Coca-Cola Just Invested $10 Million in Omnivore - Here's Why
With so much technology now entering the restaurant industry, business owners have never had so many options when it comes to augmenting their offering with digital innovations.
However, while all this technology certainly offers many benefits to restaurants, it does come with its fair share of challenges as well. New technology requires additional training so that staff are well versed in its functions and capabilities before putting it to work during live service. It also requires maintenance and troubleshooting knowledge so that, should anything go wrong, there's someone on hand to get things up and running again.
However, there's another issue which can arise from the implementation of these wonderful gadgets, and that's how to get them to work harmoniously with one another.
This is where Omnivore comes in.
Omnivore
California-based startup Omnivore wants to help make restaurants more agile and profitable by offering a platform which can bring together and manage all their digital technology in one place. The company has just acquired $10 million in a Series A funding round, which includes such prestigious investors as soft drinks giant Coca-Cola.
"We clearly understand that the growth in the restaurant and hospitality industry is pinned to consumer and staff expectations of technology and how they use it, very similar to what happened with the travel, lodging, and retail industries," said Omnivore CEO, Mike Wior. "We've enjoyed playing a role enabling innovation and integration in all restaurant technology categories such as online ordering, third-party delivery, pay at the table, loyalty, and labor."
Omnivore works by fulfilling three critical connections - connecting restaurants to data and insights, to relevant technologies, and to connect the restaurant's POS system to those same technologies. When all three of these conditions are met, Omnivore can manage the data flow and functionality moving through the entire network.
Omnivore has a preselected marketplace of technology providers which it has carefully vetted according to its strict guidelines and policies. Each of these technologies has been thoroughly tested to work seamlessly within Omnivore's solution and provide amazing functionality to restaurant brands - in the front of house, back of house, and outside of the house - and cover data, scheduling, labor, payments, ordering and more.
"Omnivore Marketplace is the single source for all the technology systems your restaurant depends on through a single connection to your Point of Sale (POS) System," says Omnivore. "From order and payment, to guest experience to business performance, trust Omnivore Marketplace as your curated, up-to-date resource for restaurant technology."
Unified POS
In bringing these disparate apps and technologies together under a single unified API, Omnivore provides a seamless access point to the entire POS ecosystem. The POS is updated in real time. Restaurant owners and other parties always have access to the most accurate and current information possible, enabling them to make business-critical decisions quickly.
What's more, updating the system with new apps and technology from the Omnivore marketplace is a matter of simplicity.
"While the restaurant industry has laid the digital foundation for transactions and data capture, a significant portion of that data still remains siloed across separate systems," said Brita Rosenheim of The Mixing Bowl. "Thus, while operators are now better able to measure and manage the "what" and the "why" related to operational efficiencies, they are often still limited in their ability to truly leverage those insights to optimize or automate efforts based on that intelligence."
Final Thoughts
Platforms such as Omnivore make it even simpler for restaurant brands to bring all their technology and associated systems together. Not only does this make the day-to-day running of the restaurant a far simpler and more streamlined affair, but it also helps generate vast amounts of data for analysis, which enables restaurateurs to make informed decisions based on a holistic view of their entire operation.
The onslaught of digital technology is unlikely to slow down any time soon, which is going to make innovative platforms such as Omnivore ever more indispensable as time marches on. We can expect to see many competitors spring up in the future, and it will be exciting to see where this type of technology leads.
"From QSR to FSR to Lodging, from small concepts to global chains, we are proud to have thousands of restaurant brands leveraging Omnivore to grow their business," says Omnivore. "With Omnivore, restaurants are able to connect to the latest consumer uses, vet out the most relevant technologies for back of house, front of house and outside the house - all while integrating into their POS to gain better analytics and data to make quicker decisions."
Intelligent platforms such as Omnivore's are set to be a hot topic at Future Restaurants 2019, taking place this September in Austin, TX.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.