Technology solutions can streamline and supercharge your restaurant’s processes. But, as we all know, the latest tech can quickly become outdated, and as your business evolves it’s important to maintain a keen eye on maintaining the most powerful arsenal of systems and upgrading where needed.

We sat down with Eli Nadel, Twice Baked’s Technology Specialist, to delve deeper into selecting and implementing the perfect portfolio of tech solutions. Here, he share’s his thoughts on what to think about, what to avoid, and what to prioritise.

What do we mean by a technology stack? What solutions do I need in my restaurant?

Ideally, you would want solutions for point of sale (POS), inventory control, labor control, compliance (if you're not food safe, you can't legally trade!), and accounting.

With food and labor being the two highest expenses in the business, and POS being your ability to take payments, these are the three business critical areas you should have technology in place for, along with obviously accounting. On top there are nice-to-haves like a customer/client relationship management (CRM), loyalty, maintenance, which are supplementary apps that can reduce task time and can be really useful if you are looking to grow.

This is true for a 1 - 5 site restaurant business, while anything over 5 sites you may also want to look at an asset management solution or a maintenance platform; a sophisticated training platform; possibly an applicant tracking system (ATS); and definitely some kind of business intelligence (BI) tool.

What are the key considerations to ensure you are choosing the right technology for your business?

The most important thing to do is define the current and future scope. So what is the current solution not delivering, that is actually business critical, and then clearly defining what is my short-term solution, my mid-term solution and my long-term strategy.

Let’s say I was looking to change the point of sale, and I knew that in Q3 of next year, there was a loyalty program to be kicked off...I would make sure that I understood what any potential point of sale could grow into from a loyalty perspective, ensure there is clear alignment with our marketing department about what functionality is required to support any future initiatives, and choose a product based on that.

How often should you look to assess your technology infrastructure?

If you’re a small-to-medium size but growing business, then 18 to 24 months is typically a good timeframe to sense check whether what you implemented back then is still fit for purpose. However we have seen much larger enterprise businesses forecasting five years out and choosing technology based on a much longer growth trajectory.

What are some key indicators that it's time to upgrade your technology stack?

It's very much report driven. Try asking yourself a few simple questions:

How much valuable insight can you gain from your current set up?
Is your current tech stack giving you the data you need to fix problems before they hurt your P & L?
How impactful are your reports in driving sales and profitability?

If the answer to those questions is ‘not very much’, then it’s time to make a change.

“I would always think about ‘Price, service and quality’”

So let’s say I’ve made an assessment and are I’m looking to upgrade. How do I generate a shortlist of vendors?

Referrals, network, Google!

How many different options should I look at?

We find anything more than three to be very distracting or very hard to digest the information. I would go to as many as I could and whittle them down to the three that suited the needs that were the most applicable to the business requirements.

I would always think about ‘price, service and quality’. Understand that we can't have all three and which of two of the three of the vendors we are speaking to hit the most.

“Whilst your general staff and GM’s might not be the overall decision makers they absolutely should be consulted and informed about major tech changes.”

What are some common mistakes you’ve seen when a business changes or implements new technology?

For non-enterprise businesses, it’s often not scoping out requirements first and under-estimating the time investment required for a successful setup. Also, a lack of prioritisation of internal training over leveraging that of the service provider; ideally we want training which fits your brand and it’s purpose, vision, values and mission.

For enterprise businesses, a really common mistake we see is not aligning internal departments. It’s critical that accounting, procurement, operations and marketing are all aligned, on-board with the changes, and fully aware of the requirements of them during the project. We also frequently see rollouts being rushed, invariably throwing up complications down the road. Essentially planning and timelines tends to be the two that fall down.

Finally I’d say an issue we see across the board is not getting staff buy-in at all levels; whilst your general staff and GM’s might not be the overall decision makers, they absolutely should be consulted and informed about major tech changes.

Any final advice?

Considering the challenges the industry is facing at the moment, it’s absolutely critical that business owners are mindful and conscious of the technology they chose to implement. Those costs can really add up over time, and it's typically the ongoing maintenance which determines the success of them.

It’s easy enough to choose a new POS or inventory management tool but making sure you then get the most out of it is the hard part!

How to choose and upgrade your restaurant’s tech stack