Implementing and working with multiple tech products in your restaurant
There’s a universe of technology solutions out there to help your restaurant thrive. So many, in fact, that it can be a daunting task to know where to begin. Let’s start from square one – should you utilize a multi-package approach leveraging specialist solutions? Or will you manage all aspects of your business with a one-size-fits-all powerhouse?
Eli Nadel, Twice Baked’s Technology specialist, unpacks the pros and cons of using multiple technology solutions, and compares with a single system approach.
What are the pros and cons of a multi-product tech stack?
Pros:
Primarily it’s about flexibility – having the flexibility to make agile changes based on your needs. Essentially you can add or remove elements to your stack based on budget and current need.
For example, you're going into Summer, which you know typically means an increase in take-out orders, and you're wanting to bring in some form of kitchen management system that can help segregate orders between different sections in the kitchen. You don't necessarily need that out of normal trading hours, perhaps just for the two months of the year.
With a split tech stack, you can choose to implement specific technologies for select periods of time, giving you much more control over the products you use to deliver the results you need at any given time.
Cons:
Significantly more management of the various accounts required. You will probably need more clear accountability and responsibility internally around who's responsible for what. Does Finance own the data, or does Operations? It's super important to clearly define who are those owners.
And what are the pros and cons of an all-in-one solution?
Pros:
Naturally, it’s the reverse – one of the main benefits of an all-in-one solution is having only one point of contact. One company, one invoice.
Cons:
You're not getting best in breed, you're just getting kind of standard. So a good example is all of these big all-in-one platforms have maybe 10 developers, but then they've got inventory, labor, kiosk ordering and point of sale (POS) to look after. Are they going to be able to develop as much as separate individual companies or not?
It's super unlikely, and additionally we tend to see a lower level of product and feature updates that come through from consolidated systems as a result. After all, Jack of all trades…
How should one go about successfully implementing multiple products?
As always, it's super important to get a good understanding of your key objectives first, then set out your timelines. Don’t forget to factor in the other key departments that might be involved when you’re working this out though and outline everyone’s roles and responsibilities, both during the onboarding process and maintaining the platforms longer term.
For example, how will Finance be able to export their invoices? How will pricing be updated, and by whom? Who is responsible for menu development long term?
A big part of what we do as a business is to help orchestrate the internal alignments of all kinds of intercompany workings. We see it as imperative to ensure that all necessary stakeholders are involved at each stage of the process, which is very key to making any kind of implementation stick.
It’s important to note though that there is no out-of-the-box process when implementing multiple products at once and our approach is to work with each of our customers to understand their unique needs and find a path of least resistance.
What are the common mistakes?
Internal planning, or rather a lack thereof, is the single biggest issue we find. Oftentimes business owners or operators don't reasonably grasp the amount of work that's required to launch major change projects and can underestimate the complexity of the task at hand when it comes to technology implementation.
Could you name an example where Twice Baked has helped facilitate a change?
We have recently been working with a large Italian restaurant chain who were struggling with the legacy system they had in place. It was providing no real visibility in their reports and the features that the business needed just weren't available with the platform, while getting custom development work done was very expensive.
We advised them through a tech infrastructure review, which resulted in them being able to carve out best-in-class tech which fit their specific needs, without having to develop anything themselves.