Setting the Table for an Omnichannel Dining Experience
As the original casual dining bar and grill, TGI Fridays offers authentic American food and legendary drinks, served with genuine personal service. Bringing people together to socialize and celebrate the freeing and liberating spirit of “Friday” was the concept’s founding premise, from which the brand promise “In Here, It’s Always Friday” was born.
An enhanced guest experience
across the organization
Increase in mobile payments
in the thousands of percent
The Project
TGI Fridays began their digital transformation in 2015 with Pivotree using SAP Commerce (at the time, Hybris), and trusted its ability to handle their robust enterprise needs – including 900+ stores world-wide, an advanced marketing team, an active social media presence, complex ordering channels, and more. With the evolution of the SAP Customer Experience portfolio, which included a move towards a more seamless integration of the stack internally, Fridays saw the opportunity to achieve a better guest experience and use the accomplishments of their commerce channel to better support their marketing channel. Fridays also required Pivotree to customize key components to deliver a branded, seamless, and enjoyable experience for guests.
Consolidation (Moving from Headless to Non-Headless)
The ecosystem of the Fridays solution involved a plethora of services provided by several companies. By upgrading to SAP Commerce 1808, Pivotree was able to:
- Replace some of the services external to SAP Commerce and thereby reduce the overall TCO;
- Support in progress enhancements to preserve the existing investment;
- Prepare the system for further consolidation while providing more advanced functionality (SAP Marketing).
Implementing an SAP Hybris Commerce Solution
The Hybris implementation allowed Fridays to introduce a true omni-channel experience for customers. Customers can choose to begin their journey with the Fridays mobile app, or a responsive single page application (SPA) to research, make reservations, place orders for take-out, pay in-restaurant bills, and find nearby locations.
The following features and functionality were part of the project:
• Online ordering capabilities for take-out orders
• Mobile device based payments of in-store bills
• Reservations
• Store locater
• National / local menus
• Contact us service
Quick Summary
Challenges
- Data Migration from different sources, including manual processes
- Developing a single, pan-organizational catalog that would be compatible with existing in-restaurant systems
- As the new site needed to be introduced in hundreds of locations, time to market was a challenge
- Business process reengineering meant ensuring all staff at individual locations received training on the new processes
- Needed to ensure that all franchisees were engaged in the transition, to effect the speed of deployment
SAP Hybris modules used included:
- SAP Hybris Commerce version 5.6
- Product Content Management module (PCM)
- Backoffice
- Omni Commerce Connect (OCC)
- Advanced Personalization
The new platform integrated to the following systems:
- Micros (POS)
- Vantiv (Payment Gateway)
- OpenTable (reservations)
- Omni Commerce Connect (OCC)
- ExactTarget and SendGrid (email)
Outcome
- Increase in mobile payments in the thousands of percent
- Enhanced guest experience
Project Timeline
Fridays adopted an agile approach to executing its digital strategy. Each increment was scoped to provide a clear set of new features that would advance the overall strategy. Fridays coupled this approach with an aggressive timeline for each phase, encouraging effective, rapid development.
The project began in October 2015. The first phase, Mobile Payment of in store checks, went live just six months later, in March 2016. The second phase, Online Ordering for Take-Out, went live on June 30, 2016. During each phase, the features were initially released into a limited market in order to verify the integrity of each solution. Over the following month, features were rolled out to hundreds of locations.
Overcoming the Challenges
Data Migration
Fridays offers limitless customization and configuration options on their menu items. Because Fridays data for products, pricing, etc. was coming from different sources and included some manual processes, the solution needed to ensure data consistency and quality across different environments.
Catalog Design & Development
In addition to a central system of record, each restaurant also maintains its own catalog. Developing a single, pan-organizational catalog that would be compatible with existing in-restaurant systems required significant reverse engineering and iterative design and testing.
Time to Market
The new site needed to be introduced in hundreds of locations.
Business Process Reengineering
Ensuring all staff at individual locations received training on the new process required extra planning and organization.
Franchise Operation
Ensuring all franchisees were engaged in the transition had an effect on the speed of deployment.
They have been absolutely great partners. They have gotten to know our business, and helped us work through any challenges.
The Technical Solution
The following technical components were part of the Fridays project:
SAP Hybris modules used included:
• SAP Hybris Commerce version 5.6
• Product Content Management module (PCM)
• Backoffice
• Omni Commerce Connect (OCC)
• Advanced Personalization
The new platform integrated to the following systems:
• Micros (POS)
• Vantiv (Payment Gateway)
• OpenTable (reservations)
• ExactTarget and SendGrid (email)
The Impact
Releases to date were delivered to customer satisfaction and have exceeded their expectations.
The result was the establishment of a foundation that will evolve to include new and exciting features for customer engagement, enhancing the customer experience. Both usage statistics and rate of uptake have been more than satisfactory to Fridays. The Online Ordering component, which was introduced with the Hybris project, has been particularly successful, and mobile payments have seen growth in the thousands of percent.
Customers can now benefit from an improved digital experience, while Fridays is empowered with the tools to provide a true omni-channel offering.
Report — Delivering Frictionless Commerce
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