Mo Chaar
Chief Commercial Officer, Givex
A flexible, customizable food service POS system is a necessity in a competitive world where customer demand determines the future of the industry.
Having a flexible, customizable food service point-of-sale (POS) system has become a necessity in a competitive world where customer demand determines the future of hospitality. Givex is a company that can help restaurants adapt, evolve, and meet this challenge.
A POS solutions provider
GivexPOS is the platform of choice for some of the world’s largest brands, serving 113,000 locations in 110+ countries. It provides merchants with customer engagement, point-of-sale and payment solutions in a single platform, which integrates with 1000+ technology partners.
The robust platform supports simple or complex gift card programs, customized loyalty programs, stored value or loaded tickets, a powerful omnichannel point-of-sale system with options that include fully integrated payment processing, kitchen display systems, inventory controls, labour management, kiosks, handheld ordering tablets, and merchant-skinned online ordering websites.
Flexibility and customization are the key to success
A POS platform that supports clients by delivering on flexibility and customization is one of the most important features the food service industry needs in a fintech partner, particularly in a post-COVID-19 age.
Hospitality Technology’s 2021 POS Software Trends Report: Accelerating Innovation, notes that, when it published its 2020 report, “Restaurant operators and solution providers were pushing POS software toward digital and online like never before, seeking to deliver convenience and efficiency to customers, whether in the dining room or off-premises. The pandemic and economic downturn of the past year only accelerated that trend, as restaurants scrambled to pivot to off-prem and meet customer demand for contactless transactions and efficiency, while ensuring as much ROI as possible.”
Working with an adaptable cloud-based POS system was one of the few ways merchants could quickly pivot their businesses to include omnichannel delivery, efficient third-party integration, and modules to allow for expansion and change.
During the pandemic, Meltwich, a Toronto-based fast casual chain with close to 30 locations, quickly moved to online ordering to meet customer demand for off-premises dining. It did so seamlessly, integrating Givex’s POS system into its delivery platform, offering uninterrupted service to its customers. And, because Givex’s platform provides customizable reports, campaign management templates, and an easy-to-use analytics tool, Meltwich was able to gain insights to enable it to implement system-wide changes efficiently.
A POS system that delivers on speed and quality
Clients have also found that working with a single source provider not only delivers customized solutions, but it also saves time and is cost-effective when the provider has all the resources needed to support the business under one platform.
Canadian coffee chain Second Cup, with more than 200 locations across Canada, was already using Givex for gift cards, loyalty programs and POS when Foodtastic — an operation with 650 restaurants across 21 brands — acquired it.
“When I joined Second Cup, I had only known Givex as a gift card solutions provider,” said Tom Hogan, VP of Foodtastic and Second Cup Canada. “As I started to integrate myself into the platform, I realized that a great point-of-sale system was just the tip of the iceberg.”
Givex worked to add historical data from the operation’s previous provider, offered full inventory management solutions, and integrated third-party providers into the customized platform, all within a tight deadline.
“Our existing POS was not supporting the growing needs of our business,” recalled Hogan. Givex was given a deadline of December 31, 2020, to complete the project. “With having to source, train and deploy technicians across the country, deal with different infrastructure at each location, and manage different cafe partner expectations, I’m sure there were some sleepless nights for the team at Givex. Through it all, they remained steadfast in hitting the mark.”
Since project completion, Hogan has seen a significant uptick in efficiency and speed of service across Second Cup’s stores.
A bright future
In the fall of 2021, Foodtastic selected Givex as its point-of-sale and customer engagement platform across all its 21 restaurant brands. Rolling out Givex’s POS system and Customer WebSuite (CWS) solutions across its brands was a massive, yet successful, undertaking.
Andy Huang is the chief operating officer of The Captain’s Boil, another Givex restaurant client with over 20 locations. “For more than five years, GivexPOS and other Givex technologies have helped improve our operations, from the kitchen display system ensuring that our food is served hot, to the robust inventory and recipe application helping control our food costs. In addition, its system seamlessly integrated with a third-party app to help manage our labour costs, and we’re very pleased with the preliminary results of the loyalty program we recently implemented with Givex.”
By demonstrating its ability to adapt to the changing landscape and offer flexible and innovative technology throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Givex was able to expand its robust tech suite and partner with new international clients over the past year, increasing its total number of customer locations to more than 100,000.
“It’s important for us to be able to provide our clients with up-to-date, innovative technology that makes the most sense for their immediate needs,” said Mo Chaar, Givex’s Chief Commercial Officer. “That includes offering our clients complete flexibility to ensure our solutions work with other vendors, as well as ensuring that we can offer seamless integration with those products — a move that is unprecedented within the industry.”
In 2021, Givex announced the launch of GivexPay, an integrated payment processing solution, enabling the company to enhance its service offering, gain access to the latest payment innovations, and scale globally with one integrated system.
“With this launch, we can better serve merchants looking for an all-in-one management solution that includes gift card programs, customized loyalty programs, kitchen display systems, inventory controls, kiosks, handheld ordering tablets, online ordering apps, POS, and now payment processing, with the support and scalability they need to grow,” commented Chaar.
All in all, Givex provides owners and managers with a seamless and completely customizable POS experience. The same factors that make Givex easy to use and implement mean that scalability comes naturally for the systems.
