Select Maintenance > Business > Store Groups to access this function.

After you define the stores within your business, use the Store Groups function to associate different store locations based on the type of data they need to receive from Aloha Configuration Center. Store Groups allow you to organize stores that contain similar features, such as pricing, motion, or menu features. Store Groups help to simplify corporate updates because you do not have to manually assign a database record to each store; instead, you can assign it to a single store group, that contains multiple stores. For example, if you have 200 stores in your organization, and 20 stores need to receive the same database changes, you can create a store group and assign the 20 stores to the group. Later, when you need to perform an update, you can assign the update to the store group, which updates the 20 stores at one time.

A store can belong to multiple store groups. For example, a single location can belong to a store group where each site receives similar price updates. The same location can also belong to a store group where each location requires the menu updates.

Store Groups tab

The Store Groups tab enables you to add basic information about a store group, including the name and number for the group.

Group Bar: Identification

The system defaults to the next unassigned number, based on the number of the previous record. For example, if number 6005 appeared previously on the Store Group tab, 6006 appears as the next number. If 6006 is already in use, 6007 appears as the next number. If you want to select a different number, click the ellipsis (...) next to ‘Number’ to display the Number Assignment dialog box.

Name — Indicates the descriptive name for the store group, such as ‘SouthWest Region’ This option has a maximum of 20 characters.

Locations tab

The Locations tab enables you to assign stores to a store group. The Locations tab displays two selection lists. The ‘Available’ list on the left side of the screen contains the stores that currently exist in the database. The ‘Included’ list on the right side of the screen displays the stores that are already assigned to the selected store group.

To assign a store to a store group, select a store from the ‘Available’ list (hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple stores), and then click >> to move the store to the ‘Included’ list. To remove a store from a store group, select a store from the ‘Included’ list (hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple stores), and then click << to move the store to the ‘Available’ list. Related Requirements: 1) Currently, stores are added to the system during the Aloha Configuration Center Installation/Import process. 2) Only stores that you have access to view are available for selection.

The column headings that appear in the ‘Available’ and ‘Included’ lists are as follows:

• Store Number — Indicates the number of the store or store group.
• Name — ndicates the descriptive name for the store or store group record.

Owners & Owner types: A business scenario

The following scenario provides an example of how owners and owner types work together within a multi-store restaurant organization:

AlohaBurger has 375 stores worldwide. Of those 375 stores, 200 are corporate owned and the remaining 175 stores are owned by various franchisees. AlohaBurger wants to use a single Aloha Configuration Center database for its corporate-owned stores, as well as the stores owned by franchisees; however, AlohaBurger wants franchisees to have the option to create certain records for stores they own.

To accomplish this goal, the database administrator for AlohaBurger logs in to Aloha Configuration Center as a global-type owner, and creates menu items, such as the ‘Aloha Bacon Burger’ and ‘Aloha Chips,’ which are available to all corporate or franchise AlohaBurger stores. The items are assigned an owner whose owner type is global. Although a database record at this level is available to all stores, it is only maintained by an employee that has a global-type owner assigned.

The database administrator also creates an owner for the corporate office, as well as an owner for each franchisee. The corporate and franchisee database administrators log in to Aloha Configuration Center to create additional items for their stores. For example, if franchisee Bill Smith wants to sell fish tacos in the six AlohaBurger stores he owns, he assigns the appropriate owner when he adds the fish taco menu item to the database so that the fish taco is distributed to each store Bill owns.

If there are multiple franchisees, each franchisee sees the data for their group of stores only; therefore, the fish taco menu item Bill Smith created is not visible by other franchisees when they log in to Aloha Configuration Center.

The AlohaBurger corporate or franchisee database administrator also creates and assigns a store owner to new records that require store-level maintenance, such as a printer or store employee record. This way, the store database administrator can access and edit the record, if necessary.

If a specific AlohaBurger store needs to create a record, such as a new employee, the store database administrator adds the record to the database, and Aloha Configuration Center automatically assigns store-level ownership to the record.