Wolfgang Puck Case Study
Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. and TMC team up to create a recipe for success
Wolfgang Puck: Dynamics GP Implementation
John Hoyt, Solutions Consultant at TMC, spoke with Lisa Arakaki, Corporate Controller for Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc.
Wolfgang Puck. His legendary name carries an undeniable cachet, synonymous with a bold, innovative school of cooking that redefined fine dining in America and around the world. His trademark dishes, coupled with his unmistakable panache and passion, have revolutionized the culinary industry. The world-renowned master chef and restaurateur has carefully crafted a vast empire since the early 1980s which includes fine dining restaurants such as the famous Spago in Beverly Hills, premium catering services, fast-casual restaurants, cookbooks and licensed consumer products.
The finance team at Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. (WPW) wanted to bring the same standards of excellence to their back-office systems. Recognizing the need for a system that was easy to use, robust and scalable, WPW chose to implement Microsoft Dynamics GP as their accounting and financial reporting package. TMC, a Microsoft Gold Competency ERP partner, was selected to both manage the implementation of Dynamics GP, and to build the integrations between the restaurant’s Point-of-sale system and Dynamics GP. Critical success factors for the project included world-class financial reporting, ease of use and a significant reduction in the time required to close the books each month.
Implementing Dynamics GP at WPW presented a challenge. With a complicated corporate structure, and multiple LLC’s for the various restaurants, the Dynamics GP system was chosen for its ability to handle these challenges. TMC focused on delivering strong intercompany transactions, following the principle of “handle each transaction once and only once, and handle it properly the first time”.
WPW uses the General Ledger and Accounts Payable modules along with an integration to bring in store transactions on a daily basis. The implementation of a daily integration allows WPW to continuously monitor the activities at each restaurant. Restaurant managers and company administrators no longer have to wait for the month-end process to be completed to see their results. Lisa Arakaki, Corporate Controller at Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. stated, “The TMC technical staff has shown us many new ways to save both time and money. With a strong emphasis on end-user training and knowledge transfer, TMC helps us drill down to the root cause of the issue, and then provide the proper solution.”
One critical requirement for WPW was deploying a system that would be easy to use. Dynamics GP looks and feels like Microsoft Office, and this ensures that new employees can quickly learn to use Dynamics GP. The same benefit is seen in the reporting tools are excellent, and provide for the rapid sharing of information.
Dynamics GP has very strong internal controls and security. The auditors for Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. have really embraced Dynamics GP, and they have been able to reduce the time and effort required to close their books each month, which makes everyone happy.
Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. selected TMC as their technology partner, and deployed Dynamics GP to manage their finance and reporting needs. The result has been increased productivity, reduced costs and greater access to information for company’s decision makers. With Dynamics GP, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. will continue to build on the success they started in 1982.