Connecting the Kitchen: How 3 Leading Restaurant Brands Are Eliminating Tech Fragmentation

Running a multi-unit restaurant brand means managing dozens of moving parts at once. To modernize back-of-house operations, many brands have invested heavily in dedicated technology, from kitchen display systems and inventory management tools to task management apps and labor scheduling platforms.

The challenge is that these tools are often isolated from one another.

When a kitchen display operates in a vacuum, disconnected from inventory usage, operational execution workflows, and business intelligence, operators pay the price through lost efficiency, higher overhead, and unnecessary daily friction.

During an Innovation Forum at FS/TEC 2026, Crunchtime brought together three restaurant technology leaders to explore how the industry can move beyond disjointed tech stacks: Todd Roach, Vice President of Restaurant Systems at Brinker International; Steve Barrow, Senior Director of Information Technology at Nando’s Peri-Peri North America; and Brian Krakower, Technology Advisor and former CIO at BJ’s Restaurants & Brewhouse. The panel examined how multi-unit restaurant brands are connecting technology across the back of house and transforming the kitchen into a fully connected operational command center.

Removing Friction to Support the Operator

When evaluating new technology, IT and operations teams often focus heavily on feature lists, functionality, or hardware performance. But the most effective solutions are ultimately the ones that make a restaurant team’s day easier. Focusing on the operator experience also drives stronger long-term adoption.

For Todd Roach, operator impact is the starting point for any technology decision. Todd explained, “At Brinker, friction removal is the big driver. Whenever we look at an upgrade, feature rollout, enhancement, or new technology, the initial view is: How is this going to impact the operator on a day-to-day basis? It's not necessarily how the technology is going to perform. Really, it's about: Does this improve the operator's life? Does this make the guest visit that much better?”

That operator-first perspective matters most when technology adds steps instead of removing them. When back-of-house tools fail to communicate with one another, crew members are left navigating fragmented processes across multiple workstations and systems. Todd described the downstream impact on both employees and guests, noting that “When you have disjointed, disparate systems, they create a lot of friction. That results in labor being pulled in different directions, and you could be slowing down ticket times and creating a negative guest experience.”

The goal, then, is not simply to give operators more information, but to make the right information available when and where they need it. Rather than forcing team members to search across multiple platforms during a busy shift, connected systems can bring relevant answers directly into the workflow. As Todd put it, “We need solutions that keep operators from having to dig through 13 different portals or flip through a red book to figure things out day to day. The more connected these systems are, the easier it is to get that information without having to search for it.”

Eliminating Multi-Screen Distractions

The operational cost of distraction was another recurring theme throughout the discussion. Each time a cook or shift supervisor has to step away from a station to check a clipboard, view another tablet, or log into a separate portal, the kitchen loses momentum.

Brian Krakower sees that interruption as more than an inconvenience. “Stepping away from your station to check something else is a real pain for kitchen teams. They just can't do it, so they end up trying to do things from memory, and sometimes they run with the wrong information.” Interruptions can introduce risk at exactly the moment when accuracy matters most.

That challenge is particularly relevant as restaurants try to replace paper-based processes with digital tools. Simply adding more tablets can eliminate paper without actually eliminating complexity. Brian cautioned, “When large enterprise brands try to eliminate paper by simply throwing more tablets at staff, they end up creating complexity with multiple operating systems instead of actual efficiency.”

A better approach is to consolidate information into the tools employees already use to execute their jobs. Incorporating operational data together on a single screen gives kitchen teams a clearer picture of what is happening without requiring them to leave their stations. “Bringing all the information into one pane of glass, based on a common set of parameters, gives you a single version of the truth so you know what you're looking at and don't get misled,” Brian explained.

Maximizing Kitchen Real Estate and Execution

Technology fragmentation also creates a physical challenge. Kitchen space is limited, particularly in high-volume fast-casual and QSR environments, and every additional screen, printer, tablet, or workstation competes for room.

Steve Barrow sees that constraint firsthand. “At Nando’s, we fight for real estate in our kitchens. When you put six screens and four printers into a very small footprint, form factor becomes critical, and managing that amount of tech in the kitchen is a constant focus.”

The answer is not necessarily fewer tech solutions, but smarter consolidation. Nando’s uses tools such as Crunchtime Ops Execution to give operations teams greater control over forms and task management without creating additional layers of IT dependency. Steve explained, “At Nando’s, Crunchtime Ops Execution serves as an easy-to-use sandbox that our operations team fully owns to create forms, manage tasks, and eliminate daily friction without creating heavy IT overhead.”

That kind of flexibility becomes increasingly important as restaurant brands add systems and integrations across their operations. Instead of simply accumulating technology, operators need tools that allow those capabilities to work together. Steve pointed to a common problem with fragmented technology stacks, explaining that “When you integrate multiple restaurant systems, you expect to gain the collective capabilities of all of them, but you often risk ending up with the lowest common denominator of their abilities. Bringing everything under one roof allows us to maximize those integrations.”

Transforming Real-Time Data into Active Coaching

Connecting systems can do more than reduce friction. It can also change how managers use operational data. Static, end-of-day reports tell leaders what already happened after the opportunity to intervene has passed. Real-time visibility, by contrast, gives managers a chance to identify bottlenecks and coach teams while a shift is still underway.

Todd sees live metrics as a practical coaching tool rather than simply another source of reporting. “Real-time metrics give operators visibility into where the bottleneck is, whether it's a person, a station, or something out of their control, so they can use that information to coach team members and improve the business.”

As systems become more connected, that same visibility can move from the manager’s dashboard directly into the kitchen workflow. Brian described the opportunity, “As systems talk to each other, there's a big opportunity for real-time operational execution: helping the cooks as they make food by giving them better information to do it accurately and effectively, and sharing that information out of the kitchen to improve the guest experience.” Instead of expecting cooks to interpret information from multiple sources, connected technology can provide guidance in context.

That opens the door to more proactive suggestions as well. If operational data can identify patterns before they become problems, kitchen displays could surface relevant information at the moment it matters. Brian offered one example of what that could look like, “Imagine if, when an item comes up on the kitchen screen that's frequently comped, we could highlight it or call some attention to it based on other operational information. That could give the cooks more guidance in real time.”

The value of connected data extends beyond the kitchen itself. Understanding customer intent earlier can help operators make better decisions about labor, inventory, and preparation before a shift is fully underway. “I firmly believe, particularly in the QSR and fast-casual space, that we're going to know what you're ordering that day. Through some incentive, something in the loyalty platform, or some sort of reservation system, the restaurant is going to know what you're going to order. Costs continue to go up, so we need to be 100% efficiently deployed in the restaurants to be profitable,” Steve explained.

For growing brands, the larger opportunity is turning all of that information into something managers can actually act on. “The key to scaling restaurant operations is taking the disjointed tools and silos that exist today and scaling them up into real-time, manageable data,” Steve noted. Rather than adding another layer of reporting to an already complex technology environment, connected tools can make real-time data more manageable and useful.

Building Tech Ecosystems that Level the Playing Field

As restaurant technology evolves, multi-unit restaurant brands need systems that can communicate across POS platforms, labor management, inventory tracking, reservation systems, and other critical operational tools.

For Todd, that means technology vendors need to think beyond their own products and become true partners to the brands they serve. He explained, “Vendors that want to be successful and grow are going to have to learn to work not only with their customers, but also with other products, and be more extensible. The more intimate a vendor gets with a customer, being truly a partner and not just a service provider, that's what's going to make them successful.”

A connected ecosystem can also simplify the technology experience for restaurant brands that do not have the resources to build and maintain extensive integrations themselves. Brian pointed to Crunchtime’s approach as an example, saying, “Kudos to Crunchtime for not just acquiring different solutions, but actually connecting them to talk to each other, making technology simpler and more accessible for restaurant brands.”

As integrations become standardized and more widely available, those benefits can extend beyond the largest enterprise brands. Brian noted, “As integrations become more available, brands of all sizes can access capabilities like curbside arrival and guest reservation connections that previously required the resources of a larger brand to build themselves. It helps level the playing field.” With connected tech, smaller and emerging restaurant concepts can gain access to capabilities that once required significant internal technology resources to build.

Fostering a Smarter, Fully Connected Foundation

As food and labor costs continue to rise, long-term profitability increasingly depends on how effectively restaurants execute in the moment. The future of the connected kitchen is not about adding more technology for its own sake. It is about eliminating unnecessary friction, bringing operational data together, and giving teams the information they need to make better decisions during every shift.

For restaurant brands looking to modernize their back-of-house operations, the opportunity is to move from a collection of individual tools to a connected operational foundation, one that helps technology work together as seamlessly as the restaurant teams relying on it.

To learn more about how you can connect your kitchen operation, request a demo today. You can also view the full Innovation Forum panel session here: