Revel Blog

Control Your Destiny with the Right Technology

Chris Lybeer | February 28, 2022 |

iPad POS Technology
Control Your Destiny with the Right Technology

On the heels of Valentine’s Day, Revel’s Chief Strategy Officer Chris Lybeer highlights what he “loves” about cloud-native technology, and how certain point of sale platform features help operators control their destinies. In case you missed his last blog post, Chris shared his perspective on the state of the point of sale (POS) industry and a look ahead at what’s to come in 2022. 

Control Your Destiny with the Right Platform

While Valentine’s Day is behind us, feelings of love are still in the air. And I genuinely love cloud-native technology. I’ll admit some personal bias toward Revel’s platform (which was the first cloud-native platform to run on an iPad). Not only is this technology cool and convenient, but because it is built in the cloud, it allows restaurant and retail operators to control their own destinies. 

So, what do I mean by that? As the shift towards omnichannel commerce becomes even more prominent and necessary for businesses to compete, the right transaction platform puts flexibility in the hands of the operator, rather than inhibiting them. Therefore, the power to control the destiny of their business becomes a possibility, not just a dream. 

I’ve broken down three top-of-mind features that give operators the ability to pull levers for their businesses and control their own destinies. After all, this ability is likely why they got in the business in the first place! 

Simplifying the Hybrid Business Model

Listen, in 2019, no one thought so many restaurants would be shifting their focus almost entirely off-premises. Off-premises leaped from a tiny piece of the industry to a critical driver of revenue. 

I talk a lot about the bolted-on point of sale solutions that resulted from that quick shift to off-premises in 2020, and how the right platform eliminates the need for them. Operators needed a way to offer drive thru, and fast. They needed to work with third-party delivery services, and fast. And they did what they needed to do to survive. 

We’ve focused a lot of our resources on simplifying the hybrid business model for businesses over the past two years, because a hybrid, omnichannel approach to the restaurant business isn’t going away. 

A fully-integrated platform makes it easy to streamline these various ordering channels, analyze them, and make educated business decisions based on revenue. That’s why, at Revel, we give operators the option to streamline their operations even further via our native omnichannel outlets, available for drive thru, online ordering, delivery, and more

Customizations with an Open API

Open API is also a major factor in making it easy for operators to customize their platform and service offerings to fit the needs of their business and their guests. That’s a huge reason we prioritize open API at Revel. If you’re curious, here’s our growing list of Revel Integrated Partners

In fact, we just announced our new partnership with Voxie, the leading conversational texting and automation platform. An integration with Voxie allows merchants to generate real-time, highly personalized conversations with their customers. Offered as an opt-in to Revel clients, Voxie reports that users often realize a 20-fold return on investment within the first month.

Voxie, along with other partners, are a huge part of how Revel helps clients control their own destinies. Things change, and your platform should be able to pivot alongside you. Oftentimes, that can mean adding a critical integration to support a new line of business, and an open API makes it easy and accessible. 

Drive Revenue with Advanced Analytics 

Being able to look back at your results and plan for the future is critical for operators when they think about being in control of their own destinies. 

Reporting tools have long been a beloved part of the Revel platform, but we have been prioritizing even more advanced analytical and reporting tools over the past few years. 

In late March, we will launch the Revel Data Connector, a paid service that will allow clients to leverage the power of industry leading Business Intelligence (BI) tools to provide visibility and transparency at the store and corporate levels. 

Historically, Revel’s enterprise clients have spent upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars on development and licensing integrated reporting tools. Revel Data Connector will allow for more effortless, custom analytics, even if clients are using free BI tools available. If this gets you excited, be on the lookout for more information soon. 

Revel Data Connector is one of several solutions for data insights and BI. The important piece for operators is the ability to access and interpret all the numbers in order to make informed business decisions. 

No matter your line of business, robust reporting tools should be a priority, especially for enterprises and large franchisees looking to make long-term decisions, track key performance metrics at scale and find areas for improvement. 

What’s Not to Love about the Cloud?

So, if you’ve made it this far into the post, I’ll leave you with this question: is your technology helping you control your destiny? Is it flexible, and is innovation being released regularly that is adding value to your business? If it isn’t cloud-native, it might be costing you in more ways than you realize. 

At Revel, we love having the opportunity to be at the heart of tens of thousands of businesses. Every business is different, so our goal is to empower operators, not put them in a box. 

Our next quarterly release is just around the corner and is jam-packed with new features and functionality to continue to help operators thrive. Learn about just some of what’s available with our 2.73 app release here

And if you’re in the market for a cloud-native platform, give us a call! We’d love to empower you to seize the steering wheel and enjoy lasting business success with a tech stack designed to help you every step of the way.