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From scanning a QR code to access a restaurant’s menu, to contactless payments for snacks on the go, technology has become an integral part of modern dining. Beyond such staples as delivery apps and digital menus, tech is enabling smoother, easier dining experiences.
Innovorder is at the forefront of such innovations. Since its inception in Paris in 2014, the company has developed software solutions that empower restaurants, mass caterers and other food and beverage (F&B) sector clients to deliver great experiences to their customers. Working with midsized to large restaurant chains, as well as heavyweight catering operators,Innovorder’s solutions help to serve the needs of around 1% of the French population daily.
With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, many F&B organizations turned to technology to help them comply with rapidly changing trading restrictions. Innovorder worked with burger chain Quick to keep its business open while physical stores were closed, pivoting to online ordering within one week.
“Our clients choose Innovorder because we offer a complete ecosystem of solutions, from front-of-house and back-office, to online delivery and self-service orders,” explains Olivier Loverde, CTO at Innovorder. “They’re able to direct their channels into a single integrated platform, helping to streamline production management, monitor sales, and reduce costs.”
To support its rapid growth, Innovorder decided to develop its existing stack into a powerful, flexible multi-cloud infrastructure, turning to DoiT to provide the expertise it needed.
Migrating to Google Cloud to access serverless and managed services
Innovorder’s platform covers a broad range of services. That includes everything from loyalty programs and online payment solutions, through to innovative smart fridges offering self-service food and drinks. Demand for Innovorder’s services fluctuates throughout the day, peaking with the lunchtime rush and dinner service. To better manage this variable traffic and reduce its operational burden, Innovorder decided to migrate several key services to Google Cloud to leverage its SaaS and serverless tools.
“With Google Cloud, we can autoscale using Google Kubernetes Engine and integrate serverless tools, such as Cloud Functions,” says Olivier. “We can easily handle very high order volumes for our clients. Using Firestore, we can create a multiscreen ticket order solution that enables a fast-paced restaurant in Paris to handle more than 2,000 orders per day. Google Cloud is a very open platform and offers great networking tools, such as Anthos, that fit well with our multicloud strategy.”
Getting DoiT on board for best practices from the start
When its partnership with DoiT began, Innovorder had already started its migration to Google Cloud and was deploying advanced services, such as Spot VMs on Kubernetes clusters, to make its stack as cost-efficient as possible. But, with a relatively small DevOps team, Innovorder needed support with some of its more complex ambitions, including cluster migrations and networking challenges arising from its multicloud deployment.
“DoiT has a broader view on how companies are successfully leveraging new cloud technologies, so it can offer deep expertise to help us use best practices in deploying the many different services we use,” says Olivier. “As DoiT consultants are the experts, they can help us to get the most cost-effective use from Google Cloud.”
Providing advice to make projects move faster
One of the first projects that Innovorder undertook with DoiT was the creation of a bridge between Google Cloud and another cloud provider, using Terraform infrastructure as code software. “Thanks to DoiT’s advice, something that would have taken us two weeks was completed in two days,” says Olivier of the project. “It confirmed that the support DoiT provides wins us time, which is our priority.”
Another complex project was the migration of one of Innovorder’s messaging clusters from an in-house deployment to an automatic deployment. DoiT helped Innovorder to find the right solution to complete the migration, without any downtime. “We are a critical service for our clients, who are relying on us all day, every day to serve their customers,” says Olivier. “Being able to maintain the highest uptime possible while improving our infrastructure is a big help.”
Delivering cost-efficiency every day
While Innovorder’s priority is saving time, DoiT has also been helping the company save money. In one example, Innovorder received a message on its Slack channel highlighting a cost anomaly that was costing the company $3,000 a day without its knowledge. This error could have cost Innovorder $30,000 or more had it been discovered at the end of the month.
“We really like DoiT’s cost tracking console CMP and especially the cost anomaly detection feature,” confirms Olivier. “In just a few months of working with DoiT, the cost anomaly feature has let us know multiple times about misconfigurations that needed adapting, enabling us to work with DoiT and Google Cloud to correct our invoicing.”
Accelerating towards a more resilient infrastructure
Innovorder says that the main benefit of working with DoiT is the ability to focus on moving fast. Eliminating points of failure in the system was the key goal for its migration project, empowering developers and making the platform more resilient and reliable. With the help of DoiT, Innovorder has been able to accelerate that project and achieve its aims at no extra cost, thanks to DoiT’s zero cost model.
“We know that we can solve simple issues ourselves, but when it comes to complex challenges, it’s great to be able to access DoiT’s support and expertise,” says Olivier. “They are always very quick to answer when we have a question or an issue, and it’s reassuring to know that we are not alone.”
Scaling up internationally, with the best tools for the job
Innovorder says its plan for the upcoming year is to continue strengthening its multi-cloud approach, leveraging CMP to provide a unified view across all its cloud providers. That will help it to pick and choose the best products for its needs, from Google Cloud or elsewhere, and to maintain its trajectory of doubling its growth every year.
“As we’re better able to manage our time and do more with less, we’ve been able to keep our development team small and still achieve our development goals,” concludes Olivier. “Now, we want to focus on scaling up and preparing to expand Innovorder internationally. DoiT’s ongoing support as a technological partner will help us to do that.”
