Here’s a summary of our Digital Transformation Project, done in collaboration with VITAM.
VITAM is the company that operates the two cafeterias (Food Company and De Etude) and three Bean Squares on the Woudestein campus. Though VITAM is a large organization operating in various companies and educational institutions across the Netherlands, in our report we only focus on its business and services on campus.
One of VITAM’s business focuses include offering daily meals and beverages to everyone on campus. The other is its catering services offered for special events on campus. A discussion with Mr. Feenstra, chief account manager of VITAM’s division at EUR, revealed that the company has a flat organizational structure, and uses IT on a fairly basic level. While IT helps perform basic tasks like sending e-mails to staff or operating the cash register, most of the work is done manually. For instance, co-ordinating between different canteens and Bean Squares is done by Mr. Feenstra himself. The company has been operational at Erasmus University for over two years now, and while it has been doing well so far, it faces tough competition from other restaurants on campus, especially the Erasmus Pavilion.
Hence, to enable VITAM to better cater to its existing customers and gain a greater market share at EUR, we suggest a mobile application that not only shows the company’s daily menu with nutrition information, but also works as a food recommendation engine. It is crucial to constantly adapt to the changing environment, and we believe that this change in business model can become a source of sustainable competitive advantage for VITAM. The proposed application could also serve as a new channel of communication between the company and its customers, increasing the level of consumer engagement. Furthermore, invaluable information could be collected about user behavior on the mobile application.
The application is beneficial for its users for the following reasons:
- The user has a convenient way of looking up what is available to eat at any given time – reducing search costs.
- The user can make informed decisions and choose what to eat according to their preferences as well as to how many calories they want to eat – and become a happy customer!
- The user can have their favourite meals more often, which increases the likelihood that they choose one of the company’s restaurants.
For VITAM, the benefits include:
- Communicating the brand image of VITAM in a new, more positive light – healthy, nutritious food provider on campus.
- Increased revenue by attracting that portion of the market that simply did not consider VITAM’s canteens due to high search cost.
- VITAM can use recommendations gained through the app to improve its menus and fulfill customer needs to a greater extent. If more people like the food being offered, they will also consume more – increasing revenue.
- It is possible to provide surveys inside the app and incentivize completing them by offering some sort of benefit – such as a discount for your next meal. This would be an inexpensive way to learn about customer preferences and increase the business value of the app for VITAM.
Of course, like all technological products and systems, the application must evolve (say, have additional features), especially in the face of potential substitutes that competitors might launch in the market. One such feature could be pre-ordering meals, but it provides a solution to a different business problem and does not seem feasible currently.
Group 85
Authors: Zoltán Szilassy, Andrei Letcanu, Balázs Harza, Jahnavi Ghelani
