Driving smarter operational control across brands
With LS Central, Ampersand now runs all their operations from a single platform, standardizing teams, workflows, and processes across every brand, and giving them full control and clarity over their business.
Better performance, lower costs
After transitioning LS Central from on-premises deployment to cloud SaaS in 2024, Ampersand achieved a 20% reduction in overall operating costs, driven by lower infrastructure and maintenance expenses and reduced IT workload. The upgrade also improved system performance across the portfolio.
As Mr. Khoa Nguyen, General Director at Ampersand highlights:
"The cloud upgrade significantly reduced our infrastructure and maintenance burden. The result is clear: better system performance and 20% operating cost savings. It’s one of the most impactful technology decisions we’ve made."
Tighter inventory and kitchen coordination
With inventory and kitchen operations manageable within one platform, daily execution follows one coordinated workflow across the business.
- Stock levels are visible in real time, and replenishment follows defined thresholds rather than manual checks. This reduces food waste and prevents stockouts without requiring staff to track stock levels separately at each location.
- Orders move directly from POS to kitchen through the Kitchen Display System (KDS), ensuring meals are prepared consistently and delivered quickly. QR-based self-service orders follow the same workflow, maintaining pricing accuracy and kitchen timing regardless of how the order is placed.
- Centralized reporting gives leadership a unified view of sales, inventory, and performance across all brands in one system.
The company now benefits from more predictable service across all seven concepts, with fewer operational interruptions.
Centralized pricing, recipes, and promotions
LS Central applies standardized recipes and pricing rules across all concepts, protecting cost control and reducing margin leakage caused by local inconsistencies.
Promotions are configured and evaluated within a single reporting structure.
Leadership can assess campaign performance across brands, locations, or customer profiles without manually reconciling reports from separate systems. This consolidated visibility supports faster operational decisions and clearer accountability across concepts.
What was holding the business back
Before standardizing operations on LS Central, Ampersand operated with fragmented systems across its seven brands.
There was no shared view of stock, sales, or performance across the portfolio, making it difficult to control recipes, costs, and replenishment centrally. Consolidating data required manual effort, which slowed decision-making and limited effective cost control.
On the infrastructure side, maintaining on-premises servers added recurring cost and IT workload. As Ampersand added brands, those infrastructure demands increased. The business needed an operational structure that covered the full portfolio without duplicating systems or expanding IT resources for each concept. LS Central became that shared structure.
The decision and foundation
Ampersand first implemented LS Central alongside Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in 2019, establishing a shared operational platform across its brands.
In 2024, the group transitioned from on-premises deployment to SaaS with local LS Retail partner NaviWorld Vietnam. The migration was structured to maintain daily operations across all active locations throughout the process.
As Mr. Khoa Nguyen, General Director at Ampersand explains:
“Moving to LS Central on the cloud was a turning point for us. It gave us a modern digital backbone that connects our brands, streamlines operations, and empowers our teams with real-time visibility. It’s the foundation for our next stage of growth.”
The cloud solution delivers:
- Standardized operations across brands and locations
- Centralized, real-time data for faster decision-making
- Reduced infrastructure and operating costs through automation
- A scalable, future-ready technology foundation
Mr. Kim Quach, IT Manager at Ampersand adds:
"NaviWorld Vietnam guided us through a seamless cloud migration. Their expertise helped us optimize processes, minimize disruption, and unlock the full value of LS Central.”
Q&A: insights from Ampersand's implementation
How did Ampersand reduce operating costs by 20%?
Ampersand achieved the reduction by transitioning LS Central from on-premises deployment to cloud SaaS in 2024. The move lowered infrastructure and maintenance expenses and reduced the internal IT effort required to manage servers. The 20% figure reflects a structural change in the cost base.
What were the main operational challenges before Ampersand moved to LS Central?
Ampersand operated with fragmented systems across its brands, which made centralized cost control difficult to enforce. Management had to reconcile performance data manually across tools, slowing decisions and limiting portfolio-level visibility. Infrastructure costs also increased as additional brands were added.
How does Ampersand maintain consistent standards across seven different F&B concepts?
Ampersand manages recipes, pricing rules, and promotions centrally within LS Central, applying the same standards across all seven brands. This prevents local inconsistencies and enables portfolio-wide performance evaluation without manual consolidation.
What changed for kitchen operations and service execution?
Orders move directly from point of sale to the Kitchen Display System across all concepts. QR-based ordering feeds into the same workflow, improving preparation accuracy and service timing during peak hours.
How does Ampersand's management team monitor performance across brands?
Sales, stock levels, and performance indicators are visible across all seven concepts in real time within one reporting structure. Management no longer reconciles data from multiple tools, enabling faster decisions and clearer accountability.
What does the move to cloud SaaS mean for Ampersand as it adds new brands?
Infrastructure investment is no longer dependent on maintaining additional on-premises servers. New concepts operate within the same shared platform and reporting structure that already supports the existing seven brands.
