An Ohio Startup is Helping Restaurants Go Digital

In 2022, it’s easy to feel like we’ve always ordered our food digitally. But not too long ago, it was a rarity to place an order online, for curbside pickup or through an app. Not every company has caught up in the meantime, and that’s where Independence-based Onosys comes in.

“If a restaurant brand doesn’t have their own internal, online solution for customers to order, we create it and brand it for their organization,” said President Chris Anderle. “There’s a big switch going on where, in the past, it was a lot of dine-in or call-in orders and now consumers — especially younger consumers — are adopting this new ordering technology over the last few years. When a restaurant partners with us, we integrate with a point-of-sale, payment provider and other systems and act as an extension of their brand and their tech staff.. We’re really the engine behind the success of their digital ordering and their customers’ digital ordering experience.”

Founded by Case Western graduates way back in 2006, Onosys was a pioneer in online ordering. After a few years of different ownership and varying investment, the company is now in a more stable place than ever, and has worked with brands like Panera Bread and Bloomin’ Brands. While there are a variety of online ordering concepts out there for delivery and online orders, Anderle says Onosys is among the most customizable, stable and integrated. And his best case study is the original delivery food: pizza.

“Pizza is actually pretty complex to handle with online ordering,” he said. “You get into half toppings, double toppings and combinations that make for difficult pricing. We recognized that long ago and built a really complex system to handle pizza topping pricing, so we have an initiative to attract more pizza brands. Our platform can easily handle the most complex toppings and orders. And that can be applied in other areas. For instance, we have Swenson’s on our platform and they have complex milkshake combinations. It can also be used for bowl concepts like Bibibop.”

Like many companies, Onosys found itself racking up case studies amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While organizations scrambled to equip their restaurants with curbside or delivery models, Onosys knew that they could do the job.

“All of the sudden, overnight, a lot of restaurants started using what they called ‘curbside pickup’ with labeled parking spaces and that system,” Anderle said. “So we came up with a way to identify curbside deliveries. We have functionality that can change delivery type between in-store, delivery or curbside and drive-through orders. We worked with brands to understand what they wanted and needed in order to succeed, and worked hard to implement solutions for them.”

Now, the company is in an exciting growth phase, adding clients and gearing up for a “big launch” of new products later this year. And as they continue to expand, Anderle said their Ohio home deserves credit for helping the company grow, offering programs that can assist and providing all the talent they need.

“Ohio has a lot of technology resources, more than people even realize,” he said. “Because of the universities and other tech-oriented programs, there are a number of different options. And there are a number of VC organizations that can help with investments. Finding developers is a major part of what we do, and here in Independence, we’re in a hub for northeast Ohio. We can attract talent from Akron down to Medina and from Cleveland. We’re located perfectly to draw that talent.”