Why do most tech implementations fail at restaurants?

The real reasons why most tech implementations in restaurants fail

1) Unclear goals. What challenges, opportunities, or risks do we want to address?

Not tackling the correct issues and being swayed by a shiny promise don’t solve the core issues of the business.

Solutions:

1. Identify risks, opportunities, and challenges to the business by taking feedback from all team members. I wrote about the Japanese Kaizen method a while back.
2. Determine a budget based on company finances and the risks and opportunities identified in #1.
3. Hire a CTO consultant to help you design a tech stack and create a comprehensive and cohesive plan.
4. Create an ROI (Return on Investment Calculation) before signing up for any implementation.

2) Losing momentum and not finishing the implementation:

Implementations are very hard, and in a restaurant, few people have dedicated time or training to focus on the implementation and bring it to fruition. If you don’t implement a solution 100% correct way, it hampers the Ops rather than helping it.  

Implementations can’t be side projects done in spare time and always take significantly more time and resources than initially advertised.

Solutions:

1. Communicate with the team that the implementation project is crucial for the business’s success and ask for cooperation and collaboration.
2. Set clear goals/timelines.
3. Assign dedicated and capable internal and/or external resources responsible for the implementation.
4. Provide project updates to the team members and turn the project into a win for all team members.

Finally, remember that tech implementations in restaurants can’t cover every aspect of a restaurant, as many processes are manual. A Controller or CFO should design manual processes and controls that would complement and shine the new tech structure.