I recently read a great article in my favorite restaurant industry publication Nation’s Restaurant News. Most of the headlines are laser-focused on the economy and it’s effect on the industry. In fact, of the six leading stories, five of them contained the headline words gloom, glum, laid-off, slump and downturn. On the bright side, the articles focus on solutions to these adjectives, whether it be staffing, menu updates, loyalty programs or technology.

The one that caught my eye analyzes the elimination of many midlevel execs of multiunit enterprises. The remaining staff is then required to double their store coverage, essentially trying to do more with less. While the current economy and job elimination is rarely a pleasant subject, shouldn’t businesses be constantly striving for efficiency and productivity gains, no matter the economic condition?

Let take a hypothetical situation where a single $80K field position is eliminated, thus increasing the coverage of another field position from 5 stores to 10. Further, a technology investment in MVaaS is made to boost the productivity of the remaining field employee. Mathematically, that might look something like this:

10 location MVaaS 4 camera deployment: $42K

Investment Payback: About 6 months

1st Year Profit Increase: $38K

3 Year Profit Increase: $198K

Keep in mind, this is in payroll alone. There are many additional benefits of MVaaS that contribute directly to the improvement of store operations and increased profitability without straining existing staff or IT resources. Something we should be looking at everyday, even during the good times.