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Vist us at www.foodabletv.com “Having more options may not be as advantageous as once thought” 2 2015 Restaurant Technology Guide NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Sociologists have concluded that having more options may not be as advantageous as once thought. We can apply this thought to restaurant technology. In an endless sea of mobile apps, POS systems, guest-facing technologies, hardware, back-office software, and the list goes on, it’s seemingly impossible for restaurant operators to stay afloat. Foodable Labs has determined a solution for navigating these gnarly waters, using expert insight and guidance to narrow down the lot. The outcome: the first annual Technology Guide for restaurant executives and decision-makers. Our hope is that this guide will be your trusted, go-to resource for technology or, at the very least, provide enough information to help you make better decisions for your business. In the first-ever Foodable Technology Guide, we lay out the selection process, scoring system, and invaluable trends that (in our opinion) some of the best ahead-of-the- curve executives and brands are planning to implement in the near future. We also hone in on the top-scoring technology companies and products, and delve deep into the effects that each of our six selected categories — from guest-facing technologies to back-office software — have had, and continue to have, on today’s industry, and where we see it going based on expert insights and data. Tying everything together is the rise and importance of Big Data. Pulling some of the juiciest bits out of a few Foodable Labs reports, this Guide will also showcase specific trends surrounding the foodservice industry, from fast-casual pizza to spirits to overall top brands in consumer sentiment. All Foodable Labs data comes from our sister company, DigitalCoCo’s proprietary Restaurant Social Media Index (RSMI), pulling unstructured data from U.S. consumers who dine out quite a bit, across 17 social media platforms. JESSICA BRYANT managing editor 2015 Restaurant Technology Guide 3 HOW WE GOT HERE The Process We enlisted a savvy group of restaurant operators and consultants to join the first-ever Foodable Technology Advisory Board. We gleaned their insight on upcoming trends to watch for, which are laid out throughout this Guide, and asked them to score roughly 60 different products — some of which they’ve personally used or heard about, and others they did extensive research on. Points were manually established on an individual level in nine THE RSMI HAS BEEN THE different components for each product: integration, design, ease of use, mobile/social, ease of deployment, emerging standards, DRIVING FORCE BEHIND price point, killer app, and overall innovation. Foodable Labs then BIG DATA ON SOCIAL pulled unstructured data from the RSMI to determine Operator MEDIA SINCE 2009 Sentiment, as well as Overall Sentiment, and averaged all 11 columns to yield a Total Score for each product considered (a total of 180 tech companies submitted, which we narrowed down, based on sentiment scores, to just over 60). The Scoring System Points were based on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being the highest possible score. To prevent negative scores stemming from not enough information, we used 5.0 as a neutral score, as to not sway the final score positively or negatively. Partial points were accepted. 4 2015 Restaurant Technology Guide THE The nine manual and two automated metrics we used to score METRICS each product are defined below. INTEGRATION DESIGN EASE OF USE MOBILE/SOCIAL Product has the ability Innovative design and Product is easy to use Product has mobile to integrate with current innovation for both operator and and/or social features systems needed to guest that are up to modern maintain a modern standards restaurant operation EASE OF EMERGING PRICE POINT INNOVATION DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS Product is affordable and Product represents Product is easy to deploy Product is updated to justifies price innovation in its for both small and large current and emerging category operators standards KILLER APP SOCIAL OPERATOR Product has one feature SENTIMENT SENTIMENT that sets it above others This is an automated This is an automated in it’s category score from the RSMI score from the RSMI 2015 Restaurant Technology Guide 5 MEET THE We’d like to extend tremendous gratitude to our 2015 Foodable ADVISORY Technology Guide Advisory Board, as this hefty project wouldn’t be possible without their active participation. Thank you all. This year’s BOARD Advisory Board includes: GEOFF PAUL BARRON WILLIAM JESSICA ANDY ALEXANDER BENDER BRYANT DUDDLESTON CEO & Executive Vice President, Producer, Foodable Founder, W.H. Bender Managing Editor, Managing Partner, The Lettuce Entertain You Network & Associates Foodable Network Little Beet Enterprises LINDA DUKE ROB JAKOBY JEREMY PETER NOLAN ERIC NORMAN MORGAN CEO, Duke Marketing VP of Technology, Chief Brand Officer, Vice President, MVP Firehouse Subs CEO, Tava Indian ROTI Modern Services Group; Gen2 Mediterranean Design ANTHONY SAM ANNA TAUZIN PIGLIACAMPO STANOVICH Sr. Marketing Manager Founder, Modmarket Director of Product of Innovation & Partner Development & Entrepreneurial Services, Industry Relations, National National Restaurant Restaurant Association Association Members of the 2015 Foodable Technology Advisory Board were selected based on their unique aspect of operations, technology, and New Age restaurant management practices. It’s people like this who aredriving — and will continue to drive — the future of the restaurant industry forward. 6 2015 Restaurant Technology Guide WHAT’S TRENDING Understanding where an industry is headed and staying ahead of the curve is a vital part of business success. There are several ways to track and forecast existing and future trends, most of which Foodable Labs does through unstructured data. But it’s also important to glean the insights of industry veterans, those who know the restaurant industry ropes and have learned how to stay swinging despite new competition, shifting technologies, and a fast-paced market. So we asked each member of the Tech Advisory Board what tech trend(s) they see on the horizon that they’re preparing for. “More than a decade ago, I coined mobile and accessible in easy-to- allows customers to order from the phrase, ‘Restaurant technology scale formats and less overhead. restaurants from their computers is yesterday’s technology For long-standing, large operations, and mobile devices, to be delivered tomorrow,’” says Rob Jakoby, VP however, it’s more difficult to to the location of their choosing,” of Technology at Firehouse Subs. update tech knowing that, clunky as says Jeremy Morgan, CEO at Tava “However, over the last couple of your POS may be, it still works. Even Indian. “Historically, there have years, we caught up to yesterday’s so, it’s important to be aware of been several restaurant chains that technology today. Therefore, we tech evolution as it revolves around have succeeded by building their shouldn’t be talking about wi-fi, the restaurant industry to keep in entire operating platform around PCI or internal networks. They’re the know and even to inspire you this model — the largest pizza important aspects, but should for how your concept might look in companies and some sandwich already be in place. We need to the not-so-distant future. QSRs pioneered delivery for the concentrate on growing the brand by using data from all available The trends provided below pay sources in which today’s tools homage to the fact that times are can be used to tell an actionable changing, especially in the fast- story that is easily understood casual arena, a space where the and converted into actionable ability to adapt is more fruitful. responses. I look forward to the day when we’re using tomorrow’s Recently, on-demand delivery has technology today.” become all the rage, and some operators are holding on tight, And there you have it: the reality seeing it as more long-standing of the state of the foodservice than just a passing trend. industry when it comes to innovation. But things are looking “The largest tech trend is the up as technology becomes more food on-demand trend, which 2015 Restaurant Technology Guide 7 Caviar, Sprig, UberEats, and Maple are all, in their own ways, raising the bar on food delivery. Now customers in many cities can order really good food at a decent price in just a couple of clicks. This significantly alters the competitive landscape for all restaurants. At Roti, we are updating our POS system to a system that excels at mobile ordering integration, exploring all third-party delivery options, and looking at expanding our own in- house delivery program.” “We believe there is a huge opportunity to leverage industry. But what is different about this trend is that it mobile tech to facilitate is enabling large-scale delivery platforms for restaurant easier takeout solutions for companies that wouldn’t traditionally deliver. Taking the logistics of managing a delivery fleet is a huge enabler. our guests” However, restaurants will need to find new, innovative ways to integrate IT into their restaurants to allow for On the other side of the delivery coin is, of course, receiving orders, accepting (and reconciling) payments, pickup. With curbside pickup being introduced to and appropriately executing delivery orders across the mainstream years ago by restaurant brands like several vendors. At Tava, we’re preparing for this by Applebee’s and Chili’s, making it more convenient to creating a single point of contact for all delivery orders, pick up to-go orders, Anthony Pigliacampo, Founder at regardless of who places it (e.g., Postmates, Eat24, etc.), Modern Market, hopes to make the service even more and developing our operating platform to accommodate convenient with GPS-enabled curbside pickup.

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