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Build vs. Buy

Choosing the Right Solution for Your Restaurant Tech Stack

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The Build vs. Buy Debate in Restaurant Tech

Introduction:

Choosing the right restaurant technology is a hugely important decision. 76% of operators believe the right technology gives them a competitive edge. Consumers also value innovative technology, with 80% stating they would order delivery using a smartphone app. 

However, restaurant IT leaders and operations managers face a dilemma when implementing new technology: Should they build a custom tech stack or buy an off-the-shelf solution? 

A custom tech stack allows you to tailor the software to your needs. And owning your tech also means owning your customer data, a huge benefit, especially for larger companies looking to leverage data and gain operational insights. It also allows you to plan for scalability and add more locations and functions as your company grows.

Many businesses hesitate to develop custom software due to the time and resource demands it entails. Off-the-shelf solutions are more affordable, quicker to implement, and offer rapid scalability.

Choosing a provider dedicated to ongoing development is crucial if you anticipate the need for new tools and features. It's essential to understand your needs in the build vs. buy debate. At Deliverect, we help restaurant companies discover the right tech solutions that grow with them. Our experience in restaurant technology equips you with the knowledge to align your tech strategy with your business goals, keeping your restaurant competitive.

Understanding Your Restaurant’s Tech Needs

Before considering each option, thoroughly assess your restaurant's technology needs. You'll gain a better understanding of what is required by speaking with people within the business who use your restaurant technology daily. To conduct a full tech stack assessment, consider higher-level business goals.

To determine whether you need a fully customized solution or a scalable off-the-shelf product, consider your priorities: 

  • Is speed of implementation the most crucial factor, or are you focused on the cost?

  • Does it matter how well the software can integrate with other systems?

  • Are you looking for a stable solution or long-term flexibility?

By comparing different restaurant software solutions and understanding which option best meets your needs, you can make an informed choice that will support your restaurant's growth and boost operational efficiency.

The Case for Buying a Tech Solution

A ready-made tech solution offers speed and convenience but comes with limitations. Let’s explore the benefits and challenges of buying off-the-shelf restaurant software.

Benefits

Off-the-shelf restaurant software allows for quick adoption. Existing solutions are tried, tested, and ready to use, enabling you to integrate them into your operations without the lengthy development process.

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  • Faster Implementation: Off-the-shelf restaurant software enables quick adoption. Existing solutions are ready to use, integrating easily without lengthy development.

  • Lower Upfront Costs: Restaurant SaaS providers offer subscription pricing, reducing capital expenditure (CapEx) and making technology more affordable. With monthly fees, costs are predictable, enabling better resource allocation.

  • Integrated Systems: Restaurant SaaS solutions offer connectivity to POS systems, delivery platforms, and analytics tools via APIs. This enables data exchange, ensuring efficient operations and data flow.

  • Regular Updates & Better Security: Top restaurant tech providers deliver system improvements and adhere to high security standards. This keeps your software updated and secure without overloading in-house IT.

The Case for Building a Custom Tech Stack

A custom tech stack offers more flexibility, customization, and control, but that comes at a price. Let’s examine the benefits and challenges of building a custom tech stack.

Benefits

A custom tech stack offers more flexibility, customization, and control, but that comes at a price. Let’s examine the benefits and challenges of building a custom tech stack.

  • Full Customization: Building your tech stack lets you customize a solution from scratch. Custom restaurant software ensures your stack maximizes efficiency in all operational processes.

  • Proprietary Advantage: Unique restaurant IT solutions can differentiate you from competitors, enhancing your brand and improving customer experience.

  • Control Over Development & Data: Owning your tech infrastructure gives you full control over its development and generated data, crucial for customer insights and data security.

  • Scalability Potential: A custom solution can be designed to accommodate your specific growth plans, enabling you to easily add locations and implement new functions and features as your business expands.

Key Factors to Consider in Your Decision

Cost-Effectiveness & ROI

Understanding the total cost of ownership (TCO) of each solution involves considering both upfront and long-term costs. While a custom-built solution will likely require higher initial investment and some in-house resources to maintain, an off-the-shelf solution typically requires a longer-term commitment that may increase as your needs evolve.

However, cost is only one side of the equation. The purpose of technology is to offer value to the business, so each option's return on investment (ROI) must be included in the cost comparison. To calculate your restaurant tech ROI, estimate the productivity gains, operational savings, and potential revenue increase that each system will generate.

Integrations & API Flexibility

A system with open APIs provides the flexibility to build customized workflows like this in the future. When building your system, you can create the required APIs. When purchasing a system, ensure it can create custom APIs.

APIs are crucial to the core offering of speed and convenience for global pizza chain . The chain’s Global Vice President of Digital and Business Intelligence reveals that they require all orders to flow straight into their POS systems. However, because they operate in numerous markets worldwide, they need to integrate their POS systems with multiple delivery partners in each city. 

Scalability & Future-Proofing

Consider which solution is best equipped to support your growth plans. A scalable restaurant tech solution should easily accommodate multiple locations and allow straightforward upgrades and feature expansions. This future-proofing ensures that your solution delivers ROI as your business evolves, making it essential for multi-location restaurant software.

Maintenance & System Updates

Keeping your restaurant tech up to date is essential for security and efficient operations. Consider who will handle your restaurant's IT maintenance and software updates. 

When deciding whether to build or buy restaurant software, evaluate whether the solution offers automated updates or requires manual intervention. You don’t want to stop trading because of a software problem. Choosing the right option ensures maximum uptime with minimal input to minimize disruptions.

“Number one reason to work with Deliverect was strong, reliable APIs"

“That meant that they had a great mechanism for order injection. They had to have a great mechanism for menu and price distribution to ensure that the right menu with the right items and prices was going to all of our stores nationwide. We also had to ensure they had the right security around their APIs and the global reach to cover all Little Caesars stores worldwide. Deliverect met all of those criteria.”


— Keith Faigin, Global Vice President of Digital and Business Intelligence, Little Caesars

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Final Decision: What’s Right for Your Business?

Now that we’ve discussed the dilemma of build vs. buy, examined the benefits and challenges of each option, and assessed the key decision factors for each solution, it’s time to decide: Is it better to build your restaurant tech stack or buy off-the-shelf?

The right restaurant tech strategy for you depends on your business's size, goals, and future growth potential. To help you make an informed choice, we’ve created an evaluation checklist and a decision framework. These tools provide an at-a-glance overview of the key decision factors, tailored to the size and goals of your company.

Build vs Buy Evaluation Checklist

  1. Identify Your Needs:

What specific problems are you trying to solve with technology?

Do you need a solution that offers complete customization or is ready to deploy?

  1. Assess Costs:
    Compare the initial and long-term costs of building vs. buying.
    Consider the total cost of ownership and potential ROI.

  2. Evaluate Integration Capabilities:
    Does the solution integrate seamlessly with your existing POS, delivery, and marketing systems?
    Are there robust API capabilities for future customization?

  3. Consider Scalability:
    Can the solution support your growth plans, including multiple locations and new features?
    Is it future-proof, allowing for easy upgrades?

  4. Review Maintenance & Support:
    Who will be responsible for ongoing maintenance and updates?
    Is there reliable support available from the provider?

  5. Analyse Vendor Reliability:
    What is the provider's track record for innovation and customer support?
    Are there any risks of vendor lock-in?

Using this checklist, you can develop the best restaurant technology strategy that aligns with your business size and goals, ensuring a well-informed decision about restaurant technology.

Decision Framework Based on Business Size & Goals

How Deliverect Can Help

After considering the type of restaurant business you run and its technology needs, you should be clear about your budget, the level of customization required, your scalability, and integration needs.

has developed a suite of solutions tailored to multi-location restaurants with diverse objectives. The platform offers over 1,000 integrations with global point-of-sale (POS) providers, delivery partners, operations software providers, and third-party applications. Deliverect is also committed to building new APIs as needed, ensuring you have fully integrated restaurant tech.

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The platform delivers extraordinary results for restaurant businesses:

  • Deliverect prides itself on its reliability, providing a 99.95% order injection rate thanks to its dependable APIs.

  • Restaurants have achieved an order error reduction rate of over 80% when using Deliverect. 

  • has achieved a 25% increase in revenue through dynamic pricing. 

  • Deliverect has been shown to reduce employee costs by 25% by eliminating the need for multiple tablets to process delivery orders.

  • achieved a 15% increase in conversion rate with Deliverect Retail.

  • achieved a 99% uptime rate with Deliverect’s Pulse Sentinel system, which reactivates closed restaurants 4,000 times monthly.

Deliverect is built to scale for rapid growth. It has helped multiple restaurant businesses expand their locations as they grow, from medium-sized restaurants to enterprise chains that quickly added dozens of new locations across various regions. 

Deliverect has a global presence that helps grow sales and streamline restaurant operations at over 50,000 locations across 52 countries. 

Here are just some of the on and off-premise solutions Deliverect offers: 

Trustworthy POS Injection

Get orders directly to your POS Every time

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A 99.95% order injection rate

Based on our reliable APIs, we take pride in consistently providing a dependable solution.

Always up-to-date integrations

We collaborate closely with key industry players to deliver efficient and robust API integrations.

Delivery Manager App (DMA)

Features to help you thrive

Order management

We aggregate all your online orders and synchronize them with your existing POS, improving your restaurant’s operational flow in the process.

Manage your orders
Menu Management

We give you the tools to keep better track of your restaurant's stock and the ability to update all your online menus with just one click!

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Analytics

Know your business like never before, thanks to our insightful analytics and reports. Gain insights and act on them.

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Conclusion: Making the Right Investment in Restaurant Technology

Every financial and operational decision requires careful consideration in the notoriously low-margin restaurant industry. With rapid digital transformation underway, your investment in restaurant technology has far-reaching consequences. Making the right choice is essential to staying competitive.

Building a custom tech stack is too expensive and time-consuming for most restaurants. Off-the-shelf software solutions enable you to add functionality through integrations while still maintaining control over operational and customer data.

A scalable, tried-and-tested restaurant tech system with advanced APIs and IT support is the most cost-effective option with the lowest risk.

If you’re unsure exactly what kind of technology stack your restaurant needs, Deliverect is here to help with a restaurant software consulting solution. Our experts are happy to review your situation and recommend the best solution to help your restaurant reach its full potential.

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