Skyfii Ltd (ASX:SKF, OTC:SFIIF) shares have soared on the company inking a three-year agreement for the deployment of its restaurant operations solution across an initial eight McDonald’s restaurants in the US.
The omnidata intelligence company will provide the iconic fast-food brand with a real-time whole of restaurant monitoring and analysis solution, to the value of A$2 million.
The monitoring solution is focused on improving operations, service efficiency, food freshness and customer satisfaction and is currently live in four McDonald’s stores, with a further four to follow.
SKF securities have been as much as 45.72% higher in the first hour of ASX trading to A$0.051.
Rise of mobile food ordering
Changing consumer patterns and the increase in mobile ordering, food delivery and drive-through pick-up have introduced new challenges around food freshness in quick service retail (QSR) outlets.
Skyfii will monitor 12 in-store service channels, which include ‘order at counter’, ‘order on mobile’ and ‘drive through’, to determine, among other things, the time it takes for the customer to receive their order.
Skyfii uses LiDAR and thermal imaging technology as well as a bespoke algorithm to categorise and analyse the movement of crew and customers across these service channels in the restaurants.
The data and insights provided by Skyfii’s proprietary technology will allow McDonald’s to understand, in real time, how long it takes to complete each step of service and to determine what factors may lead to a customer experience that does not meet their standard.
Data insights to improve freshness
This will allow the fast food giant to refine its processes through continuous improvement across its franchise, always ensuring food freshness and maximum customer satisfaction.
The agreement is being delivered as an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IAAS) solution, in partnership with Halverson Group, a global strategy and research firm with a long history of working with McDonald’s.
Skyfii says the deal highlights the accuracy and versatility of technology such as LiDAR and is excited about the potential to quickly scale the product across further McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) restaurants and across other quick service retail brands around the world.
McDonald’s director Operations Advanced Analytics Mike Cramer said: “We are excited to be working with Skyfii to develop a system that allows us to monitor our restaurant service channels and the efficiency of our food preparation in real-time.
Product quality paramount
“With an increasing array of order points such as in store, drive-through and in-app purchases, ensuring we maintain our service and product quality is paramount.
“The data provided by Skyfii should help enhance our food preparation cycle, ensuring the freshness of our food to the customer and ultimately delivering increased levels of customer satisfaction.”
Skyfii CEO Wayne Arthur said: “The opportunity to partner with both Halverson Group and McDonald’s to create an industry-first solution that solves some critical pain points for such a large and globally recognised QSR brand is a privilege.
“I am exceptionally proud that as consumer behaviour continues to evolve and the needs of our customers change, Skyfii can advance its solution offering to provide valuable operational data analytics to help solve these pain points for our clients.
"With a very large global QSR market, the ability to leverage this solution and insights from this initial contract across a multitude of venues provides a significant growth opportunity for Skyfii.”