Thats Interesting

The review team at odinjobs.com showcases up and coming companies and their products. Who knows one of them may be the next Google.

---

What’s For Lunch? Log In To Find Out.

---

Lunchtime in a typical office. Someone wants Chinese, another wants a quick bite before that 2 o’clock review, no one can agree and every one is in a hurry. Those lunch blues can be solved with a click of a mouse. A cool, new and very insightful website, Lunch Prodigy is just what the doctor ordered (no puns intended).

The site defines itself as:

“This website offers an online service for those companies who would like to save hours from their employees' time to take food orders for their company.�

To start, you open a Lunch Prodigy account and get everyone to log in and place their orders. Once done, someone prints it, makes that call and places a single clear order. No more splitting hairs on who ordered what, what he or she should pay, or making sure that everyone was asked. The administrator can easily add new lunch providers and Lunch Prodigy can also be used for stationary and other corporate needs.

"Lunch Prodigy has saved us so much time. Ordering food by the employees couldn't be easier"-

Adrian Mizzi, Ixaris Systems Malta

The group account page has some fun features, like Interesting Facts, which gives you random facts like “Your company orders French fries more than any other company in your area.� It also gives useful insights about recent activities and the current roster order made by users of your company. You can create new orders for the day and delete old ones or even add items to the existing order for facilitating easy actions. And who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? Lunch Prodigy is free- revenues coming from advertising.

A very new website, started in March, based in Malta, founded by Neville Attard, it sure gives you food for thought and more importantly, for your stomach!

Musings From Malta – a chat with Lunch prodigy

What type of programming is Lunch Prodigy build on?
It is built using Java (Struts, Hibernate and SiteMesh libraries)

What is the infrastructure of Lunch prodigy? How is the network of local restaurants developed?

Currently users (i.e. companies using Lunch Prodigy) have to add their favorite local restaurants. But soon we will provide a section where restaurants can register to provide deliveries or at least take phone orders.

Do you have any stats on how much time or money employers lose on deciding on lunch?

Well all I can say is that all this started when I noticed my colleagues at work wasted a lot of time. First there would be a lot of quarrelling of whom should be taking the order, something on the lines "Hey I took the order yesterday... I’m not gonna take it today". Then they would waste time to decide from whom they should order. Then the guy who is taking the order would have to go round the office rooms and take the order for each one. More than 30min were wasted daily, if not more. Plus the confusion to add up how much money he should collect from each colleague. There would always be mistakes :). So you see there are a lot of advantages for a company using Lunch Prodigy if they make lunch orders frequently.

Do most Lunch Prodigy users typically have delivered by restaurants?

Yes, although there are also restaurants who are taking orders by phone and the users then go pick it up themselves. Lunch Prodigy just helps the users to avoid wasting time going round the offices and adding up the correct amounts for collecting money.

Does Lunch Prodigy benefit restaurants or do they contact you?

I'm not sure I understood the question. But I guess restaurants benefit from Lunch Prodigy, especially when we will roll out the update for letting restaurants register their menus. The restaurants will be suggested to those companies who signup and are in their locality.

Could this concept be applied to users when they go home?

I'm not sure how it could be used at home, since when you're at home there won't be a lot of people ordering.

What business would make good partners for Lunch Prodigy?
Any restaurant willing to put their menu online basically :)

Lunch Prodigy – Are we drooling at the prospect?

Yes! All of us have gone through lunch time blues, being hungry and not knowing when the food is going to turn up. It’s quite a boon for large organizations and a dozen or so uses spring to mind, apart from the time saving bit. For instance, it’s someone’s birthday and in a weak moment, they agreed to sponsor lunch…what easier way to ensure that they do deliver on it?!! For restaurants too, it’s a great way to reach out and find out more about customers’ tastes. All in all, our vote is for insightful, thoughtful applications like Lunch Prodigy, which make our nine to six a little easier.

Posted by Sally Richardsson       Posted at 04:59AM Jun 13, 2007 by Sally Richardsson   


Create a Profile or Upload Your Resume and Get Your Perfect Job.

---