Executive Insight: Critical Considerations for Efficient Tech Deployment
What are the most important considerations for restaurant IT leaders when installing and implementing new technology hardware?
Upfront planning is critical to IT deployments to ensure everything is completed on schedule and on budget. Not all stores have the same layout, and older stores often have older infrastructure. Restaurant leaders need to assess that as newer technologies can require beefed-up electrical and data infrastructure to harness their increased processing power. In many cases, it’s not as simple as the advertised “plug and play” might make it seem. Once the deployment team is onsite, it is important they have access to all rooms and closets, so work stoppages are not caused by something as simple as a locked room. Revisits can be very costly to go-live dates and total project costs.
As restaurants adopt and refine drive-thru, pickup, and delivery, what new installation and implementation challenges do they face?
Parking lot and restaurant layouts were often not intended to handle multiple drive-thru lanes, curbside pickup and general foot traffic. A new holistic design can be necessary to maximize returns and improve the customer experience. But while new technologies are shiny and cool the costs associated with them need to be understood. For example, is saw cutting a lane or parking lot involved? Will the installation impact existing landscaping and the site’s overall esthetic? Furthermore, even a simple sign or menu board move can create permitting nightmares in some parts of the country. The cost and timing of permit approvals is often overlooked when putting projects together.
What are some challenges in multi-site installations that restaurant operators need to foresee?
Navigating supply chain logistics is a huge challenge for operators right now from fabrication to imaging and staging to deployment. There are so many unknowns with shipping that precision planning is dangerous, and operators need to build in buffers when possible. During the install operators need to decide whether to stay open as dust and debris and extra bodies in the store can lower productivity. Also, the more flexible operators are with the schedule the increased likelihood there is of getting the same technicians to handle multiple sites. That way replication and best practices can be leveraged. This is a huge and often overlooked benefit.
As restaurant hardware such as POS, kiosks, and menu boards become more integrated with one another, does the scope of an installation project become more complex?
The scope of the project doesn’t necessarily become more complex, but the integration may limit the hardware types that can be selected. That can add hidden costs associated with the purchase of other software or hardware that allows everything to communicate effectively. Also, with numerous hardware and software vendors involved, it is important to have a single point of contact who is controlling the logistics of imaging, staging, deploying and installing. Furthermore, there often times needs to be more discernment around technician identification as an array of skills are likely needed.