While technology has opened the door to new revenue streams and other capabilities for restaurants, it has also created vulnerabilities that can play out in public. In March, McDonald’s experienced a system failure that left customers in pockets of the world including Australia, Japan and the U.K. unable to order food. Panera went through something similar, with its digital ordering channels down over multiple days in March. These risks require restaurants to have comprehensive, tested crisis management plans outlining the steps that all levels of the organization must take before an emergency (to best prepare for one) and in the aftermath of one (to get the business back on its feet with minimal disruption). This can help ensure that the business is ready with an alternative action plan, knows what information to share with various stakeholders at key points, and has support in place who can guide the business back on track as quickly as possible. Looking at your business, have you considered how you would respond to various tech-related crises, whether that may be a widespread outage or a cyber attack? What support might you line up to help you? The technology you have adopted may be new enough that you haven’t had to manage its failure yet, but having a carefully considered plan in place before you actually need it can help you navigate more smoothly through an emergency if and when one happens.

Advancements in restaurant technology in recent years have shown the potential to provide significant value, transforming how restaurants work and manage resources. But at the same time, the areas where restaurant operators can invest in tech have become so diverse – ranging from mobile POS systems to robotics to generative AI – that it can be difficult to know where to focus tech spending and how to allocate funds, particularly as expenses increase in other parts of restaurant businesses. Bank of America Global Research found that IT budgets have doubled since the pandemic, now accounting for 7-10 percent of revenue. They expect spending to continue at that level going forward. As a result of tech spending to date, many restaurants are awash in data about their businesses. What’s less clear is whether they are in the strongest possible position to benefit from the layers of insights that data can provide. Cristin O’Hara, Restaurant Group head for Bank of America Commercial Banking, said recently that it would be prudent for restaurants to prepare for the next phase of using technology to improve performance by investing in specialists who can analyze the data that various technologies generate, then make recommendations on the best ways restaurants can profit from those insights. “Those that don’t spend the time and money on that now, I think, are going to be behind the curve,” she said.