American restaurant chain Waffle House has selected Olo, an open SaaS [software as a service] platform for restaurants, to lead its first brand-wide digital investment.

The restaurant chain will implement Olo’s order and pay products across all its 1,950 locations in the US.

Waffle House will leverage Olo’s Order and Pay services along with Borderless accounts and Expo to modernise ordering.

The deployment is expected to simplify the payment system for both guests and employees.

Olo's platform will serve as a foundation for Waffle House to develop its next level of digital offerings.

The restaurant will offer online ordering using Olo Serve and its white-label web browser interface.

In the first quarter of 2024, the restaurant also plans to launch its own app for a seamless mobile ordering experience.

With ordering and payment processing from Olo, Waffle House expects to register significant operational efficiencies across its front and back-of-house.

Through Olo Borderless accounts, guests can order online and pick up to enjoy at home or on the go.

Waffle House can also simplify the checkout process for guests. The need to remember a password or manually enter credit card information at every purchase can be eliminated.

Waffle House innovation and strategy vice-president Patrick Marshburn stated: “Digital ordering and pay will streamline the ordering process from start to finish for our customers and associates.

“Digital innovation across our brand is a big step for Waffle House and, with Olo as a partner, we are excited about leveraging the strategic and financial value of Olo’s reliable platform as we offer digital ordering to our customers.”

Olo founder and CEO Noah Glass stated: “Leveraging the broad reach and extensibility of our platform, we’re committed to ongoing innovation across all of our product suites as we accelerate the future of restaurant technology. We look forward to enabling hospitality at scale for our growing portfolio of new and existing restaurant brands like Waffle House.”

In April 2023, Olo introduced Olo Connect to help speed up innovation in the restaurant sector.

Olo Connect has been designed to work with technology and service providers to offer a simple path to build on the Olo platform, giving restaurant brands control over proven tools to leverage.