Today’s restaurant operator know they must look at technologies to handle everything from guest experience, loyalty and marketing programs, employee onboarding and training, scheduling, inventory and reporting. But all these advances and innovation brings an overwhelming amount of software, hardware, data, information (and the security of it) to manage.
Efficiency, productivity, tech-stack-refreshment and strategy is mission critical to the operator today. Being able to have transactional, purchasing, social media, marketing and workforce data fully integrated, centralized and optimized to deliver key insights on the fly, is more important now that ever.
Digital transformation, restaurant automation and systems integration is the solution. Knowing what to purchase and how to implement a custom ResTech strategy and is our bailiwick.
During this initial assessment, or audit phase, we learn about the current systems of record and various point solutions that support these systems.
We evaluate data security, integrations, and all current vendor agreements and relationships. The deliverable is are port on what we find, and what we recommend changing and why.
We complete a sensitivity analysis, pro forma tech stack design and projected spend, even at this early pre-design stage.
The five systems of record
(1) Financial (2) Customer
(3) Operations (4) Workforce
and (5) IT, are to be defined.
During this Phase, we start with the core and work out in a hub and spoke configuration. We view the core as the data management solution, and then source, evaluate and curate the required"nodes" on the newly designed “HUB".
During this phase our implementation teamworks hand-in-hand with all the solution providers, including those that remained part of the new stack. We manage the vendor relationships, ensure that middleware providers, if required, are engaged with the solution providers andAPI integrations are being implemented on time.
As a restaurant operator, you must be incontrol of your technology stack. This means you must understand how the cloudworks and mandate an open architecture freely integrating withy any qualifiedthird-party solution provider, including the POS.Because key insights come from all thesedata pulled from a wide array of sources, these data must be centralized,secured and made accessible by the data management system. Moreover, modernsystems of records and their data should be easily visualized, or evenvocalized using Voice+ AI, without requiring an in-house data scientist orprogrammer.The thesis and strategy creates anecosystem where the selected systems can operate individually and as acollective tech-stack to give ownership and power to the operator.
Our team regularly meets with key operatives on the client-side, schedules weekly status calls provides stakeholders real-time project plan updates accessing our cloud-based project management platform. We test, and re-test and continue managing the relationships ensure a smooth transition.
Once management has approved the final Tech-Stack and selected the solution providers, our program management team will begin executing the final phase of the engagement. During this phase our implementation team works hand-in-hand with all the solution providers, including those that remained part of the new stack. We manage the vendor relationships, ensure that middleware providers, if required, are engaged with the solution providers and API integrations are being implemented on time.
Once we have gained managements approval on the Tech Stack architecture, knowing this is a collaborate and flexible process, we begin filling in the blanks with a qualified short list of RestTech solutions providers. We have a general design thesis to ensure our clients maintain total control over their systems without loss of data. When curating solution providers, we try to keep the number of third-parties to as few as possible, knowing there will always be some overlap in capability.
During this Phase, we start with the core and work out in a hub and spoke configuration. The five systems of record (1) Financial (2) Customer (3)Operations (4) Workforce and (5) IT, are to be defined. We view the core as the data management solution, and then source, evaluate and curate the required"nodes" on the newly designed "HUB".
We also manage the RFP process to meet the budget guidelines, provide transparent access to our project plan and updates in real time, so everyone involved in the project can be updated dynamically. As we finalize the solution providers and begin the weeks-long demo period, the RestTechTech-Stack design and budget will be more apparent and fine-tuned in anticipation of implementing the new Tech-Stack.
During this audit phase, we interview various department heads and other stakeholders to learn about the current systems of record and various point solutions that support these systems. We identify pain-points and challenges that come with the current systems that surface inconsistencies and gaps. We evaluate data security, integrations, and all current vendor agreements and relationships.The deliverable is a report on what we find, and what we recommend to change and why. We complete a sensitivity analysis, pro forma tech stack design and projected spend, even at this early pre-design stage.
The restaurant industry is transitioning and so are you. What's changed for you? Can your operation adapt to meet the challenges of the new restaurant industry? Are your ResTech systems working for you or against you?
Data wants to be accessed. But it needsto be centralized, optimized and secure first. A unified data managementconfiguration is key, in fact a “data lake” is the new RestTech hub for aggregating, storing andoptimizing data from multiple systems and sources.The most powerful insights come fromintegrating the data pulled from multiple sources – from POS, CRM, menuanalytics, employee management solution, guest management platform, andinventory management software, among others. Integrating these data will providemanagement with the insights required to run a modern restaurant company.The problem is lack of standardization.The Cloud Connect strategy creates an ecosystem where each of the systems canoperate individually and as a collective tech stack to power and support thebusiness; and, give tech-stack ownership to the operator. This is a critical distinction.
There are several implications:
