tool.