Background
East Side Mario’s is a family-oriented Italian restaurant brand with more than 60 restaurants, known for pasta, pizza, soup, salad and garlic homeloaf. Recipe Unlimited, formerly CARA, operates and franchises a portfolio of more than 1,100 restaurants.
The brand was an early production rollout of VECOM in the engagement that began with CARA. By 2016, it was taking live web, mobile and call-centre orders on the platform, establishing a foundation that has continued to evolve.
Visionmax built, branded and operated the original web and mobile ordering applications for a couple of years. Recipe later took over their front-end development, creative and branding work, retaining VECOM APIs for the technical catalog, e-commerce functions and application services.
The Challenge
The ordering platform needed to translate a varied Italian menu, configurable dishes and meal combinations into clear customer selections and actionable restaurant orders.
Web, mobile and telephone orders had to work with shared menu and pricing rules while reaching the appropriate restaurant for pickup or delivery. Call-centre staff also needed tools to assist customers after an order was placed.
A durable solution had to connect the initial customer experience with restaurant POS, loyalty and business operations, and continue to support later changes to both channels and back-end systems.
The Solution
Visionmax implemented its Enterprise Customer Order Management system as the central application foundation, with branded ordering interfaces at launch and integrated services for ongoing operation.
Customer channels and APIs: The original web and mobile applications enabled digital ordering. Today, Recipe’s front ends use VECOM APIs for product catalogs, configured meals, pricing and e-commerce workflows.
Call-centre application: Visionmax continues to provide the agent application for telephone ordering and customer troubleshooting, integrated with the IVR and the same order-management services.
Menu and promotion management: The platform connects restaurant menu information with digital and assisted ordering, supporting product choices, pricing, specials, coupons and continuing brand-specific development.
Loyalty and payment integration: Scene balance inquiry, redemption toward meals and earning on paid orders form part of the ordering workflow. The original implementation also incorporated payment and gift-card interfaces alongside operational reporting and accounting integration.
POS and fulfillment: Orders reach the restaurant POS for automatic kitchen printing, pickup lookup and payment, and delivery-driver reconciliation. Subsequent integration work has supported the evolution from legacy Oracle Micros systems to newer Oracle Simphony environments.
The Results
East Side Mario’s gained a live omnichannel ordering foundation that connected guests and agents to restaurant fulfillment. Visionmax continues to support and develop the application as the brand’s requirements evolve.
When Recipe brought front-end development in house, the technical ordering services remained on VECOM. That separation supports new customer experiences without discarding the enterprise application behind them.
The engagement demonstrates continuity across an initial digital launch, an evolving menu and promotional program, and successive generations of restaurant integration.