AI that does the operational work.
We install it.
Filing, chasing, checking, re-keying, reporting — AI agents can now do it inside the systems you already run. We design them, install them and keep them accountable, so your team spends its time on decisions, not admin.
- Invoices filed14 today
- Contracts checked3 need review
- Weekly site briefs6 ready
- Price change modelledGP updated 06:20
The problem we exist for
Configuration debt
Software people call it technical debt: the interest you pay on shortcuts taken early. Every operation has exactly the same thing, in a different place, and no name for it. So we gave it one.
Every system in your business was configured once. Hundreds of small decisions — which tax group this product sits in, whether this modifier inherits from its parent, what a “cover” counts as, which of your nine revenue categories rolls into which line of the P&L. Made in a rushed pre-opening week, by an installer who knew the software but not your business, based on how you traded then, and written down nowhere.
Then that person left. The menu changed forty times. You added delivery, then QR ordering, then two more sites. Nobody went back — because nobody knew they were decisions.
It never breaks. That is exactly what makes it expensive.
You can run a profitable, well-managed, award-winning venue for five years on materially wrong configuration and never receive a single signal that anything is off. The tills work. Service runs. The reports produce numbers. The numbers are just quietly wrong, in the same direction, every day, compounding.
One review found £45,000 a year in a single venue’s VAT mapping. No rebuild, no new platform, no disruption to service. Somebody just opened the screen.
Read: what configuration debt costs →The admin that eats your week can now do itself.
Filing, chasing, checking, re-keying, reporting. AI agents can now do this work inside the systems you already use — Microsoft 365, your POS, your spreadsheets — and hand you the decisions.
We design them, install them and keep them accountable. They work anywhere with an inbox, a spreadsheet and a deadline — factories, warehouses, offices, shops and venues.
- 14 supplier invoices read, named and filedDue dates added to the finance tracker
- Business-rates letter classifiedDeadline in 9 days — sent to Finance
- Supplier price list applied to the GP modelSaved as a new version, original untouched
- Weekly brief drafted for each siteEvery figure linked to its source
- Renewal contract compared with your standard terms3 clauses need a human decision
Six AI agents that take work off your team.
Each runs inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google environment, and a person always makes the final call.
Inbox-to-tracker agent
Reads invoices, statements, tax and council letters as they land; classifies, renames, files and logs each one with its deadline.
Finance stops sorting post and starts making decisions.
Scenario agent
Runs a new price list, contract or rota change through your existing Excel model, checks its own work and saves a new version every time.
“What does this supplier increase do to GP at each site?” — answered in minutes.
Contract review tables
Turns a folder of contracts into one table of key terms, checks new ones against your standard, and drafts tracked changes with a reason for each.
Drafts for your lawyer, not a replacement for one.
Site workspaces
One AI workspace per site or project, with an automatic weekly brief built from sales, labour and booking data.
Every manager gets the same picture, at the same time.
Ask-your-data assistants
Claude connected to your data warehouse through a secure connector, so managers ask in plain English and get answers from live numbers.
No dashboards to learn, no waiting on an analyst.
Knowledge layer
SOPs, playbooks and policies turned into something AI can follow. The step most projects skip, and the one that makes every agent better.
The process you already have becomes the specification.
Ask your operation a question. Get a real answer.
Every business is sitting on more data than it can read. We wire large language models — Claude and ChatGPT — directly into the systems that hold it. Not a chatbot bolted onto your website: actual, governed access to your real trading numbers.
A custom Claude MCP server, plugged straight into your Microsoft Fabric warehouse.
We build bespoke Model Context Protocol servers that connect Claude directly to your Fabric lakehouse. Your team asks in plain English; Claude queries the warehouse and answers from live operational data. No dashboard to learn, no SQL, no waiting three days for an analyst to come back to you.
on a fixed menu price. 62% of the variance sits
in two dishes. Want the reprice options?
Claude & ChatGPT, connected to your stack
Assistants that can genuinely see POS, stock and sales data — so “what’s my worst-performing dish this month?” returns a number, not a guess.
Agents that write the report before you’re up
Scheduled agents that draft your daily and weekly trading summaries, flag anomalies against trend, and land them in email or Teams before service starts.
Read-only, scoped, audited
Read-only by default, permissions scoped per role, your data never used for training, full audit trail. The hard part of AI in hospitality isn’t the model — it’s the plumbing and the guardrails.
From data to decision, in one conversation.
How an ask-your-data assistant works on a typical setup: a Microsoft Fabric data warehouse connected to Claude through MCP — the open standard for plugging AI into business systems.
- Your data stays putNumbers live in your warehouse, with one agreed definition for every KPI.
- A scoped, read-only keyMCP gives the AI access to approved tables only — it can read, not change.
- Query, check, explainThe AI writes the query, sanity-checks the result and explains it in plain language.
- Everything is loggedEvery question, query and answer is kept for review and audit.
The right tool for each job
Not every task needs the biggest model. We use cheaper, more predictable tools first, and large language models where judgement matters.
| Job | Best tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Checks and thresholds | Rules / SQL | Repeatable and easy to audit |
| Moving and filing | Scripted workflow | Cheap, fast and reliable |
| Reading invoices and forms | Document AI / OCR | Accurate on structured documents |
| Triage and summaries | Small, fast AI model | Low cost at high volume |
| Judgement-heavy reading | Frontier model (e.g. Claude) | Reasoning, drafting, explaining |
Value and risk decide how much autonomy
Reading is always allowed. Anything that pays, files, sends or changes a record passes a person first.
Real numbers, from real operations.
Every engagement is judged on one thing: measurable operational improvement. Here’s what connected systems have delivered.
Improvements powered by connected systems.
Configuration & tax logic review
Cold takeaway sandwiches and certain cold takeaway food items can qualify for zero-rated VAT under HMRC food rules — but the POS tax groups weren’t configured to reflect it. One settings review identified ≈£45,000 in annual savings. No rebuild, no new platform, no operational disruption.
Stock & GP optimisation system
Low-margin items and poor stock visibility eroded profit. Structured workflows and GP analysis delivered an estimated £100,000+ annual improvement.
Real-time reporting transformation
Monthly reporting took three days of manual work. Connected systems and automated dashboards made it live, centralised and instant.
Wherever work repeats, AI can take it on.
The same agents adapt to any operation with paperwork, data and deadlines.
Manufacturing and factories
Production and downtime reporting that builds itself, maintenance alerts from machine data, quality documents filed automatically, and work instructions operators can ask.
Logistics and warehousing
Delivery and customs paperwork handled automatically, exception reporting, and stock counts and inspections moving from clipboards to scanners, cameras and drones.
Multi-site retail and services
One version of the numbers across every site, weekly briefs for every manager, and compliance checks that don’t depend on someone remembering.
Hospitality
POS, stock, labour and bookings connected, then automated: GP tracking, weekly site briefs, supplier paperwork and SOP assistants.
Where AI pays off first — a worked example.
The quickest returns come from back-of-house work that’s repetitive, rule-based and already costing hours every week.
| Area | What the AI does | What changes for you |
|---|---|---|
| Finance admin | Reads invoices, statements and letters; files them; logs deadlines; drafts reminders | Fewer missed deadlines and late fees, and a finance team that isn’t sorting post |
| Purchasing and GP | Applies supplier price changes to your recipes and GP model, site by site | You see margin impact the day prices change, not at month end |
| Trading reports | Builds the weekly site brief from POS, labour and booking data, with sources | Managers get the same numbers on Monday morning without anyone compiling them |
| Labour | Compares rotas with sales forecasts and flags variance before the week starts | Labour cost managed ahead of time instead of explained after |
| Contracts and suppliers | Pulls key terms from every contract into one table; flags renewals and price-rise clauses | No more surprise auto-renewals |
| Training and SOPs | Turns your SOPs into an assistant staff can ask on shift | Faster onboarding and more consistent service |
| Guest enquiries | Drafts replies to event and group enquiries using your packages and availability | Faster responses on the enquiries most likely to book |
Where would AI help you first?
Nine quick questions for factories, warehouses, offices, retail and hospitality. Your three most likely quick wins appear straight away, on this page.
Your answers stay in your browser. Nothing is sent to us unless you choose to get in touch.
Three ways to bring AI into your operation.
Most teams begin with a workshop, then pick one process to automate first.
Workshops
Half-day sessions for leaders and teams, built around your own processes. You leave with a ranked list of what to automate first, and why.
Builds
One process, built as a working prototype in weeks, then hardened with access control, audit trail, backups and support.
Apps
Focused tools we build and use ourselves. Proof that we ship real software, not slide decks.
Practical AI sessions, built on your own work.
In person in London or online. No generic slides — we use your processes and documents.
Leadership briefing
For owners, directors and heads of department
- How firms already use AI agents in finance, legal and operations
- What’s realistic for your size in the next 12 months
- Risks, rules and good governance
- Your processes ranked by value and effort
Half a day · a ranked shortlist
Hands-on for teams
For managers and office teams
- Using Claude or ChatGPT safely on real work
- Prompts and reusable instructions
- What never goes into an AI tool
Half a day · up to 12 people
Adoption sprint
For teams ready to build
- One process mapped end to end
- A working prototype on your documents
- A 90-day plan with owners
Two weeks
Clear scope, fixed price, before anything starts.
AI opportunity audit
Fixed priceCredited in full against a build
- Your processes mapped and scored
- Hours and cost saved, estimated per process
- A 90-day plan you keep, whoever builds it
First build
Fixed priceOne process, quoted within 48 hours
- Working prototype in 2–4 weeks
- Hardened for daily use
- Training for the people who’ll use it
Ongoing support
MonthlyCancel any time
- Monitoring and fixes
- Monthly results report
- New automations as you grow
Four steps from friction to flow.
Audit
We map every system, workflow and reporting gap in your operation.
Analyse
Data, tax logic and margins reviewed to find measurable opportunities.
Integrate
Systems connected and configured; reporting automated and centralised.
Optimise
Live dashboards and ongoing support keep the gains compounding.
The hard part is the guardrails.
Any model can draft an email. What matters is what it can see, what it can change, and who can check what it did.
- Read-only until you say otherwise. Agents start by reading and drafting. Anything that changes a record needs a person’s approval.
- Your data stays in your tenant. We build inside your own Microsoft 365, Azure or Google environment. Your data isn’t used to train models.
- Every answer shows its source. Figures link back to the document or table they came from.
- A full run log. Who ran what, on which data, and what changed — kept for audit.
- Sensitive data stays out. Personal and special-category data is excluded unless it has been cleared under GDPR.
AI changes every day. People don’t.
We’re industry-native. We’ve lived the operations ourselves and worked through every stage of AI — from the first chatbots to agents that now run real processes — and we can’t imagine working any other way. Every day brings a new model, a new tool, a new challenge. What doesn’t change is how people work, decide and build trust. That gap — between technology that moves daily and teams that need something steady — is where we work.
Operations-native
We’ve lived the operations, not just read about them — so our recommendations survive contact with a real service.
Systems-agnostic
We optimise the platforms you already run — Tevalis, POS/EPOS, Power BI — and never lock you into ours.
Measurable by design
Every engagement is judged on hard numbers: pounds saved, GP gained, hours returned to your team.
End-to-end
From the first audit to systems build, live dashboards and ongoing support — one partner, no hand-offs.
Fast & modern
Automation-first and built on 2026 tooling — no legacy bloat, no six-month wait to see value.
Senior & hands-on
You work directly with the people doing the work — not a ticket queue or an offshore call centre.
What we believe
Four things we would tell you
before you hired us.
Most operators are not short of data. They are short of truth.
Nine systems, nine versions of the same number, and a meeting that becomes an argument about which one is right instead of what to do about it. More dashboards will not fix this. Agreeing what a cover is will.
Margin does not leak where you are looking.
Everyone audits buying, labour and pricing — the visible things, already optimised half to death. Meanwhile the money walks out through a settings screen nobody has opened since install. It does not error. Nothing breaks. It just quietly costs you, every day, for years.
The question should cost nothing to ask.
When a report takes three days, only head office asks. When it takes nine seconds, your GMs start asking their own — and they are the ones who can act before the shift ends. That is the change worth making. Not faster reporting. Reporting that reaches the people who can do something.
The gap is installation, not invention.
Nobody needs to invent anything for your business to run better. The warehouses exist. The connectors exist. The AI has been good enough for two years. The average UK venue runs on configuration decided a decade ago by somebody who has since left.
We close that gap. That is the whole job.
A connected operational stack, engineered for margin.
We don’t sell software. We audit, connect and optimise the systems you already run — so your data works as hard as your team.
Operational systems audit
A forensic review of your POS, workflows, tax logic and reporting to surface inefficiencies, reporting gaps and hidden savings — with a clear, prioritised action plan.
POS / EPOS configuration
Tax groups, menu logic and till setup, corrected and future-proofed.
Stock & GP optimisation
Menu engineering, purchasing visibility and waste reduction driven by real data.
Reporting & BI dashboards
Power BI & Looker Studio dashboards that make the numbers live and shared.
CRM integrations
Enquiries, customers and projects flowing into one connected workflow.
Automation
Repetitive admin, exports and follow-ups — automated end to end.
Fast, modern sites that win customers.
Beyond systems, ODS designs and builds high-performance websites for service businesses and venues — mobile-first, lightning-fast, and engineered to turn visitors into bookings and enquiries.
Your whole tech stack live before day one.
Opening a new site is chaos. The systems arrive unconfigured, the website is three weeks late, nobody has set up stock, and on day one you have no idea what you sold. We do the entire operational stack as one fixed-price package — properly configured, not bodged — in days rather than months.
Everything included
- POS / EPOS configured properlyMenu structure, tax groups, modifiers, printers and till layouts — set up correctly from day one, not fixed six months later.
- Stock & suppliersProduct lists, recipes, supplier records and GP tracking ready before your first delivery.
- Payments & PDQ integratedCard terminals talking to the POS, so cashing up isn’t a nightly argument.
- Website, liveFast, mobile-first, menu-led and booking-ready. Built to fill tables, not win design awards.
- Bookings connectedOpenTable or your platform of choice, wired into the site and the floor plan.
- Reporting from night oneLive dashboards so you know your covers, spend-per-head and GP from the very first service.
- Your team trainedA walkthrough with the people who’ll actually use it, plus support through your opening weeks.
How fast, realistically
A typical single-site setup. Multi-site takes longer — we’ll tell you honestly.
Towards autonomous operations.
Our longer-term work: connecting sensors, cameras, machines and drones into one network that a custom AI can monitor and coordinate — with people approving every action that matters.
We’re looking for a small number of pilot partners in manufacturing and logistics.
- Drone stock counts and inspections. Routine counts and hard-to-reach checks, flown within UK CAA rules.
- One live view of the operation. Machine, sensor and camera data in one place, instead of five dashboards.
- A custom AI layer. It spots issues early, explains them, and proposes what to do next.
- Humans stay in charge. Anything that moves, stops or changes something needs approval, and everything is logged.
MacPulse
A menu bar app for Mac that shows what’s slowing your machine down, what it’s connecting to, and whether its protections are switched on.
Performance and memory pressure, a connection checker, a security check built on Apple’s own protections, and a storage clean-up that only ever moves files to the Bin. It also connects to Claude, so you can ask about your Mac in plain English.
- Memory used5.3 of 8 GB
- Security checks9 passed
- Connections needing a look0
- Duplicate files found2.1 GB
Ideas from the operations desk.
Practical thinking on AI, systems, margin and reporting — the same approach we bring to every audit.
How a POS & VAT audit can save £45,000+
Misconfigured tax groups quietly cost hospitality businesses thousands. Here’s how an audit finds it.
Read article Stock & GPTurning menu data into £100,000+ of improvement
GP analysis, purchasing visibility and waste reduction — where the six-figure gains really come from.
Read article ReportingFrom 3-day reports to real-time dashboards
How connecting systems turns a three-day reporting slog into instant, live operational clarity.
Read articleThe operator’s guide to AI
A short, practical guide for owners and ops leaders. No jargon, no hype.
- The seven processes worth automating first
- A one-page checklist for using AI safely with business data
- What to ask any AI supplier before you sign
- How to measure whether it’s working
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about how we work, what we touch and what it costs you to find out.
What does Open Data Sphere (ODS) do?
Open Data Sphere (ODS) is an AI and operational systems consultancy for manufacturing, logistics, retail, office-based and hospitality businesses. We audit, connect and configure the systems hospitality operators already run — POS/EPOS, stock, payments, bookings, CRM and reporting — so the data works together and margin stops leaking. We are not a software vendor and we do not resell a platform of our own.
Which platforms do you work with?
We work with the platforms operators already use, including Tevalis, Oracle Hospitality, Tenzo, Lightspeed, Stripe, OpenTable, Google Cloud, Microsoft 365, Power BI and Google Looker Studio. We are systems-agnostic — we optimise your existing stack rather than locking you into ours.
What is an operational systems audit?
A forensic review of your POS/EPOS setup, workflows, tax logic and reporting. We map every system, review data, tax configuration and margins, then hand you a clear, prioritised action plan showing where money and time are being lost and what to fix first.
How can a POS and VAT configuration audit save money?
Cold takeaway sandwiches and certain cold takeaway food items can qualify for zero-rated VAT under HMRC food rules. If POS tax groups are not configured to reflect that, a venue over-declares VAT indefinitely. In one engagement a single settings review identified approximately £45,000 in annual savings — with no rebuild, no new platform and no operational disruption.
Can you connect Claude or ChatGPT to our operational data?
Yes. We build custom Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that connect Claude directly to your data warehouse — including Microsoft Fabric lakehouses — so your team can ask questions in plain English and get answers from live operational data. We also integrate ChatGPT and Claude assistants with POS, stock and sales systems. Access is read-only by default, scoped by role, audited, and your data is not used to train models.
What is an MCP server and why would a hospitality business want one?
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets an AI assistant securely connect to external systems and data. For a hospitality group it means Claude can query your Microsoft Fabric warehouse directly — so instead of learning a dashboard, waiting on an analyst or exporting to spreadsheets, a manager can simply ask ‘which site lost the most GP last week and why’ and get an answer drawn from live data.
Do you only work on systems, or do you build websites too?
Both. Alongside operational systems work, ODS designs and builds fast, mobile-first websites for hospitality — single venues, booking-ready sites integrated with your reservation system, and multi-venue group sites managed centrally.
How do I start working with ODS?
Book an operational systems audit. Email contact@odspro.tech or use the enquiry form at odspro.tech and we will come back to you to arrange an initial conversation about your systems and where the opportunities are.
Will AI replace our staff?
That isn’t the aim. The work we automate is the admin people don’t want to do: filing, chasing, re-keying and compiling reports. Decisions stay with your team.
Is our data safe with AI?
Agents start read-only, run inside your own systems and keep a log of everything they do. Your data isn’t used to train AI models, and personal data stays out unless it has been cleared under GDPR.
Which AI do you use?
Mostly Claude, with ChatGPT and Microsoft’s tools where they fit better. We choose per job and avoid locking you in.
How quickly will we see results?
A working prototype usually takes two to four weeks; making it production-ready takes a few weeks more. We agree how success will be measured before we start.
We’re not in hospitality. Can you still help?
Yes. Hospitality is where we started, and we now work with manufacturing, logistics, retail and office-based businesses. The same patterns apply anywhere with paperwork, data and deadlines.
What if AI isn’t the right answer?
Then we’ll tell you. Sometimes a settings change or a simple automation does the job better and costs less.
Most inefficiencies are hidden inside disconnected systems.
Book a 30-minute call and we’ll show you where AI can save your team time first. Enquiries come straight to our team.
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