CGI Aromi helps a catering service streamline processes and improve customer service for 10,000+ diners.

Catering Services of the City of Rovaniemi (Catering Services) in Finland provides daily food services for more than 10,000 children in day care and schools, individuals in home care and nursing homes, and patients and staff in hospitals. It has two central production kitchens in Finland with around 70 staff members who prepare meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

When designing menus and preparing meals, Catering Services needs to take into account seasonal and regional products, theme weeks, national celebrations and special dietary needs.

Seamless delivery of food services

Catering Services has been using CGI Aromi for enterprise resource management over the past two decades. CGI Aromi supports all food service processes—from product design, to food procurement, to food production, to sales.

Catering Services rolled out CGI Aromi modules to support its daily operations, including the following:

  • Planning food services
  • Ordering ingredients online
  • Publishing online menus
  • Reporting functionalities

“We decided to begin production even though there were still a few unsolved issues,” said Meeri Ylinampa, Service Coordinator. “This was a good decision. By starting with a slightly unfinished product, we were able to receive support for issues that came up from our CGI Aromi trainer. In a project like this, it is always advisable to examine all aspects of existing food service processes with a critical eye and identify bottlenecks and targets for improvement. This helps to address key customer problems and show how the product can be used in the best possible way.”

Customized offerings based on dietary needs

Catering Services was particularly interested in CGI Aromi’s new menu design, specifically its production list feature, seasonal product calendar and waste management features.

“The production list feature in CGI Aromi makes the work of our head chefs much easier and shows employees their daily tasks in a practical manner,” shared Ylinampa.

With 10% of its customers having special dietary needs and 10-20 customers with extremely sensitive dietary requirements, Catering Services must prepare meals with due care. CGI Aromi designs and manages special diets and texture-modified meals individually through automatic data updates from recipe data banks.

“Maintaining products has never been so straightforward,” noted Ylinampa. “Once we design a product list, it is easy and quick to prepare daily and weekly kitchen production lists for eight different customer groups. We have had no difficulties in using the system because its software is versatile, and thanks to the solution’s automated purchase process, taking care of daily routines is smoother than ever.”

Balanced eating through informative menus

One of the most tangible advantages of CGI Aromi are its informative menus, which customers can access on mobile devices. These menus provide diners with the following information:

  • Suitability of food for special diets
  • Nutritional content and values
  • Origin of food
  • Seasonal product data

“In menu design, our work is supported by icons that tell the user at one glance whether the menu will be versatile enough,” said Ylinampa. “School children, in particular, are keen to use the mobile version, but elderly people are gradually finding this feature helpful as well. We haven’t received any negative feedback. It’s a sign telling us that our users are happy with our services!”

Improved efficiency with automatic cloud updates

As a browser-based software as a service (SaaS) solution, CGI Aromi saves Catering Services time and effort.

“Previously, version updates were made at a single time for all servers and tools,” explained Ylinampa. “Now we just receive an update notification, and the updates get installed without any extra effort on our side.”

Overall, as CGI Aromi helps to reduce manual work, Catering Services can focus more on food service development and customer relations.

"By adopting CGI Aromi, customers have been able to increase efficiency and productivity, streamline their operations and improve services. At the time there have been significant cost savings." Annakaisa Panula, Project Manager, CGI