Multi-site and multi-concept: creating ecosystems for Mikhail Group X
Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group brings together the best of hospitality under one company. With 13 sites, from classic gaming reimagined at Arcains, to traditional-turned-modern pub and brewery at The Brewery Tap, this group has a venue for every F&B preference.
The Challenges
Expanding rapidly to 13 different sites with multiple F&B concepts brings a litany of challenges, even for the most experienced hospitality operator. Mikhail Group took an unusual business route in operating hotels, pubs, and competitive socialising venues all under one company, yet this choice drove their expansions and continued growth.
However, their rapid expansion meant their tech stacks were an afterthought, resulting in a mismatched network of systems and a significant lack of connectivity and communication. The teams didn’t have the integrations or technology needed to sustain their growth.
Geoff Wareham, Commercial Director of Mikhail Hotels and Leisure Group, explains their problems with their old tech stack:
“The challenge around multiple sites and different venues was the growing pains from going from one venue to ten venues very quickly. We had different systems in different venues. For example, different booking systems, different payment processes. It was all jumbled up together. After ten venues, we decided to pause and standardise what we’re doing across every single venue.”
The teams’ workloads were impacted due to this. He explains:
“In my role as a Commercial Director and overseeing the accounts department, it caused absolute chaos and additional work for us. Not having integrations in place, having to log into different pieces of software to get different sales from one of the venues to a different software for another venue.”
Why Tevalis?
With 10 sites under the group, the team had to pause on the growth efforts and refit their tech stack retrospectively. This was a massive undertaking with the variety of business models and multiple sites: Mikhail Group recognised that their technology needs were complex.
Each venue would need its own nuances and particular integrations, with overarching systems that unify the group and provide consistent performance and operational data.
Geoff describes their process in researching a new EPOS partner:
“We reviewed about 4 or 5 different EPOS providers in the market. We knew they had to be of a certain standard because of the complexities that we required within our group, and it became clear quickly during that process that Tevalis were going to be the best choice for us.”
Having the integration capabilities as well as one centralised system for detailed reporting was essential for Mikhail Group. The new technology solutions needed to be bespoke and ensure the group’s continued growth.
“Tevalis is a system that I could log into and see everything that’s going on within our estate at the click of a mouse. Whether that’s sales data, stock data, reporting discounts, voids: having that centralised system to be able to view the whole company is fantastic for us,” explains Geoff.
He goes on to describe their integration requirements: “There’s no doubt that in the modern world of online hospitality, you have to have multiple integrations with multiple different providers, other software providers, payment processors, PMS, the list is endless.”
“So we approached Tevalis: I need this, this, this integration. They just went, yeah, got that, got that, got that. And that was the starting point. We can now develop our model slightly differently because of what Tevalis already have in place.”
The challenge around multiple sites and different venues was the growing pains from going from one venue to ten venues very quickly. We had different systems in different venues. For example, different booking systems, different payment processes. It was all jumbled up together. After ten venues, we decided to pause and standardise what we’re doing across every single venue.
The Tevalis Solution
Mikhail Group needed a unified tech stack that would not only streamline their current venues but also grow alongside them into their future expansions.
The varying requirements for each site also meant that having a centralised system that communicates perfectly with numerous integrations was crucial.
Despite these complex requirements across multiple sites, Tevalis created a bespoke ecosystem for each venue, seamlessly connected with management systems for estate-wide control.
Mikhail Group venues have been fitted with 68 EPOS terminals, TevX mPOS, kitchen management systems, and self-service kiosks.
Essential cloud-based management modules support their On-Premise technology. These include Business Analytics, Centralised Management, Stock Management, Cash Management, and Tevalis’ newest module, Insights.
“It just makes reporting so much quicker. And obviously, in this industry at the moment, having that data to feed back into our general management team and the owners is essential to have the speed to do that,” explains Geoff.
“Insights is an add-on within the back-office software of Tevalis. It provides a visual representation of more data at a group level around what’s going on within our business. It provides snapshots of things we might know about or things that might surprise us. That helps us make more informed business decisions.”
Supporting their core tech stack are several essential integrations with Tevalis’ industry-leading partners. Mikhail Group utilise Dojo for payment services, RotaReady for workforce management, Xero for accounting, Guestline for property management in the hotels, Toggle for gift cards, Procure Wizard for additional inventory management, and Collins for reservations.
Benefits
Every venue under the Mikhail Group brand now operates with its own Tevalis ecosystem, with management utilising a unified system for top-level business reporting and data.
The previous challenges of attempting to sustain significant growth through fractured and outdated technologies have been resolved with a comprehensive EPOS, Enterprise, and Integrations implementation. Where the teams spent too long logging into system after system, now they have the data at their fingertips.
Additionally, where their old integrations didn’t communicate with their other platforms, now all technologies sync, with Tevalis providing a singular point of control. A lot of time has been saved for Mikhail Group.
“First thing in the morning, I can log in and look at every single venue’s forecast, sales, weight, percentages as a whole, and also weight percentages by departments, such as kitchen wage percentage, front house wage percentage. Having that data instantly is key for us as a business,” explains Geoff.
“We decided to roll out Collins across our whole estate, especially in our restaurants and hotels, because they’ve got the fantastic integration with Tevalis. Similarly, Dojo is a card processing company: we moved the whole estate to them in line with Tevalis because they have a fantastic integration between the two.”
With their 10 sites now future-proofed, Mikhail Group could refocus on their expansion efforts with the reassurance of tech that will support every move. The group now has 13 sites under its brand, with Tevalis as its long-term EPOS, Enterprise, and Integrations partner.
Already, new innovations and solutions are being explored, as Geoff states:
“We’ve started in our new venue, The Windmill, we’ve installed the KMS kitchen screens as opposed to the kitchen printers. They’re on a trial basis at the moment, and they’ve been working really well. The plan is to move the KMS system into all of our kitchens, to get away from the kitchen printers.”
Finally, Geoff gives his final thoughts on working with Tevalis and our future together:
“Changing POS is a big job within any hospitality company, especially when you’ve got multiple venues and different types of venues. It’s a once job: we won’t do it again. This was one time only, so we knew we had to make it right. Now that we’re through the whole process, we’re convinced that we made the right decision in picking Tevalis.”
“Changing POS is a big job within any hospitality company, especially when you’ve got multiple venues and different types of venues. It’s a once job: we won’t do it again. This was one time only, so we knew we had to make it right. Now that we’re through the whole process, we’re convinced that we made the right decision in picking Tevalis.
“
