News Briefs

Chris Kung has joined Zaxby's as its new Chief Digital Officer. He will lead the transformation and acceleration of the company's Loyalty and e-Commerce initiatives.  

"Zaxbys rapid expansion requires the investment of world-class leaders and resources," said Bernard Acoca, Zaxbys CEO. "Chris's expertise in e-Commerce and loyalty programs will help drive incremental growth and enhance the Zaxbys experience as digital touchpoints continue to proliferate throughout the customer journey. His arrival will help us build stronger relationships with our guests by deepening our understanding of their needs and rewarding their patronage with personalized experiences." 

Growing Loyalty

Kung brings over 20 years of innovation and strategy experience to Zaxbys and most recently served as Chief Digital Officer at Dollar General, where he led initiatives that transformed the company into a digital innovator. Kung played a central role in creating the myDG loyalty program. Under his leadership, the company's e-Commerce sales grew 40x in three years, app usage surged from 1.8 million to 7 million monthly active users, and the DG App earned the distinction of the #1 couponing app in America.

Prior to Dollar General, Kung held key leadership positions at Macy's Inc., where he drove omnichannel technology and innovation.

Zaxbys is establishing a new Loyalty & e-Commerce Team, which will report to Kung. This new team will spearhead efforts to make Loyalty and e-Commerce significant contributors to its growth. The creation of the Chief Digital Officer role will open capacity and drive focus for Mike Nettles, Chief Technology Officer, and Patrick Schwing, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, who both previously oversaw a portion of this role.  

Otelier, a provider of back office automation and business intelligence tools and a member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), today announced that three Otelier solutions – DigiAudit, TruePlan and IntelliSight – are available on Oracle Cloud Marketplace and can be deployed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and integrated with OPERA Cloud via the Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP). Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a centralized repository of enterprise applications offered by Oracle and Oracle partners.

Integrating with OPERA Cloud via OHIP allows Otelier to aggregate property-level data to empower companies with the insights and efficiencies they need to get back to delivering exceptional hospitality.

• Integrating DigiAudit, Otelier’s back office automation software, provides finance, accounting, and operations teams with night audit compliance capabilities to digitally store nightly reports, automate signature workflows, and provide secure access to auditors. 
• Integrating TruePlan, Otelier’s budgeting and forecasting software, allows hoteliers to seed budgets with historical data to simplify the annual financial planning process and provides real-time performance data to build more accurate forecasts. 
• Integrating IntelliSight, Otelier’s business intelligence software, enables hoteliers to normalize property-level data across their entire portfolio and provides leadership across all departments with the analytics they need to make more informed decisions.

Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a one-stop shop for Oracle customers seeking trusted business applications and services offering unique solutions, including ones that extend Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications. 

OCI is a deep and broad platform of cloud infrastructure services that enables customers to build and run a wide range of applications in a scalable, secure, highly available, and high-performance environment. From application development and business analytics to data management, integration, security, AI, and infrastructure services including Kubernetes and VMware, OCI delivers comprehensive security, performance, and cost savings. In addition, with multicloud, hybrid cloud, public cloud, and dedicated cloud options, OCI’s distributed cloud offers customers the benefits of cloud with greater control over data residency, locality, and authority, even across multiple clouds. As a result, customers can bring enterprise workloads to the cloud quickly and efficiently while addressing the strictest regulatory compliance requirements.

“Moving data, software, and processes to the cloud alongside industry-leading partners like Oracle will better serve our hotel customers by preparing their technology stack for the future. Centralizing data from various systems across a hotel business’s portfolio will be key to unlocking a transformational shift in more cost-efficient operations and a superior guest experience,” said Vic Chynoweth, CEO of Otelier. “Otelier's participation in Oracle Cloud Marketplace further extends our commitment to the Oracle community and enables customers to easily harvest the benefits of IntelliSight, DigiAudit, and TruePlan. We look forward to leveraging the power of the OCI to help us achieve our business goals.”

Otelier, rebranded in February 2024 after the consolidation of several best-in-class hotel technology solutions, optimizes performance for hotel owners and operators by harnessing data, easing decision making, and automating the mundane to release hoteliers back into hospitality. The product suite comprises:

• DigiAudit: A night audit compliance software that allows hoteliers to centralize and store nightly reports, automate signature workflows, and stay in audit compliance, while reducing operating expenses. 
• TruePlan: A budgeting and forecasting software that allows hoteliers to simplify and streamline budgeting processes and forecast with confidence. 
• IntelliSight: A business intelligence software that allows hoteliers to aggregate cross-functional data for powerful analysis and insights. 
• DigiPay: An accounts payable automation software that moves supplier payment workflows into a digital environment to manage, verify, authorize, and pay invoices. 
• Rec: An automated financial reconciliation software to automatically detect accounting discrepancies for bank and OTA reconciliations and income audit journaling.

 The Culinary Academy of Las Vegas and Amadeus, together with the Culinary Union are pleased to announce a first-of-its-kind partnership between the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas and Amadeus to support the continued post-pandemic recovery of the hotel industry and to connect hospitality workers with good union jobs and on-the-job training. The Culinary Academy of Las Vegas will add Amadeus’ HotSOS Housekeeping software solution to its training curriculum to provide job training to youth, adults, and displaced workers. This new partnership is the result of work by researchers from five universities who study the implementation of technology in the hospitality field and will assist in evaluating and modifying the training over the next year to improve its effectiveness.

Culinary Academy of Las Vegas students will receive hands-on training with Amadeus’ HotSOS Housekeeping solution. The HotSOS software, widely used in Las Vegas hotel properties, allows guest room attendants to log and manage housekeeping assignments, complete maintenance tasks, and respond to service orders and guest requests, ensuring a positive guest experience while tens of thousands of unionized workers, under collectively bargained contract language, maintain independent self-sequencing and a safe workload.

“Culinary Union contract language protects workers and ensures technology works for Culinary Union members, while achieving premiere customer service quality with daily room cleaning,” said Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union. “This partnership is an opportunity to provide housekeeping trainees with better understanding and skills and gives workers an opportunity to be better prepared in job training and job placement, and to support in worker retention efforts. We recognize Amadeus for its expert trainers, the academic researchers for bringing us all together, and the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas for ensuring the next generation of hospitality workers are set up for success in Nevada’s #1 industry.”

“We pride ourselves on providing students with the best tools possible to succeed in an evolving hospitality industry. Having Amadeus as a partner is a significant boost for our programming, preparing students for long-term career success through early exposure and thorough training using industry-leading software and technology,” said Ryan Brux, Curriculum and Continuing Education Program Manager at the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas.

“This partnership demonstrates our commitment to the social and economic recovery of the travel and hotel industry. We are excited to provide training for HotSOS Housekeeping as an opportunity for people to find their next role or career in hospitality. After completing the course, students will be ready to enter the job market with the skills and confidence they need to become an asset to any hotel,” said Terri Lynn Beasley, Global Head of Training and Hospitality at Amadeus.

In collaboration with UNITE HERE, researchers from Carnegie Mellon, New Mexico State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Michigan State University, spearheaded this partnership as part of a study on preparing hospitality workers and workplaces for a more technologically rich environment. The team is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Future of Work initiative.

“Too often workers, like housekeepers, are given minimal on the job training about how to use technology. We are proud to be able to contribute to this effort to provide new technology skills to the women and men who are being trained to do one of the hardest jobs in hospitality,” said Jodi Forlizzi, the Herbert A. Simon Professor in Computer Science and Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University.

Restaurant365  released findings from its midyear industry survey. Restaurant leaders representing nearly 3,700 QSR, fast casual, casual dining, and fine dining locations shared 2024's top challenges and opportunities alongside plans for investment in back-of-house technology, increased sales, and team training, benefits, and support.

Participants reported continued food and labor cost increases with slight shifts compared to the end of 2023. So far this year, 80% said labor costs increased, with 64% noting it at 1% to 5%. Those totals are down from the end of 2023.  Meanwhile, 80% of operators said food costs are up, with 51% saying 1% to 5% and 40% putting the increase at 6% to 14%. 

Looking at potential top challenges for the rest of the year, 38% identified sales as the top concern. 24% said recruiting and retaining staff, 18% said labor costs, and 16% said food costs.

While sales were a concern, 49% of restaurant leaders reported increased sales in 2024, and 34% reported a drop.

With restaurant leaders experiencing challenges, many are adjusting priorities to preserve profitability and grow revenue.

"After more than a decade of building technology to help restaurants thrive, we've seen many cycles of the industry and know how resilient restaurant leaders are adjusting to changes in market dynamics," said Restaurant365 CEO and Co-founder Tony Smith. "We're committed to investing in our product to provide the helpful tools they need to become the profitable and successful restaurant of tomorrow."

As the landscape changes, 39% of leaders said they're prioritizing investments in sales, marketing, and related technologies for the rest of 2024. 

• 83% say using data to understand guest preferences and behavior is impacting POS upgrade decisions in 2024, according to HT’s 2024 POS Software Trends Survey

Another 37% are focused on staff enhancements, including additional training, recruitment, salaries, and other benefits.

With a heightened focus on team training, operators are also looking to revamp how they skill up teams. More than 55% of respondents said employees spend one to two hours a week training. The largest percentage, 40%, rely on shoulder-to-shoulder training. Only 18% of survey respondents said they used any form of digital or mobile training. 

At the same time, restaurant leaders continue to explore ways to generate additional revenue while cutting Prime Cost. 37% said they're expanding catering operations. Another 25% said they were investing in special events and one-off promotions, and 24% said they were prioritizing takeout and delivery operations. 

Finally, restaurant leaders are doubling down on sustainability as an investment in their business and the future. More than 68% reported implementing sustainability practices. More than 39% said they focused on food waste tracking, 21% are investing in improved forecasting to optimize ordering, and 16% are enhancing training to prevent employee-level waste. 

Yum! Brands, Inc. is expanding its use of Voice AI technology across Taco Bell drive-thru locations in the U.S., targeting hundreds of stores by the end of 2024. The Company aspires to implement Voice AI technology in drive-thrus at its brands globally in the future.

The rollout of Voice AI technology in Taco Bell, currently in more than 100 Taco Bell U.S. drive-thrus across 13 states, is designed to enhance back-of-house operations for team members and elevate the order experience for consumers. Benefits include easing task load for team members, improving order accuracy, providing a consistent, friendly experience, and reducing wait times, while driving profitable growth for Taco Bell, Yum! Brands and their franchisees.

“Yum! Brands is integrating digital and technology into all aspects of our business with exciting new capabilities, and AI is a core piece of that strategy,” said Lawrence Kim, Chief Innovation Officer, Yum! Brands. “We’re expanding and accelerating our AI capabilities like Voice AI to deliver leading-edge technologies to our franchisees and to enhance the consumer and team member experience. With over two years of fine tuning and testing the drive-thru Voice AI technology, we’re confident in its effectiveness in optimizing operations and enhancing customer satisfaction.”

Yum! Brands and Taco Bell have collaborated closely, including incorporating input from Taco Bell franchisees, so that Voice AI benefits both team members and consumers. This technology takes advantage of Taco Bell’s strong drive-thru customer experience ecosystem, which is powered by digital menu boards, Yum! Brands’ propriety Poseidon POS system and the next generation of the Taco Bell Rewards loyalty program which the brand is excited to integrate later this year. The Voice AI technology uses a holistic approach that leverages feedback, data, and insights to enhance consumer relationships with an emphasis on intuitive, user-friendly technology to create a seamless ordering experience.

“Innovation is ingrained in our DNA at Taco Bell, and we view Voice AI as a means to improve the team member and consumer experiences,” said Dane Mathews, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Taco Bell. “Tapping into AI gives us the ability to ease team members’ workloads, freeing them to focus on front-of-house hospitality. It also enables us to unlock new and meaningful ways to engage with our customers.”

In addition to the expansion of Voice AI across Taco Bell U.S. drive-thrus, five KFC restaurants in Australia are simultaneously testing Voice AI technology in drive-thrus, which is also being positively received by consumers and restaurant team members.

Yum! Brands has been both acquiring and creating technologies, and in select cases working with leading partners, powered by its global scale that enable and accelerate easy experiences, operations and insights for consumers and team members while driving profitable growth for franchisees. The Company has made massive strides in scaling its proprietary digital and AI-driven ecosystem in partnership with franchisees, equipping them with distinctive capabilities to differentiate its brands.

2023 marked a significant milestone for successfully scaling Yum! Brands' suite of proprietary technologies globally. In 2023, Yum!’s digital sales approached $30 billion with over 50% of its sales coming through digital channels as of the first quarter of 2024. The Company’s digital business has more than doubled since 2019, demonstrating the power of its digital ecosystem and capabilities to meet changing consumer needs around the world.