FSTEC panel: What's next in restaurant technologyFSTEC panel: What's next in restaurant technology

Lisa Jennings

When asked what tools restaurant companies should be looking at over the next 12 months, a panel of technology executives on Tuesday all pointed the same direction: those that touch consumers.

Mobile technologies that improve customer relationships and loyalty, programs that help restaurants better manage their customer database, and anything that helps connect with consumers wherever they are and whatever they’re doing are the way of the future, the executives said. The panel of major hardware, software and service provider executives spoke during the 15^th annual Foodservice Technology Conference and Showcase, or FSTEC, which continued Tuesday at the Long Beach Convention Center.

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The executive panel included Paul Langenbahn, president of the hospitality division for Radiant Systems; Ed Rothenberg, vice president of restaurant sales and strategies for Micros Systems Inc.; Peter Wolf, vice president of marketing and business development for PAR Technology; and Alan Liddle, managing editor of technology for Nation’s Restaurant News.

The panel was moderated by Robert Grimes, chief executive of Accuvia, which co-produced the event with NRN.

Wolf said mobile technologies from both the server and consumer perspective, such as coupons that can be scanned from a phone, are likely to be a focus for many restaurant operators in the coming year.

“Customer relationship management and loyalty will gain traction,” he predicted.

Rothenberg highlighted customer database management, saying restaurant operators will be looking for ways to collect data when customers order or make reservations online. These are opportunities to identify guests and build a database to capture return visits, he said.

Langenbahn said connecting with consumers is key, but he added that restaurant operators will also be looking for new tools and strategies for business loss prevention, as well as security.

Most restaurants think about security in terms of compliance with credit card data security standards, but Langenbahn noted that operators who have unsecured remote management applications on their POS computers are giving data thieves access to information in a manner akin to "leaving the back door of a restaurant wide open."

“The industry needs to move beyond thinking about this as a compliance problem and think about it as a security problem,” he said. “Usually it has less to do with payment applications and more to do with the security of a network.”

Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].