This technology firm has developed a fully-integrated and online and mobile food-ordering solution for restaurant chains. This seamless and fully customized and branded 3rd party ordering solution processes ~ 7,000 orders per day for an estimated 500 restaurant locations owned by 100 different brands, 72% of which are POS integrated (others may use ticket printers or even facsimile). They have 1.4 million active users and 5 million unique customers have placed 10 million orders through the service. While only on monthly contracts, customers typically remain with the firm for 5 years largely due to their satisfaction with the solution whose customized development and integration includes: conversion to work with POS software and merchant processing, menu option and coupon programming, delivery service set-up and web page branding development (all of which may take up to 6 months). While the POS system had been bundled with inventory management, online ordering functionality now impacts the POS purchase decision.

This efficient organization is managed out of a small 1,000 square foot office that leases for $1,300 per month. As the business could be operated virtually it could readily be relocated.

Some providers offer non-branded or non-POS integrated tablet-based solutions. These may work for single locations but are rarely customized or seamless. Chains with more than 200 locations are likely to develop their own solution in-house, as monthly subscription fees may not be cost effective, even if passed onto franchisees. This company competes in the 5 to 200 unit restaurant space. These chains are large enough that initial development and integration procedures do not dissuade them. They value the customized branding and programming flexibility, while the set-up expense and subscription fees are not cost prohibitive.

The company can achieve explosive growth via a number of means. With their value proposition they can focus on appointing a formidable sales team and implement a marketing strategy to aggressively pursue new accounts as well as the infrastructure to support it. This may include migrating programing offshore, providing or partnering with a merchant processor (they refer this lucrative service out), or bundling their service with a POS software or inventory management system provider. With any of these multi-faceted approaches, integration complications may be minimized while the bundled solution may facilitate below market pricing – thus proving a cost saving option on several fronts!