The Menu – the latest insights on restaurant technology trends, customer successes, and best practices.
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Innovation
September 17, 2019
Restaurant POS Integration: Partners Are the Key to Growth
Tackle food delivery aggregators and other game-changers with speedy innovation
If anything is going to remind restaurant operators about technology’s impact, its third-party food delivery. The mind-boggling growth of the service, driven by mobile devices, practically has upended the industry, hammering home a critical point:
You need innovative solutions of your own that provide the power to react to – even anticipate – consumers’ ability to instantly redefine exceptional service.
Today, responding to such marketplace shifts means choosing a cloud-based restaurant point-of-sale platform that brings best-of-breed solutions together via integrations.
To help you make the best choice, we’ve just published, Freedom of Choice: Grow with Innovative POS Solutions and Integration Partners. It’s a helpful resource, citing industry research and independent articles, that highlights the importance of integration capability and a diverse “ecosystem” of solution partners. It also offers a comparison with so-called “all-in-one” POS solutions, pitched by some restaurant POS software providers, that promise simplicity but often result in curbing innovation.
Some of the key takeaways from Freedom of Choice:
- Nothing is driving the demand for integration more than the explosive growth of third-party food delivery services – a market that’s expected to reach nearly $162 million globally by 2023. The business of food delivery aggregators, such as GrubHub and DoorDash, has been fueled by mobile devices: 77% of the U.S. population own smartphones. These two factors now demand the continuous improvement of delivery order management, making integrations essential.
- A restaurant POS system must be supported by an ecosystem of diverse solution partners. It’s impossible for anyone to explore every single technological frontier; that’s why it’s imperative to create a network with partners who “eat, sleep and breathe” their respective specialties, ranging from front-of-house to back-of-house to customer-journey applications. Such partnerships enable the delivery of their innovations – and a steady stream of new opportunities – to restaurateurs.
- Integration is the antithesis of “all-in-one” solutions, which often have significant shortcomings: They restrict choice, increase costs over the long term, and hinder innovation. Especially for growing restaurants, which inevitably will face new business challenges requiring specific best-of-breed solutions, using an all-in-one solution means hurdling obstacles to take advantage of better options.
Delivering dining experiences that net rave Yelp reviews. Creating Instagram-worthy moments. Exceeding guests’ rising expectations. Learn more about the benefits of using the right restaurant POS platform by downloading your copy of Freedom of Choice here.