Restaurant Operators Plan to Upgrade Back-Office in 2018

After a year of heavy investment in maintaining legacy systems in 2017, restaurant operators are preparing to increase IT spending across the board. As restaurants become hyper-focused on improving digital customer engagement, the focus on the back-office will be a vital area to bolster and support operations.

Data from Hospitality Technology’s soon-to-be-released Restaurant Technology Study, reveals that 22% of IT budgets went to back-of-house software, less than what was allocated for front-of-house (33%) and corporate/enterprise software (30%).

In 2018 as restaurants prepare to increase IT investments they also plan to give back to the back-of-house, with 45% planning to increase IT software budgets there.

The top area for upgrades in software in 2018 include restaurant back-office (38%) and an additional 10% plan to add for the first time or change supplier.

Other top investment areas restaurants are looking to put dollars into in terms of software include: analytics (56%), inventory management (42%), workforce/labor management (41%).

Stay tuned for the complete 2018 Restaurant Technology Study coming soon!