News

NEXTEP launches new self-service solution for foodservice

October 23, 2011

NEXTEP Systems, a provider of customer self-service ordering technology, today announced the general availability of its Foundation5 foodservice technology platform.

Foundation5 provides foodservice operators with a single vendor solution for operating high-volume restaurant concepts, the company said.

Historically, restaurants only required cash registers or their high tech equivalent, the Point of Sale (POS) system. Each year, more ordering is done "beyond the counter," for example ordering a pizza from a website, ordering from a touchscreen kiosk or ordering at the drive thru. Yet, multiple vendors were needed to supply the various technologies, NEXTEP said, requiring restaurateurs to act as systems integrators, with inevitable finger pointing when systems failed to properly function.

Over the past six years, NEXTEP has provided customer facing technology, including self order kiosks, online ordering, digital signage and mobile applications. However, NEXTEP customers still required another vendor to provide POS terminals and back of house systems (e.g. labor management and inventory), increasing project risk and overall expense. The industry needed a single vendor with a proven track record to develop and support one complete integrated platform. In close cooperation with local restaurant operators, NEXTEP said it has leapfrogged existing options with a total solution as easy to use as a self-order kiosk, but with all of the power of an enterprise POS system.

Foundation5 is scalable and secure, having been approved by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) for deployment. Multiple payment options are supported, including cash, credit, gift cards and, soon, mobile payment options. NEXTEP's product suite can be managed from anywhere, using NEXTEP's cloud-based command center, providing a single touch point for managing menu items, promotions, inventory, employees, and reporting.

Read more about restaurant self-service.