The Secret Ingredient to Success for the Future of Restaurant Tech

With companies competing to build the next big thing in restaurant technology, the answer to how they will unlock value comes down to a simple concept: collaboration.

It can be both scary and comforting to know that we are the solution to our own problems.

The restaurant industry is at an extraordinary inflection point. For the last five years, there has been a profound shift in the way restaurants operate. Increasingly, the point of sale has moved out of the four walls of the restaurant, with delivery services and online ordering turning the guest experience from personal touch to digital touchscreen. And the change is only accelerating as advancements in technology make things that once seemed like science fiction appear more and more possible, and even inevitable.

For operators and technologists alike, it can be a little overwhelming.

After all, we have just gotten through the pandemic, with all the pivots and pilot projects and proofs-of-concept, which required all our energy and ingenuity to manage and maintain. Now, on the other side, we’re not looking at a return to some prior normal, but rather, confronted by a whole new set of expectations around building a digital brand and adopting brand new categories of technology.

It’s enough to make you want to close all your locations and open a single-unit taco stand on the beach.

However, despite the growing challenges and complexities, the future holds immense promise. The restaurant industry has always faced the problem of managing operational excellence at scale. Unit count growth brings opportunities for leverage in supply chain and management systems, often accompanied by sacrifices to guest hospitality and employee experience. New data tools and AI applications raise the prospect of staying engaged with multiple stakeholder groups, even at significant operational scale.

I personally believe that the restaurant of the future is likely to be heavily managed by adaptive, automated decisioning systems that optimize a large portion of back-of-house systems, marketing tools, and administrative functions. Faced with sweeping and fundamental changes with technologies that can appear dauntingly complex, it may be tempting to look outside the industry, or at least outside the restaurant, for saviors with big, shiny solutions. But the solution to creating new, intelligent systems that make a real impact starts with operators, and must remain a deeply collaborative effort between restaurants and restaurant technologists.

At the Food on Demand Conference, I hosted a panel discussion that sought to address the question of how restaurants can respond to the current challenges that have come from the ongoing shifts in the industry—including fractured guest and employee experiences and structural issues with sales and ordering data—while moving towards the adoption of new technologies that show great promise in supporting growth and efficiency.

The universal feedback from the panel participants was that the most important factor in getting to a better future for restaurants is through a new level of collaboration.

Collaboration is something that comes naturally to restaurants, particularly at times of great stress. At the height of the pandemic, I remember hours of calls with other restaurant brands sharing ideas and experiences on everything from establishing trackable safety protocols to selling grocery boxes online. We were making up answers to problems we never thought we’d have to solve. It was stressful and exhausting, but it was also inspiring and galvanizing. I remain close with so many of the partners, staff, and fellow technologists that I met during that time.

That same kind of collaboration needs to extend to, and among, technology providers. Many of the issues that now plague restaurants, particularly in their data, aren’t the responsibility of any single system or provider. Instead, there is a kind of “tragedy of the commons” where both technology providers and restaurants struggle to align on where the responsibility lies for various functions. Between the biggest system providers—point of sale systems, delivery service providers, operational management and HR systems—there is a gap that leads to bad data, missed opportunities, and significant business inefficiencies.

It’s increasingly clear that restaurants need to be able to take charge of their data and become authors of their own technology strategy. But they will be heavily reliant on partners and providers, big and small, who can provide the core capabilities that enable them to make use of new techniques and technologies.

Underscoring this point, we asked the participants from our Food on Demand panel each to share one thought about how restaurants and technology providers can more effectively collaborate to get to improved outcomes, for their particular restaurants as well as the industry at-large.

Here are their thoughts:

Garrett Fadden | VP of Retail Systems, Focus Brands LLC

Certainly hard to share just one thought. Similar to restaurant data, the many dimensions of the restaurant/service provider relationship are interconnected and complex. I believe that it starts with a commitment from both parties to operate in a way that is focused on supporting each other’s greater goals. This is not a one-way street. It includes agreeing on the rules of engagement, and explicitly acknowledging targets and constraints so you can collectively correct course throughout the duration of a partnership.

While it all starts with understanding the business problem and desired outcome, surface-level generalizations are poisonous, in my opinion. I’ve been in conversations with partners who are able to articulate a broad understanding of a problem, but then misunderstand the granular requirements that would define a solution. It is really about getting to an intimate and shared understanding of the causes of problems and then building to a solution together. This is very personal for each organization and requires a deep understanding of risk tolerance, realistic ability to manage and execute change, and of course, the costs of getting to a real solution.

Tyler Kraemer | Director of Franchise Services, Penn Station East Coast Subs

I believe that the people you partner with are as important as the tech solutions they bring to the table. A great partner should understand your business objectives and be able to articulate how their product fits as part of a holistic solution, which can be both effective and fiscally responsible. Technology providers need to go beyond focusing on their own solution and recognize how their solution fits within the requirements of a restaurant’s existing tech stack.

No solution is effective on its own. All the great features and functionality mean nothing if a solution can’t produce rich and accurate data, which can be made available via integration to enhance the functionality of the adjacent solutions. When solutions don’t work together, restaurants are forced into a difficult position of compromising their objectives to meet the needs of the technology rather than the technology meeting the needs of the business.

Amir Hudda | CEO, Qu POS

None of this is easy, or inevitable. New systems and business approaches are required to collectively move our industry forward. Advancements, such as the shared data models that RTN is working on, or the trend towards open read/write API capabilities in restaurant technology systems can certainly help smooth the path forward.

But ultimately, the move towards a broad-based application of data to solve real restaurant problems is a path of shared discovery. The more we welcome each other into being part of the solution, and work on the problem with open minds (and open APIs), the more likely we are to push the industry into a healthier, more profitable place—which is good for restaurants, technology providers, and guests alike.

All parties need to join forces and prioritize what we at Qu call “responsible evolution” of the industry, underscored by a strong moral and financial stewardship on behalf of restaurants and tech partners. We still see significant misalignment in expectations, processes, and approach— with many parties looking to do new things the old way. This simply is no longer the way forward for our industry. A more responsible collaborative approach is key to all of our success.