Back-of-house tech that pays itself

​Hospitality Technology’s 2018 Restaurant Technology Study found that 45 percent of operators said they planned to increase their spending on back-of-house software — up from 25 percent the year before. The key factors driving that spending were the need to provide better service, manage rising labor costs and consolidate disconnected technology tools used within their business. Nation’s Restaurant News reports that Arby’s Restaurant Group has been rolling out technology that has been addressing those specific pain points. They installed mobile app-connected HVAC systems that can generate monthly usage reports, as well as automated cook and hold ovens, Bluetooth-connected ovens that “can sense when the roast beef is perfectly cooked,” and hardware that can make it possible for traditional kitchen equipment to send time, temperature and cooking data to the cloud. Peter Cryan, senior director of equipment innovation at Arby’s parent company, said the savings have been dramatic. The cook and hold ovens alone have saved the restaurants 67 percent in energy each year, two hours of daily labor related to checking manual processes, and $45 million in energy costs since the changes began in 2011. Cryan said the tech platform more than paid for itself in the course of a year.