Info 202 Fall 2011

News Article:  "Tiare Technology Launches Wireless WineList™ System at Award-Winning Centro and Django Restaurants" on September 8, 2011.

This article discusses the new Wireless WineList iPad system that was just launched by Tiare Technology and has since been deployed at two award-winning wine-centered restaurants in the United States.  The program runs on iPads, which are given to dinning customers at their tables.  Customers can easily view and sort information about the wines offered by region, varietal, price range, and many other categories.  They can also view extensive information about the restaurant's wines including tasting notes (such as wine-pairing information), vintage information, background on the winery, information on the region or grape varietals, and photos, wine labels, maps, and videos that go along with the wines offered.  The idea of the system is that it is useful for both the staff and the customer as well as engages both players in information sharing about wine.  

This is a "202 In The News" story because what is presented here is a large set of data (the wine and it's relevant information) that the restaurant has and this data/information is being deployed in a way that is easily and readily accessible to its target audience (the customer) in a designed data delivery system.  Before this application, when all the information about the wines was sparingly on a piece of paper and customers had to ask the wait-staff about the specifics of the wine and the wait-staff had to memorize all of the information, now the information is stored in an interactive and easy-access iPad application.  That data is now organized and retrieved in various ways depending on what the customer is interested in.  For example, the customer can explore the wine list by price, by location of where the grapes came from, by type of wine, or even by pairing suggestion.  

The way the system works is that the program works in wireless sync with a computer that the restaurant staff have access to so that the wine list with all the corresponding information can be updated in real time with up-to-date information about the wines, wine selection, as well as what wines are currently out of stock.  This not only saves money in reprinting wine-lists but also decreases any chances for customers to be disappointed after ordering a wine that is actually unavailable.  This system also works very well because it is constantly being organized and reorganized in real-time based on what wines are available and in stock and what wines are ordered by the restaurant.  The application also displays the restaurants extensive selection of specialty drinks and cocktails, beers, scotches, ports, and dessert wines and allows customers to email themselves their wine elections to remember what they ordered.  

So far the technology has managed to created a more satisfying dinning experience for customers as well as boosted sales by exposing customers to wine choices they might not have otherwise known about, tried or explored.  

The article can be found here:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/08/prweb8778949...