MonkeyPress

April 28 2008, Accuvuia Food Technology Advisor

Hot Off the Press: MonkeyMedia
Accuvia caught up with Erle Dardick, CEO of MonkeyMedia software, who was at the [ Dallas ] show as a visitor, but keen to talk to us about his newest initiative.
Dardick told how his company has a new vision for MonkeyMedia.net, its portal to the world: To facilitate the sharing of knowledge, resources, and ideas within the global food service community; to have a positive influence in the world of food, and the world food supply.
After several years in the business, pursuing their software venture and promoting good practices in the food business, MonkeyMedia ‘continue to meet amazing people, with amazing stories to share.”
Dardick said that, ‘in one respect, these are just stories about folks and situations in the food business, centering around innovations and best practices. But what makes these stories great is that they are inevitably about the lives that have been touched by customers, employees, people in the community and the owners themselves”…
MonkeyMedia Publishing will be launching their MonkeyMedia .net website in the coming weeks. To feature on this, the company is reaching out to members of the foodservice business, asking them to
• Share their knowledge and help to co-create and distribute their story, via pod cast, video cast or feature article
• Be on their ‘Ask the Experts’ panel, on a short or long term basis. Site visitors will be submitting questions, which MonkeyMedia will review and pass on to one or more of their panel of experts. The gathered knowledge and ideas will then be delivered back to the community, using a range of mediums, in a responsible way.
• Help find great stories to follow, to be followed up with professionalism and integrity
• Provide great content where possible.  Anything that an individual or an organization wishes to share with the MonkeyMedia.net community, written or otherwise

March 10 2008, Accuvia Food Technology Advisor

Exclusive Interview: Erle Dardick, CEO, MonkeyMedia Software

Vancouver, British Columbia-based MonkeyMedia Software provides MonkeyCatering, which represents a large portion of their business; MonkeyFoodFactory, for Bakeries, Commissaries and other food manufacturing facilities, and MonkeyMailOrder, for Catalog Fulfillment operations within the food industry. 
Given MonkeyMedia ’s heavy focus on the catering market, we spoke at length to Erle Dardick, CEO, who gave us some interesting insight into the industry, which, he concurs, is growing rapidly, especially at the QSR level. 
Erle details how the catering market segments are broken down into Full Service Event Catering, and Drop Off or Casual Catering - which is primarily being driven from the needs of the corporate world, and which is where MonkeyMedia is concentrated.  ‘As consumers are focusing on healthier eating … fresh food catering is taking a chunk off the fast food delivery market such as pizza and Chinese food,’ he comments. 
Erle tells how for or operators, expanding into casual catering involves few, if any barriers. They can leverage their brands, and their strong retail client base, and focus on driving sales. They can see increased revenues from existing locations, with only slight extensions to their product offerings.
‘Catering sales can yield a higher margin, which directly impacts the bottom line,’ he adds.
‘If you look at your food business as a manufacturing facility, it is likely that your plant is underutilized. Your current revenues are probably all geared around specific meal times. It is unlikely that you have an even revenue stream throughout the day. If you are like most restaurants, you have gaps that you would like to fill in. Catering can help.’
However, there is a difficulty operators have to face; namely a notable lack of in-house expertise and understanding of this new vertical. ‘It may not yet be a core competency, and new procedures and tools are needed to make the new business opportunity viable,’ explains Erle. By this he means that workflows need to be reengineered for some aspects of catering; delivery tracking is suddenly critical; and call centers may be needed to meet the demands of multi-unit operators. 
Erle believes that most multi-unit operators ‘are leaving a lot of money on the table by not executing well on their catering opportunities.’ He tells how new clients’ catering businesses are ‘typically in a seed phase’, prior to implementation of their software.
These companies sense latent potential, but may not know exactly how to capitalize on this. 
‘Catering can be an effective and profitable way to leverage your existing location, staff and menu. But to do both well requires understanding each side of the business and making sure that you do not ignore one while dabbling at the other.’
‘Once we analyze efficiencies and implement a technology solution, the company achieves fast growth, due to strong demand and the power of their retail brand.’
We ask Erle what specific features MonkeyCatering offers food service operators, and he replies that the solution handles every aspect of catering operations, including client management, order entry, invoicing, production, distribution, managing house accounts, credit card processing and integration into their customers’ backend systems. Also, as all of MonkeyMedia’s solutions are fully web- based, clients can place orders online as well as access their account specifics. 
‘Our edge comes out of our understanding of the catering business,’ stresses Erle. ‘There are subtle specialty features that are specific to managing unique product types, such as box lunches, platters and buffets.’
And is the company planning any developments for MonkeyCatering? Erle tells how the biggest focus for his company is to continue investing in their solutions for scalability, reliability and performance. They are working with large-scale, multi-unit QSR operators and medium-sized operators that are growing their units, as well as their catering opportunities. They are also focusing on strategic partnerships for POS integration. 
‘Finally, our BIG focus for this year is accelerating our solutions deployment,’ notes Erle. ‘The software features matter a lot, but software has to be implemented in a timely way, with minimal disruption, as efficiently as possible.’
Erle Dardick, CEO, took his MBA and went in the sandwich business in 1990, transforming a downtown deli through menu, style and service overhaul. He has since sold Tony’s Deli, and is the driving force behind MonkeyMedia Software. Over the last 15 years, he has become an expert in shaping food businesses for success and specializes in turnaround opportunities within the food industry.

May 8-14, 2007; Business in Vancouver

Restaurant Monkey Busines

Look beyond the hustle and bustle of a busy restaurant and chances are you’ll see Vancouver-made point-of-sales systems and software in use. A unique mix of culinary diversity and technical skill is making Vancouver fertile ground for a cluster of specialized food service systems companies.
Vancouver-based Squirrel Solutions, which began operations in 1984, supplies point-of-sale and management systems for independent and chain restaurants. Squirrel now has 150 employees, more than 10,000 customers and 50,000 workstations in North America. It was the first restaurant system provider to develop the now common touch screen technology for restaurants.
A more recent arrival to the food industry software scene, Vancouver-based MonkeyMedia Software, is a growing boutique software company started by Erle Dardick in 2001.
Dardick owned a Vancouver deli and parlayed his knowledge of the catering business into a software product specifically for bakeries and caterers. The company’s web-based software allows clients to access their business from anywhere on the Internet.
Dardick and his two partners now have about 11 employees and enjoyed more than $2 million in revenue last year. The company has 65 clients across Canada and the U.S.
Dardick said Monkey Media will handle about 40 or 50 projects this year, but is aiming for 100 projects next year. The company’s services cost between $750 and $1,000 a month for smaller clients and up to US$15,000 a month for larger clients.
Though Dardick admits he only taps into the small portion of a multibillion-dollar industry, he says MonkeyMedia’s background in catering and bakery operations gives them an edge.
The company’s focus on service and rapid personal response to customers’ needs stems from Dardick’s background in catering. “The obvious growth opportunity for them is catering opportunity; a challenge for hem is they don’t understand the business. They don’t make the distinction between catering and take-out. Take-out and catering are different businesses, and we come from that background,” said Dardick. “We feel we are changing the food business.”