HB Brands transforms restaurant operations with LS Central, Microsoft Fabric, and AI
HB Brands is one of Saudi Arabia's leading food and beverage groups, supported by more than 900 employees across 77 physical stores and over 450 virtual outlets operating through major delivery aggregators.
As HB Brands expanded, its technology strategy evolved to support larger transaction volumes, real-time decision-making, stronger governance, and AI-enabled business operations. The company selected LS Central for restaurants running as a SaaS solution.
Real-time data across the business
One of the most significant outcomes of the SaaS transformation has been the move from delayed data synchronization to instant sales replication. Sales transactions from all stores are now available in near real time, enabling leadership teams to monitor performance as it happens rather than waiting for batch updates.
Using Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse, HB Brands has built an enterprise analytics foundation giving live operational insight across sales performance, inventory visibility, store productivity, supply chain operations, financial reporting, and profitability and P&L analysis. This lets departments work from a single source of truth while making faster, more informed decisions.
Before this visibility existed, failed orders ran at about 3% of the business. "I feel more confident now than before," says Syed Mudassir Ahmed, Group IT Director at HB Brands. "All data is in Power BI, it's easy for operations and for top management to deep dive into the data and take action." "By getting insights on a daily basis, we can now identify problems that branches are facing in terms of failed orders," he adds. "We managed to reduce this number significantly."
AI-powered finance and supply chain operations
HB Brands has gone beyond traditional reporting, introducing AI-driven finance and procurement agents that help teams monitor business performance, improve operational visibility, support governance and compliance, strengthen auditability and controls, highlight risks and exceptions, and accelerate decision-making. By combining transaction data from LS Central with analytics from Microsoft Fabric and Power BI, HB Brands is creating a digital operating model where teams can proactively manage business performance rather than react to issues after they occur.
Improving restaurant service and efficiency
LS Central for restaurants has also transformed day-to-day restaurant operations. Mobile ordering lets staff place customer orders directly from handheld devices and send them instantly to the kitchen, while kitchen teams receive real-time updates through the Kitchen Display System to prioritize preparation and coordinate service more effectively.
Table management capabilities simplify seating, guest tracking, and bill-splitting, improving the customer experience while reducing operational complexity for front-of-house employees. "It is amazing how it has increased our service time and overall operational efficiencies," says Ahmed.
As a result, stores have achieved faster service times, improved coordination between departments, and greater operational efficiency.
Smarter inventory, replenishment, and promotions
HB Brands has modernized inventory and replenishment processes using LS Central's planning capabilities. Stores can automatically identify low-stock items and generate replenishment recommendations based on consumption patterns and expected demand.
Instead of manually managing large replenishment lists, teams now focus on reviewing system-generated recommendations, significantly reducing effort while improving inventory accuracy. "Instead of entering 50 items manually, they only have to run 5 to 10 iterations, and that's it," says Ahmed. "They save the requisition worksheet, and the very next day, the warehouse will have access to the same worksheet and convert it into a transfer order in one click."
Warehouse operations have also become more efficient through streamlined worksheet-to-transfer-order processes, reducing manual processing and accelerating fulfillment.
What was holding the business back
HB Brands previously operated on an older version of LS Retail that no longer matched the scale and complexity of its growing business. Challenges around data replication, costing accuracy, reporting latency, and operational visibility made it increasingly difficult to manage a rapidly expanding network of physical and virtual locations.
The decision and foundation
To support future growth, HB Brands upgraded to LS Central for restaurants, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, with implementation and migration delivered by Novasoft. The transition unified retail, restaurant operations, finance, inventory, procurement and reporting onto a single modern platform capable of supporting enterprise-scale growth.
HB Brands compared partners across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and India, and chose Novasoft for its grasp of the hospitality industry, which none of the other partners matched. "Novasoft guided us in the right direction and demonstrated a depth of understanding that we didn't find with other partners," says Ahmed. "HB Brands took time to evaluate the right partner, but after that they fully trusted us," says Amit Sobti, Sales and Strategy Director at Novasoft. "Their vision and engagement kept the whole project going," adds Vishwanath Ramachandraiah, Consulting Director at Novasoft. Novasoft migrated all locations to LS Central for restaurants in a few months, despite complex customizations.
Q&A: insights from HB Brands' implementation
Why did HB Brands modernize its platform?
As the business expanded, its previous LS Retail environment faced challenges with data replication, costing, reporting speed, and operational control. HB Brands required a modern platform capable of supporting enterprise-scale operations while providing real-time visibility and stronger governance.
What platform does HB Brands operate today?
HB Brands runs LS Central for restaurants on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central SaaS, integrated with Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse, and AI-powered finance and procurement capabilities across 77 stores and more than 450 virtual outlets.
What business outcomes has the company achieved?
HB Brands now operates with real-time sales visibility, live analytics, AI-assisted operational decision making, stronger compliance controls, and enterprise-wide reporting that connects sales, inventory, procurement, and financial performance into a single, trusted view of the business.
