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Our History, is making History – WizButler “Think Different”!

WizButler is the first online reservation booking platforms that has been able to “think different” and do different from the look-up search formulas to that have been used by OpenTable and every other booking system since 1998.

WizButler is the beginning of a revolution that can only be equated to Steve Job’s introduction of the iPhone as a competitor to the cell phones of Nokia and Motorola. Like the iPhone and its smartphone technology took the world by storm and completely destroyed the cell phone, WizButler is poised do the same, to the current booking systems of Open Table, The Fork, Yelp an the others. In fact, the thinking of WizButler is so different that universities will have to completely overhaul their current hospitality courses to incorporate the Petroulas inventions that form the core of the WizButler system.

To truly appreciate the importance of what WizButler is bringing to hospitality one really needs to understand the history of restaurants, and why, what WizButler brings, is so special, and why it is, that only WizButler, after 22 years can offer:

  • The world’s first and only dynamic, optimised, autonomous and intelligent restaurant online reservations, yield management and restaurant management system.

  • The world’s first platform that can co-ordinate all your systems through it, including; Dine-In, home delivery, marketing and dynamic pricing, customer personalisation, functions, rosters, equipment management, kitchen management and Robotic production.

As we have made reference to Steve Jobs and the iPhone we will start our WizButler journey with a reference to Steve Jobs and Apple from 1997 when they introduced the world to the “the Crazy Ones” commercial, and the concept of “think different”. What Steve Jobs taught us some 23 years ago, is as relevant today as it was back then and it is the motto by which WizButler lives by. As Steve Jobs clearly highlighted to everyone revolutions are not created by trying to improve existing systems or frameworks and trying to “do things better” but by completely rethinking things and “doing different”!

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the trouble makers the round pegs in the square holes, the ones that see things differently, they are not found of rules and they have no respect for the status quo, you can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, about the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things, they push the human race forward, while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the word are the ones that do.”

– Apple, 1997

Simply put, for the last 22 years the hospitality has been stuck in an “OpenTable time warp”, with no one able to think different, everyone just tried to think better. Despite this, it is interesting to note that everyone that tried to think better, which was the wrong approach according to Steve Jobs, still failed in creating something better. Such that, the OpenTable booking allocation system of using look-up search formulas remained as the only available booking allocation methodology, prior to the creation of the Petroulas inventions and the WizButler system.

The problems associated with the simple look-up formulas of OpenTable have been well known since at least 2002 and solutions have been sought after by numerous highly skilled researchers, mathematicians, developers and tech companies who have tried to make “better” restaurant booking allocation systems over at least the last 18 years, their work to find a better solution can be seen through their doctoral thesis, operational research papers, and patent applications which include the following titles:

  • “Restaurant revenue management”

  • “Yield management of configurable restaurants”

  • “Managing restaurant tables using constraint programming “

  • “Restaurant reservation management considering table combination”

  • “Optimising restaurant reservation scheduling”

  • “Optimising a restaurant’s seating capacity”

  • “Table mix optimiser”

The authors of the above papers and other related papers include some of the most respected individuals on the planet, specifically :

  • Dr Dimetrios Bertsimas (PhD, MIT) currently the Boeing Professor at the Sloan Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Dr Romy Shioda (PhD, MIT), currently, Executive Director Goldman Sachs & Co, New York

  • Dr John Bossert (PhD MIT), currently Operations Research, Google

  • Dr Gary Thompson (PhD Florida State University), currently Professor, Operations Management, Cornell University

  • Dr Alfio Vidotto (PhD Cork, Ireland), PhD thesis “Managing Restaurant Tables using Constraint Programming”

  • Dr Miao (PhD Texas A&M University), currently Data Scientist, Home Depot

  • Dr Wang (PhD University of California), currently Data Scientist United Airlines

  • Dr Li (PhD University of Montreal), currently Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University

The world’s major technology companies also sought solutions as to how to make restaurant operations “better” by lodging patent applications which have included:

  • Apple, “Systems and Methods for processing orders and reservations using an electronic device”

  • Yelp, “Restaurant Management and reservations systems and methods”

  • Amex, “Restaurant Yield Management Portal” Amex also purchases online restaurant booking system, Resy in May 2019

  • Disney, “Dining experience management”

  • IBM, “method and apparatus for deriving optimal physical space and ambiance conditions”

  • Oracle, “Function space reservations system”

  • Google, “Actionable search results for visual queries (including buttons to make restaurant reservation)” Reuters: “Google buys Zagat to Vie with Open Table, Yelp” September 9, 2011

  • Amazon, “Implicit occasion personalization for restaurants”

The developers and researchers at many of the current large existing large booking platforms have also focused on how to make their online restaurant booking system “better” by continuing to tweak their systems and lodge further patent applications.

As mentioned, despite all the above papers, and the corresponding research and development, the original look-up search formulas of OpenTable dating back to 1998 they remain as the only available and practical way of allocating bookings.

According to Petroulas, the only conclusion with respect to the single minded fixation, by everybody on trying to “make better” the original OpenTable booking allocation process can only be said to be analogous to Wittgensteins “Fly Bottle”, where a fly tries to escape the confines of the transparent bottle by being fixated on the idea that the way out, is in the direction of the light source which comes from the base of the bottle. The fly’s fixation with the light source as showing the escape route sees the fly buzzing about, bumping against the side of the bottle and continuing with this fixation relentlessly and without ever being able to consider anything different until its peril.

Similarly, Petroulas believes, that all booking companies, tech companies, researchers, developers, research scientists, universities and professors have been single minded and solely continued to be fixated on” better” without ever exploring or “thinking different” despite the last 22 years not producing any practical improvement.

It is with this background where we introduce and welcome what WizButler offers and brings to the world of booking systems and venues like restaurants and the revolution that the technology offers.

To use the Steve Jobs analogy, WizButler are definitely the hospitality rebels, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones that see things differently, who had no respect for the status quo and, who will now revolutionise hospitality and restaurant management.

WizButler has turned online restaurant reservations and restaurant management on its head by redefining the problem, seeking a different solution to the problem, and in the road to finding that different solution, created their own framework, their own algorithms, and their own allocation methodology to bring:

  • The World’s first and only dynamic booking system where upon receipt of a booking request unseats all previously received booking requests and reseats all booking requests to guarantee that the last received booking request is not rejected if it is possible to rearrange the previous booking requests to accept the last booking request in real time any time to optimise and allocate better than any Restaurant Manager can do.

  • The World’s first and only complete yield management system with features like autonomously allocating your VIP’s to their favourite table, offering different menus on different tables, charging more for better tables such as tables with a view, variable dining duration times, giving different offers and allocation constraints to different channels.

  • The world’s first and only dynamic pricing restaurant booking and revenue management system.

  • The World’s first and only system that can create a completely autonomous restaurant system including a self-seating kiosk, so that you do not need a host to manage seating and your restaurant’ tables.

  • The World’s first and only system that can personalise a customer’s restaurant experience including the incorporation of third part products and services to enhance the restaurant experience.

  • The World’s first and only system that can allocate a VIP to their favourite table.

  • The world’s first self-reconciling system that offers full and complete integration to all other restaurant systems.

  • The word’s first and only artificially intelligent restaurant booking and management system.

WizButler will not displace restaurants or be a competitor to restaurants or the hospitality industry it is simply bring back the power to them to revolutionise every aspect of their strategy and operations. The only disruption WizButler is bringing is to the outdated, inefficient and overpriced existing booking systems.

WizButler, simply dared to think different to create a win, win situation to bring customers and restaurants closer together so that customers are given greater choice in their ability to personalise and control their dining experience, while restaurants are freed from the shackles of the past and can completely control all aspects of their restaurant’s strategy and outcomes.

WizButler, the world’s first and only, dynamic, optimised, autonomous and intelligent restaurant reservations, yield management and restaurant management system. To protect the intellectual property behind the WizButler innovations there are 16 Australian Patent Applications and 16 International PCT patent applications representing over 500 different claims covering the original features, ideas and concepts within the WizButler software.

In January 2020 the first 4 International PCT applications that cover the WizButler system were assessed by the International Patent Office and all 4 applications and the 167 claims included within those applications were found to be original, novel, innovative, comprising an inventive step and having industrial applicability and benefits. That is a perfect score! you can’t get a better endorsement or testimonial than that!

At WizButler, we guarantee you that we will continue to be people who dare to “think different”, and be the hospitality rebels, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones that will continue to see things differently, with no respect even for our own technology or any new status quo to always bring you the best possible solution.

We look forward to welcoming you to our WizButler family, where your success is our focus!

WizButler, welcomes any company that wishes to license its intellectual property and technology to form the basis of their booking platform. WizButler also welcomes any restaurant sales site that wishes to integrate into the WizButler capacity and allocation modules.

Peter Petroulas

Inventor, Founder & CEO

ResButer

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