To have your cake and eat it too is tricky business when it comes to running a restaurant. Valley based Restaurant Technology Company Leapset recently launched in Sri Lanka, offering the latest innovations in restaurant technology to allow restaurant owners to focus on what matters - the food, the service and enjoying that proverbial piece of well-deserved cake.

Leapset’s holistic, fully integrated restaurant operating system runs the gamut restaurant management from Social Discovery of your restaurant, making a reservation, Online, mobile ordering, restaurant operations via their advanced POS, payments, customer retention and loyalty.

The products’ monthly fee-based, service oriented model provides a desirable alternative for restaurateurs reluctant to make substantial capital investments, and the simple user friendly platform means anyone can use it regardless of their tech savvy.

Sysco: A global partner

Sysco, with which Leapset partnered in 2013, is the largest American multinational involved in marketing and distributing food products to foodservice and hospitality businesses.

Drawing from the Cloud: How Leapset works

Leapset draws its resources from the Cloud to ensure consistency and instant access for its customers- anywhere, anytime. The system is automatically updated worldwide and can also function via app, ensuring that restaurateurs have at their fingertips everything they need to run their business.

Three of the platform products were launched in Sri Lanka

Leapset’s next generation Point of Sale system is its revolutionary flagship product that allows restaurant owners to minimise costs through a rental system. An integrated hardware and software solution, that is splash, crumb and dust proof, its full-sized screen leaves little room for error and encourages customer interaction.

Guest Manager is a reservations, waitlist and table management software. One of its innovative functions is allowing users to put their name on a restaurant’s waitlist remotely via an app or text. Guest Manager also allows restaurants to profile customers and identify who their regulars are, so they can give them customised service regardless of whether the server knows them personally or not.

Discovery and OLO (Online Ordering) work together to allow the user to find restaurants, view menus and order online. The entire platform is standalone but can also function as an extension of the POS.

Service strengths

Leapset’s service model is one of the keys to their success. They offer their platform for a monthly rental so that restaurants that generally have quick cash flow cycles do not need to come up with the huge capital investment needed to purchase a traditional smart POS.

The model also means that physical damage to the machine will not affect the merchant, as upgrading and maintenance is performed regularly. Data is backed up on the Cloud for maximum security and all merchants receive all the updates to the system automatically.

A single app allows customers to order from any restaurant with ease. Restaurants, in turn, benefit from an immensely simplified process of order taking allowing service staff to focus on creating a pleasurable experience for customers.

Designed in the Valley, engineered in Sri Lanka

“We follow a very similar model to how Apple produces their technology; there is tight integration of the software and hardware and the products are built with simplicity in mind. The hardware and software design happens with the team based out of the Silicon Valley with the engineering done in Sri Lanka and the hardware manufactured to order in Taiwan,” said Shanil Fernando, Managing Director for Sri Lanka and Senior Vice President Engineering at Leapset.

Launch in Sri Lanka

“With restaurants popping up all around the country, Sri Lanka is well positioned for the services offered by Leapset,” said CEO Mani Kulasooriya. “The market may be smaller in comparison to our US market but it’s a matter of personal ownership and pride to launch our product locally. In the US we have over 5000 restaurants using our products and we add approximately 150 restaurants per month.”

Leapset plans to introduce new products and enhancements first in Sri Lanka, and its Flower Road Engineering Centre will house a centre for innovation and customer care. Leapset currently employs a staff of over 350 in both Sri Lanka and the States. “Running the platform in Sri Lanka will help our employees based in Colombo gain a more practical understanding of what we do,” notes Shanil. “We are also able to draw from a significant pool of talented engineers in Sri Lanka, which will hopefully allow us to price locally- it’s a win for both sides.”

Locally, Leapset’s Head of Business Development, Amith Wijeyasooriya, is contactable via email at amithw@leapset.com for further information on the system.

Photo caption: (Above) Peshele Randeni, Vice President Delivery, Leapset addresses the audience and (below) guests from the Restaurant sector receive demos on Leapset’s products as well as sneak previews to upcoming developments