We’ve recently discussed the new, evolving role of POS from the center of the tech stack to a side dish; and explained the definition of a Unified Commerce Platform. Now it’s time to hail the benefits of a unified platform approach.
If you think we’re all full of fluff and marketing jargon – well you’re only partially correct. To provide proof in the pudding, we provided quotes from our customers based on each benefit below. They absolutely love the benefits of a modern, transparent system because their restaurants run more smoothly, employees love the ease of use, and store managers love the ready access to sales and labor data.
Best of all, franchisees are saving over 60 basis points, recapturing lost revenues and driving profit margins higher! To learn even about more the features and functionality of a unified commerce platform, see our white paper.
1) Flexibility & Agility : with API-first Integrations
A unified commerce platform emphasizes ease of integrations, transcending the confines of POS-shackled systems. It ensures that enterprise restaurants never need to compromise when choosing services for their tech stack. To achieve efficiency and profitability, restaurants must have the option to select any tech provider (including payments companies!) to integrate seamlessly into a platform, allowing them to craft a tech stack custom fit to their unique audience, segment, and needs.
Qu’s open API-first ecosystem encourages system evolution and allows seamless communication between all best-in-class services in a way that custom API integration simply cannot.
All-in-one solutions built from acquired products creates numerous incompatible codebases, resulting in breakages and brittle, inflexible APIs.
Vendor lock-in caused by complex custom integrations is a thing of the past. With a true unified commerce platform, enterprise restaurants can step into a modern age of unrestrained customization.
Understanding the difference between SOAP and REST APIs will set you up for success in building a fluid API ecosystem. Built on REST (Representation State Transfer) APIs, Qu sets the modern standard for unified commerce platforms with an open, bi-directional infrastructure.
2) Speed of Ordering & Fulfillment : with Micro-Services Architecture
Every additional service layer compounds the complexity of a restaurant’s tech stack, ultimately undermining processing speeds and causing an increase in ordering and delivery times. These disparate services lack a singular data foundation, leading to data silos and slow, disjointed communications and reporting.
A unified commerce platform avoids the speed limitations of traditional cloud POS systems by operating within a data-centric, micro-services framework designed to consolidate data creation into a single, streamlined layer and data repository.
- Unifying data generation, storage, and management through a singular data creation layer simplifies operational complexity, enabling you to handle peak ordering times while maintaining customer experience.
- It empowers brands with faster, data-driven decision-making capability and reduces time requirements for core function execution and running routine system upgrades, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
Built with modern code and multi-tenant servers, unified commerce platforms surpass the data processing capabilities and load capacity of outdated systems running on 10-year+ old code and single-tenant servers.
3) Innovation : AI, ML, Voice & Beyond
Think the technological advancements of the past few years are impressive? Imagine our tech capabilities in 5, 10, or 20 years from now.
The question is – will you be working with a system that encourages rapid innovation or one that’s just struggling to keep up?
Qu’s unified commerce platform ensures a competitive edge with our 3-week agile release schedule. Faster deployment of new features, improvements, and bug fixes means that restaurants can quickly evolve with dynamic customer demands and technological advances like AI, edge computing, and Voice.
For instance, edge computing, a high-performance in-store device turbocharges data processing, ensuring unparalleled speed and reliability in order taking and fulfillment. Serving as a synchronization hub, edge computing safeguards against data loss and preserves functionality during network interruptions.
Bringing enterprise restaurants into the modern age of data-driven decision-making, Qu’s Notify App provides instant access to real-time, normalized data, along with AI-powered predictive analytics and forecasting. With the voice and chat-enabled Notify App, enterprise restaurants can get a 360-degree view across locations on both desktop and mobile devices.
4) Enterprise Scalability : with Data Analytics & Security
Designed exclusively for revenue-generating enterprise restaurants and multi-brand portfolios, a unified commerce platform consolidates operations and normalizes data from disparate sources. This streamlined approach provides the unmatched insight, stability, and robust security necessary for running a growing restaurant brand within a rapidly evolving industry landscape.
Data Analytics
- Normalized data from disparate sources — data is normalized at the source instead of after the fact allowing for more accurate, real-time decision-making.
- Rapid, centralized data processing — centralized data accelerates access to insights, allowing faster, revenue-boosting decision-making.
- AI-Powered analytics and forecasting — rapid processing of large and diverse data sets enhances the speed and accuracy of forecasting.
- Custom Reporting — powerful reporting tools allow you to view, slice, and dice the data in your preferred formats.
Security
- Decentralized data processing and storage — sensitive customer, employee, and business information is stored locally, minimizing the risk of data interception and widescale security breaches.
- More resilient data encryption — local edge computing devices make it easier and cheaper to protect sensitive data more effectively.
- Faster security patches and updates — security updates are handled individually, providing more efficient control over system security.
5) Stability : All Systems on GOOOO!
For enterprise restaurants, the cost of “down time” is more severe than for your typical mom-and-pop operation. Each minute of downtime, any security breach, and every hurdle in accepting and fulfilling orders will compound across the brand(s). And, as a restaurant scales, the cost of those weaknesses will amplify, crushing profits and destroying brand reputation. Your guests will simply not wait around for you systems to restore!
Qu has worked hard to built a highly redundant and fail-safe system that keeps your restaurant cooking, even when network connections fail.
- 3 layers of protective redundancy — 1) Peer to Public Cloud 2) Peer to In-store Cloud 3) Peer to Peer — these layers ensure that our in-store and above-store commerce cloud provides high availability and reduces public cloud dependency.
- Cloud-first, cloud-native approach — designed from the cloud down, instead of the POS up, delivers superior load balancing capability, resulting in consistent performance and minimized downtime.
- Best of both worlds — One of the first and only restaurant tech companies to take advantage of Amazon’s ECS anywhere services, our edge node avoids connectivity issues and acts as a “middleman” between the Store and our Cloud Services.
Chief Marketing Officer
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