One of the greatest changes brought about by what is often referred to as disruptive technology is that of blowing the playing field wide open and increasing much-needed competition. Because of tech disruption, someone whose relationship with the food and restaurant industry stopped with their harbouring of a passion for cooking can now turn that passion into a business that rivals the biggest names in the food services market.
Here are the five tech disruptions that make it possible:
Renewable energy
Renewable energy only really becomes obvious as one of the disruptive technologies benefitting the food and restaurants industry if you actually think about it. Ordinarily one wouldn’t consider that something like being able to tap into an unlimited source of power can effectively allow you to churn out something like fresh and hot pizzas very quickly, in a cost effective manner. You’d otherwise have a mounting energy bill, for example. So it becomes about the product, unhindered by the would-be overheads and other such barriers to entry.
The ride-sharing economy
The various examples ride-sharing services probably very easily roll off the tongue, but their importance as a disruptive technology that contributes to the improvement of the food and restaurant industry is perhaps obvious. It’s worth mentioning though, because now it means more customers can order food online, from a variety of different restaurants, to accept delivery in an ever widening radius of locations. Restaurants and food outlets themselves don’t have to worry about catering to in-house delivery fleets, staff, etc.
Both the restaurants or food outlets and the consumer benefit, with the potential for a third-party to benefit as well, by taking up an on-demand job as a delivery person.
Social media
Social media as a disruptive technology has long since evolved to form somewhat of a mainstream technology instead, but ask anybody who ran a food outlet business such as a restaurant merely ten years ago and they’ll tell a story of how social media helped them gain some recognition. Instead of having to own and manage its own website, a restaurant or any other kind of food outlet can compete for market share, based solely on word-of-mouth as spread through social media, or on reviews that are built into the functionality of social media platforms. Social media can be used as a powerful tool to market a food business as well as share unique specialties about the restaurant – in other words, branding. Taking help from bar and restaurant consultants with ample experience in the food industry can help better engage customers on various online platforms, among other benefits that come from such consultations.
Business operation software
Business operation software has gone beyond just managing the record-keeping around the core operations, spilling over into the integration of online ordering for restaurants and food outlets. This is perhaps the singular tech disruption that levels the playing field the most. This might also add the much-needed competition that elevates the entire food and restaurant industry.
The role of a workflow software might typically be to streamline all operations into one interface which can be used company-wide. This could help many businesses in monitoring a defined set of tasks. Those wanting to take it a step further might use software built with event-driven architecture (head to vantiq.com/what-is-event-driven-architecture/ or similar pages to learn more), due to which they would be able to react to real-time events happening in their business. This can include inventory management, customer readings, sensory readings, and more. At the most brazen of levels, what tech means for this industry is that you can add your grandma’s special recipe for whatever delicious dish you can make to an online ordering system established restaurants with a long history would be proud of. The end-consumer who receives the dish and loves it so much that they become a regular, repeat customer wouldn’t even know that you’re effectively running things from your home kitchen!