Opentable computer system

9.8 CASE STUDY: Open Table: Your Reservation Is Waiting OpenTable is the leading supplier of reservation, table management, and guest management software for restaurants. In addition, the company operates OpenTable.com, the world’s most popular Web site for making restaurant reservations online. In 13 years, OpenTable has gone from a start-up to a successful and growing public company that counts around two-thirds of the nation’s reservation-taking restaurants as clients. And, in the second quarter of 2011, an average of 8 million diners per month made reservations using OpenTable. Today, more than 20,000 restaurants in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan use the OpenTable hardware and software system. OpenTable also owns and operates Toptable.com, a leading restaurant site in the United Kingdom, which it acquired in 2010. This system automates the reservation-taking and table management process, while allowing restaurants to build diner databases for improved guest recognition and targeted e-mail marketing. The OpenTable Web site, OpenTable for Mobile Web (its mobile Web site), and OpenTable Mobile (its mobile app), provide a fast, efficient way for diners to find available tables in real time. The Web sites and app connect directly to the thousands of computerized reservation systems at OpenTable restaurants, and reservations are immediately recorded in a restaurant’s electronic reservation book. Restaurants subscribe to the OpenTable Electronic Reservation Book (ERB), the company’s proprietary software, which is installed on a touch-screen computer system and supported by asset-protection and security tools. The ERB software provides a real-time map of the restaurant floor and enables the restaurant to retain meal patterns of all parties, serving as a customer relationship management (CRM) system for restaurants. The software is upgraded periodically, and the latest version, introduced in August 2010, was designed to provide increased ease of use and a more thorough view of table availability to help turn more tables, enhance guest service, personalize responses to diners, coordinate the seating process, and maximize guest seating. The ERBs at OpenTable’s customer restaurants connect via the Internet to form an online network of restaurant reservation books. For restaurants that rely less heavily on reservations, OpenTable offers Connect, a web-based service that lets restaurants accept online reservations. OpenTable’s revenue comes from two sources. Restaurants pay a one-time fee for onsite installation and training, a monthly subscription fee of $199 for software and hardware, and a $1 transaction fee for each restaurant guest seated through online reservations. The online reservation service is free to diners.