Chicago-based Technomic Inc. and Newton, Mass.-based Restaurant Sciences LLC have partnered to provide greater visibility into sales trends in restaurants and bars and also deliver a comprehensive suite of food and beverage tracking services, the companies say.

"Combining the analytical and consultative expertise of Technomic with the transaction detail developed by Restaurant Sciences will provide powerful tools to both operators and suppliers," said Darren Tristano, executive vice president at Technomic, in a statement. "Our programs will deliver very current and granular point of sale (POS) information coupled with deep insights into consumer purchases and behaviors in restaurants and bars. This level of intelligence will provide real momentum and a sharp competitive edge to food and beverage companies' strategic initiatives."

Chuck Ellis, chief executive officer of Restaurant Sciences, added in a statement: "This is such a great new partnership for our industry, providing immediate first-ever benefits. We're excited to offer an integrated picture of patron, place and product — a dynamic view of the industry that can range at once from national trends to individual purchases. Together, we offer nearly 50 years of deep analytic and consultative experience, combined with the most cutting-edge ‘big data’ product and transaction standardization and business intelligence tools. This partnership benefits from hundreds of man-years in combined experience at every level, in every aspect of on-premise food and beverage."

Syndicated and custom programs will involve analysis of key metrics around guest occasions presented in accessible formats and including actionable insights, the companies say. Strategic services will include promotional modeling and tracking as well as price elasticity, competitive positioning analysis and more, they add. Among the initial programs developed through the partnership are sales tracking tools and resources specific to adult beverage sales in restaurants and bars.

"Adult beverage is a significant growth opportunity for restaurants," Technomic’s Tristano said in a statement. "Technomic's robust Drink database of adult beverage metrics and its rich insights into on-premise trends, together with Restaurant Sciences' analytics, will shine a bright spotlight into what's really happening on-premise. Both suppliers and operators will, for the first time, be able to make fact-based decisions about on-premise products and programs."