ORLANDO Fla. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
Systems that monitor spending and hardware and software that aid front-of-the-house operations were among the tools foodservice CIOs at the 14th annual International Foodservice Technology Exposition said their departments were using to help their companies cut costs and drive customer traffic. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
“The challenge is how can we help our franchisees using technology to make more money, either to help build their sales or to help reduce their costs or help them buy that next store,” Thys Van Hout, chief technology officer for Milford, Conn.-based Doctor’s Associates Inc., parent of Subway, said during the CIO panel discussion. “That’s what technology can do.” —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
Other key topics addressed by executives sitting in the IT hot seat within their respective organizations included remote ordering and pay-at-table systems, PCI compliance and data security, and mobile marketing. FS/TEC is produced and managed by Nation’s Restaurant News and Robert N. Grimes of Accuvia. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
But while participants explored a range of IT-related issues, the discussion always swung back to the state of the economy and its impact on the foodservice industry. Dan Sheehan, senior vice president and CIO of Dunkin’ Brands Inc. of Canton, Mass., the parent of the all-franchised Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins chains, said franchisee profitability is his department’s top priority. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
“Gathering information on a day-to-day transactional base, getting that data, and understanding how customers are behaving and how promotional items are performing—having that data is king right now,” Sheehan said. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
Glenn West, senior vice president information systems and electronic commerce for Papa John’s International Inc. in Louisville, Ky., said his department has reprioritized some initiatives to focus on aiding struggling franchisees. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
“We’re trying to help the franchisees survive this economic trough,” he said. “[Technology] initiatives that don’t yield immediate returns for franchisees have either been slowed down or deferred.” —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
Kathleen Chugh, vice president of information technology at Columbus, Ohio-based full-service restaurant operator Bravo Development Inc., said her company is looking at “our back-office and food and labor costs.” —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
Other operators are taking a hard look at hardware and software that address front-of-the-house operations. Dusty Williams, CIO of OSI Restaurant Partners in Tampa, Fla., said his company was focused on front-of-the-house technology that helps get customers in and out of the restaurant more rapidly. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
Van Hout said Subway mandates that franchisees purchase specific hardware and software, but noted that the sandwich chain recently completed an 11-month process of developing a new strategy as it relates to all the technologies in the store. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
“That’s the point of sale, that’s the back office and so on,” he said. “We got input from over 250 franchisees and ended up writing over 3,000 requirements. When you focus on delivering to the franchisees what they need and want to be profitable, they can’t wait for it to come out.” —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
Alan Liddle, managing editor for NRN, observed that some franchisors are narrowing down their approved vendor list from two to three or more to a single supplier. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
“I have to think that the economy [and] tighter budgets means [operators] are pushing to be a little more efficient and a little faster [in deploying technology] than [they] were,” he said. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
In addition to the economy, CIOs also discussed other key trends affecting their departments and companies, including the rise of online ordering. Robert Grimes, the panel moderator and Accuvia’s chairman and chief executive, noted that Papa John’s was one of the leaders in remote-ordering technology, and wondered how much support from the franchisee community the technology received during the rollout. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
“We try to be collaborative with our franchisees,” West said. “I heard that in the early days, it didn’t quite get as much traction as initially hoped for.… But I think we’ve been able to demonstrate [to the franchise community] with some early adopters that it has worked.” —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
Payment card security was another hot topic, as Grimes asked panelists who is responsible for data security at their companies and whether companies felt safe. —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
“If you stand back and look at it, it’s an IT problem whether we want it to be or not,” OSI’s Williams said. “We do everything we can to address it. But are we comfortable with it? No, we’re never comfortable.” —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.
Dunkin’ Brands’ Sheehan, however, noted that while the company “looks to protect our brands, at the end of the day the franchisee is responsible for being PCI compliant.” —With the economic trend line showing no signs of reversing direction any time soon, the industry’s top chief information officers say they are focusing on technology that will help their companies and franchisees weather the storm.