Diving into the Restaurant Tech Stack: A 9-step audit 

The restaurant tech stack seems to be the hot topic on everyone in hospitality’s lips at the moment. As the number of hospitality tech suppliers increases and the number of verticals explodes, businesses are now asking themselves what they need and what they don’t. 

The truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all tech stack. Every business is different and so their tech needs are different. What works for one may not work for another. But, how are operators supposed to know what they need?

At Tenzo, we believe each restaurant needs to find the best stack for their specific situation. So we’re here to help with that process. Here’s how we’d go about making tech decisions and auditing a restaurant tech stack. 

1. Assess your current tech stack

Document your existing systems

The first thing to do is make a list of your current tech from operations to marketing and finance, and bring everything together to map how the data flows across systems. Make sure to note what systems have two-way integrations (like reservations to your POS and back again) and where flows go only in one direction (like sales into your labour platform). 

Once you have everything you use mapped out, look for bottlenecks. Are there any obvious missing integrations? Think about mapping your manual processes to the systems as well, like if you need to manually enter your bookings into your CRM. Are teams spending hours compiling the data from each of your systems into stacks of manual reports? See where potential efficiency could be unlocked. 

The next step is then to look into your contracts. How much are you spending on each piece of tech and how long is the contract? Even if you don’t change anything, understanding exactly where cash is going each month and when contracts expire can help you renegotiate your contracts when they’re up for renewal. 

Evaluate pain points   

The next question to ask yourself is whether you’re happy with the systems listed. Are your teams happy with them? Dig into functionality and whether anything is missing or simply annoying for your team. 

Beyond functionality, do the systems integrate as expected or are there data accessibility challenges? Are you finding that speed is an issue? E.g. data isn’t flowing more than once per day between systems and it’s hampering your operational process. 

Are you having to do manual processes to tweak numbers, make decisions or set goals? Check with your team too, there are likely to be a few spreadsheets your managers are building to see how they’re performing. Any repetitive tasks that get forgotten or pushed down the priority list should be the first to try and resolve with tech. 

Finally, what is each platform’s support like? Do you find it easy to communicate any issues and are they addressed in a timely manner? If you had a problem with one of your platforms tomorrow, how much of an issue would it cause? Good support is essential regardless of how good the tech is because things inevitably go wrong. 

Bonus Content: All-in-one vs best-of-breed tech stack

The tech stack approach can start to get overwhelming when you look at each element individually, so it can be tempting to look for a platform that does it all. Tommy Giraux, Head of Systems at Honest Burger has had experience looking at both. Here’s an extract of his thoughts on the matter. Make sure to go follow him on Linkedin for more insights into the world of hospitality tech from a seasoned operator’s perspective!

“All-in-one platforms are appealing for their simplicity. They often provide a unified system that integrates various operational aspects such as POS, inventory management, and staff scheduling. Less training is usually required, and everything works together smoothly out of the box. However, the trade-off is often a lack of depth in specific areas. These platforms may do many things adequately, but may not excel in any one function.

On the other hand, building a tech stack with specialised tools offers flexibility and the ability to choose the best tool for each function. This approach can be customised to suit your specific needs, but the downside is complexity. Ensuring all your systems communicate effectively and that data flows seamlessly across platforms is critical. Poor data integration can lead to operational bottlenecks, negating the benefits of adopting new technology.

At Honest Burgers, we’ve developed a tech stack that integrates several systems, each selected for their ability to meet our specific needs. However, even with this tailored approach, the importance of seamless data flow cannot be overstated. From menus and POS systems to customer information and stock levels, smooth data integration ensures that operations run efficiently without disruption.” 

2. Define your strategic goals against your tech stack

You definitely have business objectives outside of this project, however, it can be helpful to map these to the tech you use or intend to use. 

Your choice of technology needs to be connected to your business objectives!

Take the time to think about the decisions you make every day and what you lose sleep over. Who is making the decisions in your sites? How are you planning to improve your profitability or grow your business over the next 12 months? What decisions make or break your month?

You’ll want to think about the following: 

1. Growth targets

Where do you see the businesses going over the next 1 to 3 years? Having a clear idea of where you want to get to can help with choosing tech that will scale with you. 

2. Thinking ahead: Forecasts, Goals & Budgets

How will you achieve your growth targets? Do you have the tech to see performance against these goals on a regular basis?

3. Operational efficiency metrics

What metrics do you want to focus on to reach your goals? How will you track these?

4. Daily, Weekly & Monthly decision-making

How do you disseminate your plans to the rest of the team so they can buy in and use them for everyday decision-making?  

5. Customer experience goals

Not forgetting about the customer, how will you gauge their experience? How will you keep it front and centre?

3. Tech requirements 

Parallel to your strategic goals, think about what your tech stack must-haves are. Having a list of non-negotiables will help narrow down your options. 

For example, if you have multiple sites that share or borrow staff from one another, you’ll need a rota tool that can handle employees with multiple possible locations. Or if you want your reservations to be accessible from Google, you’ll need to make sure your reservations tool supports that.  

Then, ask specifically about the information that is available in one platform when it’s integrated with another. Will you get the right information you need to make decisions? Timing is also important, make sure data is updated across systems often enough for your use case.

Alongside integrations, think about scalability – will systems support you as you grow, are they willing to clue you into their roadmap so you can decide whether a long-term partnership is going to work? 

Bonus Section: Picking the tools that fit your needs today & plan for changes you’ll make tomorrow

William Connors, Head of IT at Wingstop knows a thing or two about building out scalable tech stacks. Check out how he thinks about connecting the tech stack to set businesses up for success.

4. Map your tech stack  

Once you’ve listed all your strategic goals and your tech must-haves, you can start looking at the stack itself. This list is by no means exhaustive, and you’ll likely find you don’t need every item listed here. We give some example tech stacks depending on vertical below.

Just remember that your tech stack should be working for you, so there’s no need to add to it just because something looks cool – take everything back to your overall strategic goals and see if the tech will get you closer to them. 

Core operations – must-haves

1. Point of Sale system 

Likely the first system you put into your restaurant. Nowadays, most POS systems do far more than just track sales, but the bells and whistles come at a cost. Many POS systems now insist on you using their payments – a good place to start is to assess how your rates compare. If you were to change POS, would you be able to get better rates elsewhere and potentially have a tech transition pay for itself? 

What would you like to have included in your POS? Do you need kiosks, integrations with bookings platforms, KDS, electronic menu boards, integrations with all the delivery aggregators, etc… Make sure you have a list of needs ready when speaking to POS providers to help you narrow down your options. 

2. Labour Management

You don’t have to use a labour management system, but paper rotas or Excel spreadsheets are a nightmare to deal with as you scale to over 20 employees. You ideally want a platform that either takes care of the entire employee lifecycle, from hiring to onboarding to scheduling to offboarding, or a platform that integrates into your existing payroll, employee engagement tool, or employee communication tool.  

3. Inventory management

As businesses scale, having an inventory management system can help reduce wastage and give you a clearer picture of COGS. Consider whether you need a system that will help you keep track of purchases and usage. 

4. Accounting software 

Accounting platforms will help you keep track of your P&L, but can’t be relied on for operational reporting. However, having a robust integration with your POS will help you keep track of your revenue versus your expenses. Think about whether you want other pieces of software integrating here. 

Customer-facing tech 

The tech your customers interact with goes a long way in influencing whether they’ll be back or not. Every brand is unique and what works at one may not work at another so really think about how every piece of customer-facing tech will impact the overall hospitality experience. 

• Online Ordering Platforms 

This could include click & collect, order-at-table or simply pay-at-table: a good way to expedite and turn tables as quickly as possible. 

• Loyalty Programs

Consider whether you want to have something that integrates into digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay or whether a stand-alone app would be more appropriate.  

• Feedback

Are you happy with marketplace review platforms to garner feedback or do you want more specific insights like surveys given at the end of a meal? Can you monitor all of the reviews platforms yourself or do you need a tool that brings them all into one place or even uses AI to help you reply to them? 

• Wifi

Is your business in a vertical where customers expect free wifi (coffee shops for example)? Or are you asking customers to order from their phones? If so, wifi is a must. But, it’s also a great way to add customers to your network and send them targeted offers that get them coming back time and time again. 

• Email

Tied to loyalty and wifi, do you need a separate email platform like Mailchimp or do you tie it all together with an all-in-one customer management system which takes care of all things customer-facing?

• Reservation Systems

Table service restaurants really benefit from having an easy, online way for customers to make a booking. Decide whether you want to be listed on a reservation marketplace or want to be bookable directly from a search engine. How important is integrating the bookings into your POS system?

• Delivery management

If you’re listed on multiple delivery marketplaces, having a delivery management system will simplify your life. Whether it’s making sure menus are consistent or removing items that have run out from all platforms in one go, it saves you from having 50 iPads that aren’t connected to your POS. 

Back-office 

• Business Intelligence & Analytics

The glue that brings all your data together. If you want to garner insights from the piles of data that your systems are generating, this will be key. Think about whether you want to build your own reporting suite or use a hospitality-specific performance platform. 

• Kitchen Display Systems (KDS)

Traditionally a QSR must-have, more and more businesses are using KDS in their restaurants, from coffee shops to fine dining establishments. These usually connect to kiosks or handheld devices that front-of-house staff use to take orders. Integrating these devices into your POS and into KDS means order-taking is completely automated. 

• HR System

There’s more to staff than simply scheduling rotas. Think about what you want included, whether you need an integrated Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or onboarding platform, or if you need a separate payroll provider.

• CRM

Keeping track of customers can be a great way to reward your regulars and turn new customers into repeat ones. Again, this could be a broad platform that includes the capabilities to send email and loyalty programmes or a separate platform that integrates with others.

• Employee engagement and comms

Employee comms has come a long way over the last couple of years. While WhatsApp still reigns as King, there are more platforms that give you more control over who is receiving the comms and also give you a better overall view of what’s happening in the business. 

Bonus content: Example tech stacks

You absolutely do not need all of the above (turns out you don’t need anything at all if you’re The Yellow Bittern), but here are some example tech stacks we’ve seen for different types of businesses. 

5. Evaluate integration capabilities of your tech (don’t skip this section!)

We cannot stress this enough – make sure to do a deep dive into how your chosen tech speaks to each other. There is absolutely nothing worse than being locked into a contract and realising that you actually want your sales data in your labour platform, but there’s no integration. 

Data Flow Requirements

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as asking whether two systems are integrated. You’ll need to go deeper to find out if it works the way you imagine it will. 

First, understand how often the data between two platforms is updated. Is it real-time (what you need if you’re planning to use the information for day-to-day decision-making)? Or is it once daily (fine if you’re just looking at reconciling the data)? 

Next, will the data you see on one platform be reflected in the other? APIs are fickle beasts (we’ve written a whole piece about what to watch out for), so what you see in one platform might not be what’s sent to the other. 

If you’re planning on connecting things yourself in a data lake or data warehouse (here’s a whole piece on building your own reporting suite), then will you get the information in the right format, will you be able to transform the data into the format you need it to be in?

Finally, costs of integrating. Will you be charged extra for connecting to other platforms? There’s sometimes a set-up fee and then a monthly charge for using an API, so it’s important to ask the question before you’ve signed and you’re hit with a bill. 

Not everything needs to be integrated, but refer to your earlier tech requirements to make sure everything you need to be speaking the same language is indeed doing that. 

Common integration needs

Download our integrations flow template here.

6. Consider total cost of tech stack ownership

The unfortunate truth is that every system comes at a cost. But, any system you implement should help you either save or make more money. Nowadays, most providers charge a subscription cost, but keep in mind that there may be set-up fees or other costs not included in the monthly cost. 

There may also be some indirect costs to consider like time and cost of training or any operational disruption.

Direct costs to consider:

• Software licensing
• Hardware requirements
• Implementation fees
• Integration fees
• Payments/Transaction fees
• Maintenance fees

Potential indirect costs: 

• Integration development
• Staff training time
• Consultant services
• Dedicated employee/team salary
• Operational disruption
• Data migration or loss
• Ongoing support

7. Plan for implementing your tech stack

Don’t underestimate the implementation process. Take a staged approach rather than doing everything all at once and make sure you understand how long it will take to get systems up and running. 

Go back to your strategic goals, how are you connecting the rollout to your business objectives, and who will be the people owning the process on each step inside your business?

Identify them, give them space to do it and reward them on achieving the milestones you’ve laid out.

Schedule for success

There will be an optimal order for adding or replacing tech. While suppliers will obviously want to seal the deal, make sure you know what you want to get right first and then communicate this to your suppliers. They’ll be able to work with you if you set out your intentions in advance. 

Top tip: Let your suppliers know when you want to be live and onboarded. Suppliers know how long the set-up process will take and can tell you whether it will be feasible or not. 

Don’t underestimate training time

As a tech buyer, getting onboarded onto a platform can seem simple, but remember you’ve been through the whole buying process likely seeing multiple demos and understanding how the product at hand will help your business. 

When it comes to onboarding teams, they’re seeing the same product for the very first time so training time is key. Plus, you’ll need to either train someone internally on the product who can then train the rest of the team or gather everyone together to be trained. Both options require a time commitment. 

Data retention 

If you’re planning on switching tech, make sure you think about how you can keep your historical data. Whether that’s through a reporting platform or data warehousing, being able to compare not just top-line numbers (eg daily sales or labour costs) but go deeper (eg number of transactions, sales per labour hour, purchases by vendor) is key for future benchmarking. 

Make sure you have some wiggle room in your contracts to retain all your data or you have a plan of action in place before switching from one piece of tech to another. 

8. Measure tech stack success

Quantitative success

Once implemented go back to your original strategic goals again, are you executing specific steps to reach them?

Connect the implemented changes and new features to those same business goals, compare the numbers before and after and make sure you track the engagement of your team with the new tools across your business.

Are you seeing the savings or ROI promised? If your goal was to reduce labour costs, for example, have you seen data to prove that this is going in the right direction? 

Qualitative success

Make sure to gauge sentiment around new tech implementation. With every change to a business will come resistance, but over time that should diminish. However, remember that tech is there to support your people, not replace them or make their lives harder. So, be sure to evaluate the feedback on new tech carefully – if it’s not working, it’s worth pulling the plug. 

Sending surveys to your staff regularly will help you understand their feelings on new tech as will speaking to them regularly through the project lifecycle. 

Don’t forget about your guests either. Gather their feedback whether that’s through monitoring reviews or actual customer surveys to understand how if tech is having a positive or negative impact on the guest experience. 

9. Making the tech stack decision

So you’ve looked at all your tech, thought about what could be added, where integrations need to be, what the cost would be, and how you would go about implementing it. It’s time to make the decisions on your stack. 

Make sure you have the answers to these key questions:

1. Does the solution integrate with your existing critical systems?
2. Remember your goal how will the shiny new tech help you reach it?
3. Make your decision on what’s available today, if it’s in the roadmap assume they won’t have it!
4. Double-check the total cost of ownership. How do indirect and direct costs add up over 3-5 years?
5. Scope implementation, potential to backtrack, and operations during implementation
6. Check the vendor’s track record and support infrastructure! (Check Reddit, Trustpilot, trusted colleagues, consultants, podcasts and other non-company-owned spaces before putting ink to paper)
7. Consider the option of: Not changing your stack, or keeping some pieces in place! Before you sign anything you may find that after your analysis and conversations that your existing tools do the job!
8. Pick the best option for today, then make sure you’re future-proofed.

Then get started!