Case Studies - Hospitality

NPC started in 1962 as one of the original Pizza Hut franchises with an initial store in Pittsburg, Kansas. By 1990, NPC had expanded the Pizza Hut concept to over 350 units through the development of franchise territories and acquisitions. Today, NPC International is the world’s largest Pizza Hut franchisee with over 800 restaurants in 26 states. Accordingly, the company was recently ranked #47 on a listing of the top 100 U.S. foodservice companies. NPC began reviewing payments processing software in 2003 with hopes of lessening customers’ time spent during check-out and improving internal accounting procedures.

The Perfect Solution
ISD software was a natural complement to the NPC business environment, since NPC needed a solution that could run on an AS/400 platform and integrate with custom-developed POS software. NPC utilizes ISD’s Authorization and Settlement Suites to process credit and gift card transactions across their wide network of stores. NPC still works with a processing institution to further consolidate transactions.

Internal and External Gains
Before implementing ISD software, NPC processed credit transactions through dial-up terminals located at each store. Processing time ranged from 40 to 60 seconds per transaction, resulting in long lines during check-out and, ultimately, wasted time for customers. After implementing ISD’s software, the average transaction time decreased to 2 to 3 seconds. NPC also enjoyed an average cost savings of two to four cents per transaction by moving from dial-up to leased communication lines.

NPC’s internal accounting controls drastically improved once the company chose to partner with ISD. NPC’s previous accounting methods required store managers to manually key-in transaction data, and the company’s existing point-of-sale and credit authorization/settlement systems did not communicate. Since ISD software was installed, all transaction information is automatically received and processed once a customer initiates a purchase—no manual intervention is required.

“ISD provided a low-cost, high-quality solution for achieving customer service and internal process gains on an AS/400 platform. The software allows us to continuously improve our customers’ purchasing experiences by reducing wait-times at the point-of-sale,” stated Pace.

NPC plans to evaluate the possibility of rolling out debit processing functionality across its store base. Additionally, the company may integrate additional check authorization capabilities as their business continues to grow.