Deploying software for a restaurant — especially an established quick-service restaurant (QSR) with multiple locations — is often described as a painstakingly long and complex process. And in my experience building ERP software for restaurants in Africa, this sentiment is generally true.

When a QSR already has existing processes and workflows, deploying a new platform isn’t just about installing software; it’s about aligning functionality with habits, culture, and entrenched systems. For multi-location operations, this often stretches into months of discussions, pilot programs, iterations, change management meetings, and endless ‘alignment’ calls.

Or so I thought.

A Recent Lesson: It’s About Will, Not Time

In December 2024, we started conversations with one of Nigeria’s most popular QSR brands, with over 30 locations and 500+ staff members. The plan was to gradually deploy our Orda platform across all their branches. December came and went. So did January. Then February. By the end of March 2025, we were still deep in conversations.
No pilot. No deployment. Just discussions.

Then, everything changed.

Suddenly, the QSR realized that their existing software provider would not extend their contract, and they faced the real threat of losing operational support within a week.
The stakes couldn’t have been higher — we were staring at the possibility of deploying a full ERP system across 30+ locations, training over 500 staff members, and switching over critical restaurant operations, all within five days.

And we did it.
Pain, sweat, tears — and not much sleep over the Easter weekend — but we did it.
Today, that QSR runs their entire operation on the Orda platform.

What Changed?

The forced deadline brought absolute clarity:

• No more endless feature debates.
• No more wish lists.
• No more chasing perfection.

Everyone — from the restaurant team to ours — focused only on what absolutely needed to work on Day 1. Everything else? We agreed to fix or refine once operations were stable.

In the end, it wasn’t the complexity that had stretched the process for months.
It was the luxury of time.

When urgency became real, deployment didn’t take months.
It took less than a week.

Lessons for Restaurant Tech Deployments

• Urgency drives focus.
  When there’s no time to waste, stakeholders prioritize real needs over “nice-to-haves.”
  
• Software doesn’t have to be perfect to launch.
  A restaurant needs core operations to be stable — POS, inventory management, reporting. Everything else can evolve.
  
• People can adapt faster than we think.
  When given a clear goal and the right support, even 500+ staff across 30+ locations can transition to new software in days, not months.
  
• Process length is a choice.
  Deployments feel long because people allow them to be. If the will exists, even complex transformations can happen fast.

From my years in the food business ERP space, here’s what this experience reinforced:

Finally

Deploying software for restaurants — especially large QSR chains — is still hard work. There’s no getting around that. But it doesn’t have to be a never-ending marathon.
It can be fast, focused, and transformational — if the business decides it needs to be.

To every enterprise team out there: sometimes, you don’t need six months of planning.
Sometimes, you just need one week of intense, committed action.