Rising Star Oversees Successful Migration from Legacy POS at 1,500 Locations (2024)

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Hospitality Technology presented Jen McQuown, Project Manager, Dine Brands Global Inc., with the Rising Star in Restaurant Technology award at MURTEC 2024 in Las Vegas.

Making an Impact

In her three years as project manager at Dine Brands, McQuown has made a big impact. Her focus has been on establishing an effective software development lifecycle (SDLC) as IHOP migrated from its legacy 20-year-old point-of-sale (POS) platform to a more contemporary and evolving solution.

McQuown devised a comprehensive quality process that not only addressed the vendor’s approach to quality assurance, but also included extensive user acceptance testing by Dine IT, and a two-phased beta test at live restaurant locations before general availability.

Her colleagues said, “Jen’s strengths lie in her ability to manage her tasks across cross team dependencies, sometimes with competing priorities and quick deadlines. When launching a new project, she delivers timely status updates to senior business and technology stakeholders to set clear goals and expectations. Her management style includes providing concise and consistent feedback throughout a project’s duration. This allows her to deliver the highest quality of work.”

Thanks to McQuown’s process innovations, IHOP was able to implement a new POS across over 1,500 locations, replacing a 20+ year-old legacy technology with a new intuitive user interface and integrated kitchen displays. The new platform has empowered more modern guest-facing technologies, enabling IHOP to deploy more than 7,000 server tablets and table-side payment capabilities. The system has allowed IHOP to improve productivity and customer service with features such as mobile payment, digital waitlist, server tablets and more.

Minding the Details

McQuown is proud of implementing processes to seamlessly migrate IHOP's legacy POS system to a new one. “These processes ensured the quality of operations and reduced potential risks or downtime for the restaurants,” she said.

• Related: Industry Outlook with Dine Brands CEO John Peyton

Her colleagues wholeheartedly agree. “Replacing POS technology is one of the most complex and challenging undertakings in the industry. There are many instances where programs of this nature go poorly and end up being abandoned. We feel fortunate to have had a Project Manager of the caliber and quality of Jen McQuown at the helm of our POS initiative,” her colleagues wrote in her nomination. “The project has seen Jen develop effective negotiation strategies with the vendor, manage release related risks, and balance release-deliverables based stakeholder expectations. Jen’s process innovations have won her the trust of franchise stakeholders and enabled a generational upgrade in technology for IHOP.”

McQuown enjoys working with cross-functional teams. “It brings me joy to facilitate groups and solve problems, ensuring that timely delivery is not hindered in any way,” she explained.

When it comes to technology, McQuown is jazzed about how technology can make restaurants more efficient and improve the guest experience. Looking ahead, she sees potential for more automation. “I'm particularly enthusiastic about integrating robotics in the food industry, specifically in restaurants. Implementing robots for food preparation could revolutionize how food is prepared and ensure consistent quality across all branches of a restaurant brand,” she said.

Receiving the Rising Star in Restaurant Technology award“means so much to me, she said. “We get busy and caught up in the day-to-day work and sometimes feel like we aren't making a difference. However, this recognition serves as a reminder that hard work and dedication never go unnoticed.”

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