Fast-food chain could soon be going faster

McDonald's restaurants across Saudi Arabia will undergo digital transformations to enhance customer transactions and service agility, the country's main McDonald's licensee announced recently.

Riyadh International Catering Corp. (RICC), which owns and operates the restaurants in Saudi Arabia's north, east and central regions, has enlisted Cognizant to provide IT services and guide the digital transformation.

"In today's digital era, it is ever more important for restaurant chains to re-engineer and digitize their most essential business processes to improve user experiences, transform service delivery and deliver better outcomes," Narayan Iyer, vice president of Cognizant's Middle East and India operations, said. "We look forward to helping RICC build a robust and scalable enterprise system across its McDonald's outlets in Saudi Arabia, as well as create competitive advantage through process excellence and business agility."

Cognizant will help create a platform that uses SAP Success Factors and ECC software to offer a real-time look at the everyday operations and quality control in the restaurants. The platform will simplify and standardize key supply chain, food and workforce processes, and improve numerous business aspects, including throughput and speed-to-market.

"As we embark upon an aggressive growth plan for McDonald's, it is imperative that we deliver our digital-era customers the experiences they expect, while also empowering and engaging our modern workforce," Waleed Al-Saud, vice president of Business Support at RICC, said. "Technology has become central to unlocking the full potential of enterprise resources and turning data into a competitive asset. Cognizant's deep digital expertise and vast industry experience will help us become a smarter, more agile enterprise for the needs of tomorrow."