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System Update 17.12.21

by | Dec 17, 2021 | Blogs

Following several weeks of investigation and updates with S4labour, we have have summased the fixes that have been put in place inorder to support system stability and performance.

The Login Procedure

On Monday morning, the system was being hit with 600 – 1000 login attempts per second, over 100 times more than any typical day of the week. This led to hundreds of thousands of calls to the server every minute, resulting in slower system performance and on occasions causing the system to crash.

We are still investigating the cause for this volume of login, given the recent announcements from other SaaS businesses in recent month, it is likely to be a bot attempting to breach our security procedures. The good news is that, while the system has suffered performance and speed issues, all of the security procedures did their job and kept S4labour secure.

However, we have and are continuing to implement a number of significant architectural changes to both improve the security of S4labour and ensure that system performance is not impacted in the future.

Server Duplication

As well as increasing the server capacity by 50% for the main system, we have added an additional server, dedicated to the login process. This will mean that any impact that login demand may have on S4labour, will not impact on anyone who has already logged in. This will also mean that, if demand remains high, and the login server needs resetting, users already logged in will be unaffected.  

CAPTCHA

The introduction of the CAPTCHA on Thursday the 16th of December will significantly reduce the impact a bot could have of draining server capacity going forward.

Login Control Procedures

The login process is controlled to allow up to 30 logins per second. This combined with the CAPTCHA will mean that the login server cannot reach maximum capacity, but there is a possibility of a 3 second delay between logging in and being let into the system at peak demand times. We will be monitoring server load closely and should the system near CPU capacity, we will update this control appropriately. This may slightly increase the time it takes to get into the system by a few more seconds. However, we now have the ability to do this very quickly and with no disruption to anyone already logged into the system.

Propel Multi Club – Female Leaders and Entrepreneurs: Powerful and Inspiring Speakers after an Era of Uncertainty

by | Oct 20, 2021 | Blogs, Hospitality

This was a brilliant event with truly inspirational and honest speakers. There really are some amazing women leading the way in the hospitality industry. These women have had very successful and “purposeful” lives—a word that came up a lot—but they were also unafraid to be honest about the challenges of the work-life balance with having small children. Not to mention issues of failures and confidence that they have overcome. 

This was really the very opposite of a dull conference. We heard the colourful experiences of the formidable Dorothy Purdew (the woman behind the Champneys brand) which included: being rejected for a job at weight watchers; starting her own slimming business to compete; swindling employees; and ugly million pound paintings. Anna Garood (former music producer who grew PoNaNa into an international brand, and now of The Coconut Tree) spoke of her personal jet trips to Ibiza with Liam Gallagher—who was unexpectedly good at scrabble. Well, on the flight out anyway! For pure drive, and a role model to us all, you have to give it to Sarah Willingham: founder of Nightcap and formerly a dragon on Dragon’s Den. Sarah worked her way up from nothing but was always inquisitive and bold; she understands her strengths and really knows how to scale a business.

Covid has been a very challenging time for hospitality, that we all know, but it was great to hear some of the positive stories arising out of Covid. From new businesses and business ideas, to changed perspectives with the drive to carry on making things happen quickly, these stories of success did prove to be inspiring.  

Judy Joo (executive chef, restaurateur, TV chef and founder of Seoul Bird) had a great quote that resonates with us at S4labour. When asked what the best advice you could give to someone running a restaurant, Judy stated: “Efficiency of operations will make or break a business”.

July Tips into Growth Off the Back of a Big Final Week

by | Aug 12, 2021 | Blogs, Sales Figures

After 3 weeks of decline in July, the final week has led to sales being up by 1.7% in hospitality compared to July 2019, one of the first times since re-opening. This is mainly driven by food sales which were up 6.9% compared to July 2019, despite drink sales down at -2.5%. Figures expectantly show London down at 10% following recent trends and non-London areas up 4.6%

Last week’s hospitality sales were up 13.6% on the same week in 2019, being the first time a positive weekly like for like (on 2019) had been recorded since re-opening back in April.
 
S4labour’s Chief Innovation Officer, Richard Hartley commented, “It is brilliant to see a positive monthly like for like figure for the first time in a while, albeit driven by one positive week. With changes to the NHS App hopefully reducing the ‘Pingdemic’ and foreign travel to the U.K allowed for some vaccinated countries we are hopeful about the coming weeks”.

Hospitality sales up on last week but still down on 2019 by 4.9%

by | Jul 28, 2021 | Blogs, Sales Figures

 

Following the lifting of restrictions, S4labour (the people, productivity and payroll software provider for hospitality) analysed last week’s hospitality sales figures. Comparing the same week in 2019, they found evidence of an overall drop in sales of 4.9% with food sales down 3.3% and drink sales lagging by 12.6%.
 
In London, total sales were down by 18.6%, with drink sales down 23.4% and a drop in food sales by 10.2%.
 
Non-London sales figures showed a decrease in drink sales by 9.6%, but an increase in food sales by 5.4%.
However, week on week sales saw an increase in overall sales by 6.9%.
 
Commenting on the analysis, S4labour’s Chief Innovation Officer Richard Hartley, stated “Given the current conditions of people having to self-isolate within short notice, we have seen a noticeable number of sites not being able to operate a full trading week. It’s also worth noting the effect this is having on the customers’ ability to show up for bookings as hundreds of thousands are in self-isolation. This clearly is hampering the industry’s ability to successfully trade”.
 

 

Hospitality Sales Down 9%

by | Jul 20, 2021 | Blogs, Sales Figures

Hospitality Sales down 9%

 

According to analysis from S4labour, the people, productivity and payroll software provider for hospitality, like-for-likes fell last week by 9.6% compared to the same week in 2019. Drink sales were down 17.7%, with food sales down 0.8% compared to the same week in 2019.

 

Trading in London continues to lag with last week’s sales down 24.1%. This was largely attributed to drinks sales, which declined by 30.7%, with food sales down 12.6%.

 

Non-London sites traded below 2019 levels by 6.3%, with drinks sales falling 14%. However, food sales were slightly up 1%.

 

S4labour’s Chief Innovation Officer, Richard Hartley commented, “despite the excellent weather, there are a number of factors that are currently suppressing sales. With circa 5% of the adult population being forced into isolation last week, there is going less people able to get out to eat and drink. While the heat drove stronger performance for rural sites, London’s limited outside space made it difficult to capitalise alfresco conditions. This coupled with the labour crisis, exacerbated by the Covid App, made last week a particularly challenging environment for hospitality. While we wait in anticipation for what we hope will be a great week with restrictions being lifted, these figures show that there is still a long way to go to fully restore consumer confidence.”

 

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