The Main Course with Barbara Castiglia

Food is serious business. Now, on The Main Course, host Barbara Castiglia will invite insiders on the front lines of food to share their expertise, strategies, and forecasts for navigating the ever-changing restaurant industry.

How Oracle Empowers Restaurants to Go Mobile with Flexible Technology

Barbara Castiglia

March 11, 2021

Barbara Castiglia

Barbara Castiglia Podcast

Chris Adams Podcast

F&B technology

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The Main Course returns to the topic of restaurant technology, which has been a lifeline for most businesses during the pandemic. But how did it allow them to pivot, and what role will it play in the future? Host Barbara Castiglia spoke with Chris Adams, VP of Strategy Food & Beverage at Oracle, on some success stories and trends.

In his role, Chris works with independents, global chains, and foodservice companies. He brings technology from Oracle and its partners to solve problems.

Once the pandemic happened, Oracle began to consult with its customers on what’s next and invest its own resources in areas around mobile ordering and online payments.

Adams shared some stories, including how they helped Outback. “Outback was predominantly a table service experience. They had shifted to some new technology around takeout. In just a few weeks, our partners and we were able to get a curbside ordering and payment solution in place and help them get in with delivery aggregators.

Adams worked with another brand in Italy, a country devastated by the virus. “They came to us and said we need to get to our customers. They took a data-driven approach from their customer loyalty program, and we helped them build their own delivery, ordering, and payment experience,” he said.

In looking at the future, Adams thinks the key word is flexibility. “Consumers want the flexibility of ordering how they want and getting food how they want. That’s not going away.”

He also predicts that the design of restaurants will follow the flexibility theme. “We’ll see more drive-thrus from brands that never did it before. Better mobile experiences, and smaller in dining footprints.”