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Robatelli's Pizzeria Case StudyIntroduction On the morning of October 31st, Elaine Black, Chief Information Officer at Robatelli's Pizzeria, was waiting for both Jim Saxton, database administrator, and Peter Greyton, operations manager, to come to her office for a meeting. While waiting, Elaine was thinking about the surge of telephone and Internet orders expected to be received through the company's customer order center within the next 12 hours. Halloween had always been the most popular day of the year for people in the greater Pittsburgh area to order pizza from Robatelli's. There were 53 restaurant locations to serve these customers, but only one location to receive all of the orders and forward them to the right restaurant. Elaine's thoughts were interrupted as Jim and Peter entered her office. The following conversation took place:

ELAINE Well, guys, it's here again, our biggest day of the year. Not only is Halloween a busy day, but we have the upcoming day after Thanksgiving, the week before Christmas, and Super Bowl Sunday. Can our current computer system's infrastructure and people keep pace with the orders we expect?

JIM I think our systems are all running at peak performance. We shouldn't have any computer concerns for today or those other busy days.

PETER Everyone in the customer order center is focused on making sure that our customers get their pizzas as ordered. We have plenty of people scheduled to work tonight, so we're good to go.

ELAINE Terrific. But every time we face one of these peak sales days, I start wondering about the long-term capacity and effectiveness of our computer systems. Jim, we need to think long term about our computer system. I was just reading an article that I'd like you to take a look at. It's about Anheuser-Busch Companies and their use of data mining.

JIM I do agree with you, Elaine; we should always be thinking about how newer IT systems can help us. Could you e-mail me the link to the article?

ELAINE Sure, and I would like you to think about how we might use the same approach in our business. Peter, your order center people are doing a great job, but again there's something I'd like us to think about in the long run. As you know, we now have to manually enter all customer order center sales and store sales into our general ledger (GL). I think we could improve a lot of things if those sales are automatically fed into our GL software. Why don't you think about any advantages you see for an automatic interface, and we'll look at the costs compared to those advantages. How's that sound?

PETER I'll do that. I'll give it some thought and work on a report about an automatic interface between our GL software and the point of sale systems in our restaurants as well as the phone and Internet sales. How soon do you want to meet again to look at these issues?

ELAINE Let's say, in two weeks at the same time.

As Jim and Peter left her office, Elaine continued to think about the features of the company's accounting information systems and whether or not data extracted from these systems could facilitate the multiple needs of the company. The focus had always been on providing accurate financial accounting information from the various locations; however, the company's aggressive growth strategies meant increased emphasis on the system's ability to analyze detailed customer information that could be translated into increased sales opportunities.

Elaine knew the challenges they faced could very well affect the company's ability to maintain its competitive advantage. She realized that her department must continually improve the company's information systems to help it achieve growth strategies. Operating state-of-the-art systems was imperative to position the company to execute those growth plans. However, she was concerned about the possibility that restrictions of the current information systems could actually prevent the company from doing what it wanted to do. Allowing restrictive systems to prevent them from achieving business strategies was a risk that Elaine would not tolerate!

Background

Robatelli's Pizzeria is a great American success story. Started by Dino Robatelli in the 1960s, the business impetus was a family pizza recipe. Introduced to the public at a church festival in Pittsburgh's Little Italy, Robatelli's pizzas are now a recognized tradition in the Greater Pittsburgh area. A full menu and local expansion have led to its growing popularity over the years and have helped it achieve nearly 50 percent of the area market share. Annual sales now exceed $100 million. Following is a timeline of milestones in the company's history: 1962	Dino and Gloria Robatelli contributed $500 and the family pizza recipe to a partnership that opened the first Robatelli's Pizzeria.
1965	The Robatellis bought out their business partners.
1967	The first Robatelli's franchise opened.
197177	Dozens of new Robatelli's franchises opened throughout the surrounding region.
1983	Home delivery service began.
1992	A central, one-number calling system for all restaurants was launched.
2003	Internet ordering began. The first prototype pizzeria opened.
Today	A total of 53 locations are in operation.