On-demand webinar: How to optimise your team to save labour costs Watch now

Hospitality growth: will your tech scale with you?

Aiming to grow your business? Learn how to identify which type of hospitality tech will scale with your expansion, instead of buckling under the pressure.

Are you thinking about your long-term scaling plans? 

There’s no other way to put it: it’s always a risk. Taking on new premises, hiring staff, investing in kitchen and front of house equipment and furniture. The costs are steep; that’s just the upfront price of growth. 

But you can mitigate some of the risk by first considering one element that is crucial for successful scaling: the growth potential of the tech you’re using. As your business expands and develops, so will the requirements from that tech. 

Is your tech stack equipped to empower this growth? Or is it going to cause complications further down the line? 

The importance of scalability

Whether it’s your POS, your menu management platform, or your mobile app, the technology that once seemed perfectly suited to your needs can quickly become a bottleneck, holding back your growth. 

It’s essential, therefore, to think ahead and ensure that the tech you choose can not only meet your current requirements but also grow and adapt alongside your business.

Take some time up front to think about where you want to go in 3 to 5 years. A lot of what we did in the early years, we picked partners that weren’t scalable or that quite aligned to the needs that we had even then, let alone needs as they change. But that’s something Vita Mojo were great at: building flexibility into the systems. We knew we could input into the road map and would end up with a product that we were going to be genuinely proud of and that would actually solve problems
Rosie Hill
Head of E-commerce, GAIL’s Bakery

What is scalable tech? 

The two must-haves for scalable tech – meaning tech that will scale with your business rather than buckle under additional weight – are: 

  1. Innovation
  2. Built with growth in mind 

Considering how these requirements can be met should be an essential part of your tech purchasing strategy.

Discover what scalable tech can do for you

Chat with an expert

Book a chat with one of our hospitality experts and discover more ways that the right tech can help you grow your business, confidently. 

1. Hospitality tech innovation 

The first step in selecting tech that will scale with your business is choosing a provider known for innovation and regular updates. In today’s fast-paced market, relying on a provider that sticks to the status quo is a sure-fire way to fall behind. 

The technology landscape is continually evolving, with new features and improvements that can significantly enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Your tech provider should be a partner who actively works to add value to your operations through ongoing innovation.

It’s also essential that your tech provider understands the unique needs of your business and can tailor their solutions accordingly. If you need a new feature added, for instance, they should be able to integrate it seamlessly with your existing setup without disrupting your operations. This level of customisation is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. 

2. Long term scalability

From the outset, your tech stack should be designed with scalability in mind. This means choosing systems that can handle increased transactions, more users, additional locations, and more complex business operations without faltering.  

When you add a new order channel, for example, how will this affect the time you spend managing menus overall? Will it add more complexity to this process or will you be able to update all menus – across all channels – at the same time?  

Small inefficiencies like time-consuming menu management can add up to create time sinks, which will hinder your ability to operate efficiently and continue on a growth path.

We used to work through the night to make menu updates because there was no way to update everything in a simple way during trading hours. We were using three separate, fragmented systems to do what we can do now with just one platform. Moving to one provider has completely changed the game.
Richard Gilliatt
Digital Brand Manager, Crepeaffaire

How to identify a tech partner that can handle growth

When evaluating potential tech providers, ask the following key questions:

  1.  How quickly can the tech provider launch new order channels? 
  2.  Will adding new locations or menus cause additional complexity in the back end? 
  3. How many updates has the tech provider made in the last year? 
  4. How easy is the tech to install and launch, and how quickly can new teams be trained on it

These types of questions can help you gauge whether a tech provider is truly capable of supporting your growth or if they’ll hinder your progress.

These factors are crucial for ensuring that the technology you invest in today will continue to serve your business well into the future.

Remember, the goal is to find a technology partner, not just a provider

This partner should be an integral part of your business strategy, capable of supporting and enhancing your growth at every stage. By investing the time and effort into choosing the right tech partner from the start, you can save yourself a lot of hassle and expense down the road and set your business on the path to long-term success.

 

How to choose the right tech

Download the full Hospitality Tech Buyer’s Guide now – packed with tips on how to identify restaurant tech that will actually grow your business.

You may enjoy these
other resources

7 November 2024

7 incredible benefits of using self service kiosks in your restaurant

Self serve kiosks aren’t just for McDonalds any more. Discover the financial and operational benefits of kiosks and why they might be right for your restaurant.

7 November 2024

How to get your hospitality data all in one place

Learn the benefits of centralising your hospitality data, and how easy-to-read, real-time reports will help you scale your business.

Restaurant data and analytics software
5 November 2024

5 tech lessons that hospitality can learn from retail

Innovating Hospitality: Lessons from the Retail Sector