Family Sports Concepts (Beef ‘O’ Brady’s)
Client Business
Family Sports Concepts is the franchisor for the popular chain of Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Family Sports Pubs. Since the first restaurant in 1985, Beef ‘O’ Brady’s has experienced phenomenal growth, with over two hundred stores in nineteen states, and more than a hundred locations currently in development. As an Owner-Operator system, with only four stores having corporate partnerships, the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s concept continues to evolve with its’ growth into one of the top restaurant chains in the country
The Owner-Operator business model provides a great deal of flexibility to Beef ‘O’ Brady’s and Family Sports Concepts, while presenting more obstacles which other Corporate Restaurants chains are not accustomed to handling.
While Beef ‘O’ Brady’s and Family Sports Concepts, Inc takes great pride in their Owner-Operator system, they must constantly be looking ahead to successfully navigate and adapt to trends in their industry and customer base.
Business Challenge
In the home office, Family Sports Concepts was already using FileMaker to track stores in development, but they needed a more robust system. The simple solution they already had was helpful, but still required a lot of duplicate entry. Many records and reports were handled separately, in spreadsheets and other documents. FSC needed a more comprehensive system to keep track of all their stores and franchisees, and integrate the efforts of operations, development, legal, training and so forth.
Solution Provided
Many of the functions FSC needed were fairly standard relationship management tools, including contact management and activity management, as well as a standardized user interface and tools for administering the system itself. Some users also needed to be able to take contact information with them in the field, using their PDA’s.
For these requirements, Extensitech provided xBase, to serve as a foundation on which to build to more particular needs. The xBase system includes screens for contact management, including People, Companies, Phones, Faxes and Web addresses. Screens are also included for managing several types of Activities, including Tasks, Calendar Events, Emails, Calls and Memos. For administration, there are screens for user Accounts, Employees, Divisions, Departments, System Preferences, phone and address masks for Countries… all without the need for advanced FileMaker knowledge, or full developer access to the system. All of these screens are linked together in a fully relational architecture to avoid data re-entry, and capture meaningful relationships between each of these elements. The user interface is consistent throughout, for ease of use and training, and includes standardized, reusable functions for things like linking records together, validating new records, performing easy searches, and other functions.
Using plugins from Productive Computing, xBase also includes integrated capabilities for attaching key files to records, such as contracts, photos, and forms, much like the xAttachments module available on our downloads page. To accommodate field users, we incorporated the Outlook Manipulator plug-in, to create full, two-way synchronization with Outlook, which in turn will synchronize with the users’ PDA’s.
The xBase solution includes functions common to most businesses, and as such serves as the foundation for many of Extensitech’s custom solutions. Like our other clients, though, FSC had unique needs, which were easily added to the xBase structure. Their Owners and Stores screens link to the other elements in xBase, like addresses, phone numbers, companies, people, activity history and so forth, and to one another. The Stores screen also includes tabs for the various departments to track key dates and statuses, to ensure that store development and ongoing operations proceed smoothly, with input and cooperation from each of the departments.
FSC continues to add functionality to their system, bringing more and more employees into the process, and integrating various aspects of their business. By establishing a strong foundation with xBase, Extensitech is able to quickly and easily add screens, reports and functions as needed, and support FSC’s ongoing phenomenal growth. Extensitech is proud to be a partner in FSC’s continued success.
“We have been working with Extensitech since 2006 on varying projects. Their knowledge and adaptability to our needs is one of their strengths. He consistently delivered his projects on schedule and on budget. There have been instances where Extensitech found ways to save on development time, which proved to be a cost savings to our company. Extensitech’s ability to understand our needs and deliver a solution that improves our production has proved a value to our organization.”
