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Having outgrown a 3rd party solution, Camile decided to develop a real competitive advantage by building their own restaurant ordering platform.
2016
Camile were (and still are) growing rapidly. Not only in terms of locations and customers, but also in the service lines and menu items offered to customers. In 2016 they were using a 3rd party ordering system, Mobi2Go, that they were fast outgrowing.
In an industry heavily influenced by large scale aggregators such as JustEat, Deliveroo and UberEats, Camile needed a platform that would enable them to take control of the customer relationship and deliver a truly differentiated experience to users.
By building their own platform, Camile aimed to develop a far greater understanding of why and when customers order what they do, increase the relevance and effectiveness of their customer communications and create clear brand and experience differentiation between themselves and their competitors.
The system needed to take into account real-time changes in menu items, availability, delivery times and location for each of its restaurants.
The volume of potential order combinations, combined with their dynamic nature, meant that every part of Camile’s process needed to be scrutinised to ensure a robust, user-friendly platform.
A core goal of the product was to deliver a differentiated and superior brand experience.
Effortless UX, seamless UI and beautiful visual design were therefore essential in order to deliver a competitive advantage.
To deliver a real competitive advantage, the systems needed to not only show which product line at which store was most popular, but also answer the question of why.
These insights are far deeper than would be possible using a 3rd party platform.
The required commercial impact was tangible: greater customer loyalty and more revenue.
At Steer73, we believe the origins of any great digital solution lie at the intersection of 3 key areas:
What a business needs
What users expect and demand
What the available technology is best placed to deliver
It was vital that during every stage of the process, these three areas were kept top of mind.
First, we needed to understand the business. Both in terms of its key challenges/opportunities and, exactly how it functioned. This involved getting to grips with:
How each restaurant operated
How HQ operated
The entire system worked: Not a single delivery experience but a complex blend of onsite dining, click and collection and delivery
The needs of franchise-owned stores compared to corporate-owned locations
From here, we needed to gain an in-depth understanding of the customer needs and expectations. The market is highly competitive and includes a number of large 3rd party aggregators including JustEat, UberEats and Deliveroo.
We conducted in-depth research into how other food ordering apps operated and spoke with users about their needs, expectations and desires. Throughout this process we needed to understand both what users expect, what is best practice, where there is opportunity for improvements and where we could add ‘magic moments’ that truly differentiate the Camile offering.
Finally, we considered the technological landscape to assess what solutions were available, which included both customising off-the-shelf software, and building our own.
The core requirements identified were a platform that was adaptable, scaleable and one that can be rapidly updated as per Camile’s needs. Very soon, it became apparent that nothing but an internally owned, managed and hosted technology platform would support their key business goals, objectives and growth.
This is the stage where we defined how the requirements from scoping would be delivered, detailing exactly how the system would work.
We would build, manage and host our own technology platform, including an iOS app, an Android app and a web ordering platform.
To ensure timely delivery, consistent improvement and effective use of budgets, a clear definition of v1 and a detailed product roadmap were created.
This is the stage where we defined how the requirements from scoping would be delivered, detailing exactly how the system would work.
We would build, manage and host our own technology platform, including an iOS app, an Android app and a web ordering platform.
To ensure timely delivery, consistent improvement and effective use of budgets, a clear definition of v1 and a detailed product roadmap were created.
In addition to the seamless integrations, a fluid UI was essential for translating multiple variables for each order, and real-time changes to parameters, into an effective customer experience.
Significant amounts of testing, experimentation and utilisation of best practices were used to decide on the optimal UX, UI and visual design.
In the incredibly fast-changing world of food delivery, the new Camile platform immediately represented a clear competitive advantage. It provided Camile with a direct-to-customer relationship and the commercial tools required to operate in a market with increasingly strong delivery aggregators.
As the pandemic hit, they continued to deliver extremely strong growth and financial performance, largely due to the fact that Camile “was doing 70 per cent of its sales off premises before the pandemic took hold.” where “more than half our sales come from our own proprietary app.” – Brody Sweeney CEO of Camile – Irish Times
In the incredibly fast-changing world of food delivery, the new Camile platform immediately represented a clear competitive advantage. It provided Camile with a direct-to-customer relationship and the commercial tools required to operate in a market with increasingly strong delivery aggregators.
As the pandemic hit, they continued to deliver extremely strong growth and financial performance, largely due to the fact that Camile “was doing 70 per cent of its sales off premises before the pandemic took hold.” where “more than half our sales come from our own proprietary app.” – Brody Sweeney CEO of Camile – Irish Times
With Steer73 as their technology partner, Camile have continuously improved the platform, enabling them to deliver an even stronger, more differentiated experience to their customers, with more actionable insights for the business.
Camile have been able to capitalise on the competitive advantage of owning their own technology with exciting new additions, such as delivery by drones.
There is a fantastic roadmap in place and Steer73 look forward to supporting Camile in their growth for many years to come.
The new system gives Camile the ability to move to a digitally led business and represents a transition from reliance on third party providers and walk in or phone based orders.
This proved instrumental in delivering strong financial performance throughout the pandemic.
“Steer73 have taken the time to understand our project in detail, and to design and build a best-in-class platform. “
Following the initial build of the platform, as a technology partner to Camile, not only do Steer73 provide continuous product development based on an exciting roadmap, we also deliver a host of support services so that Camile can focus on running their business while we ensure their tech works as it should.
These services include:
Providing a support team to respond to downtime or issues with system infrastructure.
Preventative, corrective and adaptive maintenance work to ensure smooth, ongoing operation of the system.
Managing hosting and other technical services.
Penetration testing, regular vulnerability scanning and monthly reports on any security risks.
Following the initial build of the platform, as a technology partner to Camile, not only do Steer73 provide continuous product development based on an exciting roadmap, we also deliver a host of support services so that Camile can focus on running their business while we ensure their tech works as it should.
These services include:
Providing a support team to respond to downtime or issues with system infrastructure.
Preventative, corrective and adaptive maintenance work to ensure smooth, ongoing operation of the system.
Managing hosting and other technical services.
Penetration testing, regular vulnerability scanning and monthly reports on any security risks.
No matter what stage your project is in, we would love to speak. We offer a free discovery service to help you develop a deeper understanding of your problem, the potential solutions and the costs involved in building a solution.