Contactless Transactions Are Here To Stay
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting In the spring of 2020, pivoting to contactless transactions was essential for restaurants — as dining rooms closed and the public became educated about the transmission of the coronavirus, touchless solutions were a lifeline for struggling businesses. “The industry did an amazing job of adaptation in 2020 […]
10 Most-Read Restaurant Tech Stories Of 2020
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting As 2020 winds down, HT takes a look at the most-read restaurant stories on hospitalitytech.com during one of the most challenging years in recent memory for hospitality businesses. COVID-19 dominated the headlines. Restaurant operators are rolling out solutions at warp speed; the most read stories included case studies on […]
What The Economic Relief Package Will (And Won’t) Do For Hotels
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting The hotel industry is greeting the $900 billion COVID economic relief package passed by both houses of Congress with guarded optimism. The measure is the result of bipartisan compromise and cooperation among Congressional leadership and the administration, plus input from the incoming Biden administration. It was carried […]
Predictive Analytics: What We Can Do Today To Prepare For Tomorrow
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting “If you don’t understand who your guest is and what their behavior is, you’re going to lose,” says Joe Tenczar, CIO at Sonny’s BBQ and co-founder of Restaurant CIOs. Sonny’s, a regional chain with more than 100 locations across the Southeast, has weathered the challenges posed by […]
Restaurant Business Model Changes In A Post COVID-19 World
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting Business Model Changes We know that business-as-usual will be anything but as the industry begins its recovery from COVID-19 and begins its re-negotiation of expectations with the restaurant customer. They will be a much more wary and demanding customer, not necessarily as it relates to the price […]
Rethinking The Kitchen & Optimizing Investments
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting Smarter kitchen systems that leverage data, artificial intelligence and IoT can be a salve for the top challenges that restaurants face, while also achieving on top strategic goals for tech investments. Data from Hospitality Technology’s 2019 Restaurant Technology Study indicates that 38% of restaurants were looking to […]
What’s The Big Data?: The Food + Labor = Profitability Equation
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting Back-office technology is poised for growth, according to Hospitality Technology’s 2019 Restaurant Technology Study. The 2019 research, which queried restaurant IT leaders representing 22,075 units across QSR/fast casual (85%) and full-service (15%), reveals that in 2018, restaurants earmarked the back-office to receive 30% of overall IT budgets. This was […]
IoT: With New Rewards Comes New Risks
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting Over the past five years, the marketplace has seen an explosion in the number of IoT (Internet of Things) devices being used not only personally but also professionally. From health monitors, smart coffee machines, to cars, the growth in the usage of these devices has gone from […]
Lessons Restaurants Can Learn From The Hotel Industry
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting I expect that this may be one of the more controversial articles I have put together, partially because it will question some conventional mindsets in the restaurant industry as well as raise some alarm to some of the “emerging norms.” With that being said, let’s get started!The hospitality […]
The Dark Art Of Payment Processing
Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting With the growth and proliferation of bundled POS/Payment solution providers, it somehow seemed appropriate to address what many recognize is indeed a confusing world; that of credit card payment processing. Is bundling your POS and credit card processing with one vendor a good thing? Are there benefits […]