The post Welcome Aboard! Nicolas Wilson Joins the Monkey Media Software Troop as Chief Growth Officer appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>Nic’s journey is anything but conventional—and that’s exactly what makes him the perfect fit for MONKEY. A chef by training and a builder by nature, he brings a rare and powerful blend of culinary artistry, operational excellence, and strategic vision to the table. His career spans Michelin-starred kitchens, high-growth startups, and global advisory roles—all at the intersection of food, technology, and business innovation.
At MONKEY, Nic will be spearheading our next wave of growth, helping restaurants scale their catering operations with impact. His deep appreciation for craft and quality, combined with a bias for action and a laser focus on what truly matters, makes him an invaluable addition to our mission.
We’re beyond excited to have Nic’s passion, perspective, and leadership on board as we enter this new chapter. His ability to connect dots across disciplines and drive meaningful change is exactly what we need as we continue to evolve and expand.
Welcome to the troop, Nic! Let’s build what’s next, together. 
The post Welcome Aboard! Nicolas Wilson Joins the Monkey Media Software Troop as Chief Growth Officer appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>The post Psst, Courtney: S01 E03: Tax Exempt Expiry appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>Are you still applying tax exemptions with expired records?
It might not stop an order, but it will come back to bite — especially when audit season rolls around. What seems like a small oversight can turn into hours of manual clean-up, reissued reports, and awkward explanations.
In this episode of Pssst, Courtney, we’re highlighting a quick win inside Monkey that helps your team stay ahead of Tax Exempt Expiry dates. Whether you’re the one crunching numbers or the one reporting up the chain, this update is built for the accounting heroes who keep operations clean and compliant.
Why this matters:
Avoid compliance gaps during audits
Reduce clean-up and manual corrections
Stay proactive with built-in expiry visibility
Watch the full video to see how it works in action.
And remember, every other Thursday, a new “Pssst, Courtney” episode drops with bite-sized Monkey tips to make your team faster, smarter, and a little less stressed.
The post Psst, Courtney: S01 E03: Tax Exempt Expiry appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>The post Welcome Aboard! Diana Lozano Joins the Monkeysoft Solutions Inc. Troop as Product Marketing Manager appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>Diana joins us with over a decade of experience as an accomplished Full-Stack Marketing and Brand Strategy leader. She specializes in building high-performing marketing engines from the ground up across multiple industries, bringing a proven track record of driving tangible growth.
With a unique blend of creative vision (thanks to her Industrial Design background) and sharp business acumen (from her MBA), Diana is set to define our go-to-market strategies, craft compelling product messaging, and execute multi-channel campaigns that deliver measurable results. Her expertise in customer engagement and sales enablement, combined with proficiency in tools like Adobe Creative Suite, video editing software, CRMs, and analytics platforms, will be invaluable as we continue to innovate and expand.
Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and now based in Vancouver, Diana brings warmth, curiosity, and a deep sense of purpose to everything she builds. We are incredibly excited to have her strategic insight and collaborative spirit on board at such a pivotal moment in our growth.
Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Diana! We are eager to see the impact she will make as we continue to build something amazing together.
The post Welcome Aboard! Diana Lozano Joins the Monkeysoft Solutions Inc. Troop as Product Marketing Manager appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>The post Psst, Courtney s01e02: Menu Item Lead Times appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>Welcome to Psst, Courtney! An ongoing series where Monkey’s Sr Manager of Partner Success chats about our latest features and how to use them.
In this episode of “Psst, Courtney”, Courtney and Lee discuss one of our newest enhancements: menu item lead times.
Got Feedback?
Drop us a note at [email protected]. Your ideas help shape future releases—thanks for swinging by!
The post Psst, Courtney s01e02: Menu Item Lead Times appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>The post Announcing our Website Redesign! appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>We’re excited to announce our website redesign!
We’ve been up to some monkey business behind the scenes, working hard to bring a fresh new look to our site.
What's New
Showcasing our product’s features and what sets us apart, the new site allows you to dive into who we are, what we do, and how we help restaurants take their catering operations to the next level.
Features page
- Explore a comprehensive list (with visuals) of our product’s features and integrations.
- Dive deeper into each feature set and the functionalities it offers (such as performance tracking, logistics, and invoice tracking).
- Discover our feature-specific integration partners (including DoorDash, Punchh, Restaurant365, and more!)
Why Monkey?
- Discover why MonkeyMedia is the best solution for your catering operations.
- Learn about our experience in the catering space (spanning decades).
- Read testimonials from our brand partners.
Blog
Last, but certainly not least, we’re thrilled to announce our new blog.
- Stay up-to-date on the latest news, including feature releases and new integration partnerships.
- Read case studies from our brand partners to learn how we’ve helped their catering operations succeed.
- View our video library, featuring brand partner interviews and our new “Psst, Courtney” series.
Let us know what you think!
Drop us a note at [email protected]. Your ideas help shape future website updates and product releases—thanks for swinging by!
Learn more
If you want to learn more about what MonkeyMedia can do for you, book a live demo with our team!
The post Announcing our Website Redesign! appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>The post Case Study: Ruby Tuesday appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>About Ruby Tuesday
Ruby Tuesday (Inc.) was founded by Sandy Beall in 1972 when the first unit opened next to the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.
Beall’s vision for the restaurant was to serve handcrafted, made-to-order menu items in a warm environment by caring and passionate staff.
Over the next 10 years, Ruby Tuesday grew in popularity and unit count, and in 1982, was sold to Morrison Inc. The sale infused Ruby Tuesday with the financial support needed to grow from 16 locations to 35 by 1985.
The change in ownership signified a time of progress for the chain, as today there are more than 900 locations throughout the U.S. and other international markets.
Watch the Video
The Situation
Although the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain has achieved great success in providing guests with a memorable in-store dining experience, the chain’s catering business reached a plateau in 2010.
Catering since 2002, the company saw a need to offer its guests a catering-service experience; however, as sales increased for this part of the business, so too did the need for an operational overhaul.
Ruby Tuesday executives decided to bring their catering service in-house rather than continue with the outside support firm to handle this aspect of its business. The move allowed Ruby Tuesday executives to build the type of catering program that offered a long-term competitive advantage and fostered future sales growth.
The company hired three catering operators to handle incoming calls, but even that presented its own set of challenges. The catering agents were taking orders while also trying to call stores to handle administration and follow-up responsibilities.
“Within a few weeks, I realized that what we were doing was very cumbersome and not the least bit scalable. I knew that if we didn’t source a technological solution that we might ultimately fail to grow our catering business unit as we hoped,” said Andy Hepp, Vice President of Operations and Implementation at Ruby Tuesday.
“We had to find the best technology available to handle the increased catering sales, keeping in mind that it ultimately must be scalable as the business grew.”
The company turned to MonkeyMedia Software to help re-align its catering strategic vision and to help further establish a catering call center based out of the chain’s Maryville, Tenn., corporate headquarters.
Teaming up with MonkeyMedia Software
“MonkeyMedia Software was the best fit both from a technology and a service standpoint. The service...was just phenomenal. We had a blueprint and they helped support us to get there.”
Through its partnership with MonkeyMedia Software, Ruby Tuesday executives were able to recreate the value proposition of the chain’s catering business unit. Weekly conference calls between both teams highlighted and addressed areas of improvement, and the restaurant chain was given the technology tools and training needed to more efficiently execute its catering program.
By using the MonkeyCatering
platform, the call center was able to handle a larger volume of catering orders with call times moving more quickly – from four to two minutes per order.
“I think the role of a call center agent is very important because it helps us to create a relationship with our customers. A lot of the people we speak with know us by name and so they continue to use us because we have a personal relationship and we know what they like and don’t like,” said Jason Hawk, a Ruby Tuesday catering services agent.
Now, almost two years in, there are still bi-weekly conference calls to assess Ruby Tuesday’s progress and to make any alterations, if necessary, to improve operations. Call center agents have also received ongoing training to fully support the catering business and its customers.
“MonkeyMedia Software was the best fit both from a technology and a service standpoint,” Hepp said. “The service from MonkeyMedia Software was just phenomenal. We had a blueprint and they helped support us to get there. Their MonkeyCatering platform has become the forefront of the company.”
The Results
Since implementing the strategic and technology tools provided by MonkeyMedia Software, Ruby Tuesday has experienced a double-digit sales growth from its catering business.
Other results include:
- An immediate 30% increase in catering sales through the deployment of MonkeyOnlineOrdering, an add-on module that provides a new website and a customer relationship management (CRM) tool
- A 50% decrease in call center order-processing times
- A 2012 year-over-year increase in total catering sales between 12% and 15% across all units
The Future for Ruby Tuesday
“With the MonkeyMedia Software team, their service is stellar and experience evident. They stand by their product and focus on our success.”
The future of the Ruby Tuesday catering program is virtually unlimited as it adds to the company’s solid base of operations and technology that will support its catering business unit.
“Our vision for the next year – obviously we want to continue to grow sales, and we’re going to explore the store console and a couple of other avenues with MonkeyMedia Software to really capitalize on the momentum we have to have a really sustained sales increase,” Hepp said.
Future expectations include:
- A 20% increase to call center staff by end of 2013
- The implementation of a new marketing program to pursue corporate catering accounts and sales
- Catering sales growth to reach 15%-20% by year end 2013
- The roll out of additional technology tools and techniques to increase operational efficiency
“With the MonkeyMedia Software team, their service is stellar and experience evident. They stand by their product and focus on our success,” Hepp said. “It is clear that they have a very high value system within their company culture, and this only adds to their ability to build and maintain a great working relationship.”
The post Case Study: Ruby Tuesday appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>The post Case Study: Einstein Noah Restaurant Group appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>About Einstein Noah Restaurant Group
Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Inc. is the nation’s largest operator of bagel bakeries and the leader in the quick-casual segment of the restaurant industry.
With the help of MonkeyMedia Software, ENRG has expanded the growth and profitability of their catering program with year over year double digit gains.
ENRG’s retail system consists of approximately 730 restaurants in 39 states and the District of Columbia. The group consists of three major brands – Einstein Bros., Noah’s New York Bagels and Manhattan Bagel.
ENRG is on the leading edge of the cultural shift toward food that is fast, but never tastes that way. Their offerings include fresh-baked goods, made-to-order sandwiches, crisp salads and gourmet coffee.
In a desire to bring a better accounting process and control to large average check transactions at the individual store level, Monkey Online Ordering and Monkey Catering were considered and implemented.
The goal was to work with the MonkeyMedia Software team to develop processes and systems to enable better accounting control through their software – ENRG saw that as a core requisite to solidifying their commitment to catering across their brands.
Watch the Video
The Situation
ENRG realized in 2009 that their catering order system was cumbersome for customers and large average orders were very difficult to track.
They also realized that growth in the number of catering orders wasn’t necessarily producing as high a profit margin as they would like.
While ENRG had worked very hard to build their catering revenue, they recognized that more economies of scale and profitability could be achieved through a software system with greater visibility.
Teaming up with MonkeyMedia Software
“MonkeyMedia...has contributed greatly to the realization of these advantages as centralized support implementation reached 100% of company owned restaurants at the end of 2011. It has led to configuring the program for roll-out to ENRG’s franchisee community.”
As the project developed, ENRG recognized the “size of the catering prize.”
The $18 billion dollar off-premise catering industry opportunity converged with their identified need to control and leverage company assets.
From this, a key catering revenue building strategy emerged and, coming into 2010, ENRG restructured its catering business.
The new ENRG catering strategy centered on a commitment to centralize support, which focused on introducing and leveraging these key advantages into existing company operations:
- Better and easier control of the Catering Business
- Greater consistency in order handling
- Higher rate of dependability in order
- Centralized operation devoted strictly to catering, allowing for easier and faster growth
- Convenience – 1.800.BAGELME exclusively for catering customers to phone in orders
- Greater restaurant efficiency by eliminating order processing and tracking at the unit level
Since putting the MonkeyCatering platform in place, catering sales have increased threefold, Wolfgram said.
The catering team has better tools and information at their disposal, and senior management enjoys greater visibility and control over the business.
“Having the software certainly contributed to our growth in catering sales. The back-office functionality alone saves us hours of effort each week, easily justifying the investment,” Wolfgram said. “We have much more accurate data for our entire catering business, and we’re able to make better decisions about its future growth.”
An additional bonus is that now more than 55% of the company’s catering orders come in online rather than over the phone.
“When the customers are inputting their orders, their order accuracy goes up tremendously,” Wolfgram said. “MonkeyMedia Software has proven its worth as a vendor, and they remain an immensely important partner to our business. I don’t think we would have been able to grow as we have without MonkeyCatering.”
ENRG has applied MonkeyOnlineOrdering/MonkeyCatering as a comprehensive platform to manage and measure their capabilities and the flawless execution relative to the following key points:
- Quality of Taste, Order Accuracy, and On-Time Delivery managed through a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that facilitates the capture and distribution of consumer feedback to Operations and Sales leadership. This assures a keen focus on the flawless execution required to aggressively grow the catering revenue stream. ENRG is now able to track, report, and communicate effectively to address and fix the root cause of any execution issues, while applauding and celebrating employee partners who excel.
- Ease of ordering has emerged as a consistent feature for development. The team at MonkeyMedia Software has enrolled in a continuous improvement strategy focused on aligning software functionality with fulfillment of consumer needs, such as convenience and ease of ordering. A recent restructure of the ENRG product order flow resulted in elimination of client frustration and enabled incremental revenue growth through the online ordering platform.
- Availability of Delivery is enhanced and communicated through an online presence. It conveniently allows customers to request delivery and understand availability in a “quick as a click” format.
The increased technological integration and cutting-edge tools from the MonkeyMedia Software platform now allow ENRG to focus on national catering accounts and to maximize revenue from this multibillion-dollar channel.
The Results
“Catering sales grew by 20% in 2011 and by another 19% in the first quarter of 2012. Catering now represents 7% of our menu mix and we expect that momentum to continue.”
As ENRG continues to build and expand its presence, the MonkeyMedia Software team will guide and support the ongoing catering strategy allowing maximization of catering revenue streams though constant innovation and expandable, scalable solutions.
“Working with these capable partners who know the business, understand our guests needs, and have so capably demonstrated alignment with our sales growth strategies has resulted in key contributions to double digit year over year sales growth, while enabling the foundation for doubling our catering sales over the next three years.” -Wayne Alexander, Director of Catering
The post Case Study: Einstein Noah Restaurant Group appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>The post Case Study: Boudin Bakery appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>Introduction
As the No.1 bakery-café concept in the San Francisco Bay area, 22-unit Boudin Bakery was into catering in a big way, offering fresh sandwiches on artisan breads, soups, salads and a great deal more.
Increasing popularity and a manual system brought major challenges for efficient execution.
The organization chose MonkeyMedia Software as the only vendor that could provide a highly customized and automated enterprise-wide operational platform to handle everything from sales and inventory to A/R and reporting.
About Boudin Bakery
Boudin Bakery was established in San Francisco over 160 years ago, and is currently the Bay Area’s oldest continuously running company.
A long lineage of European-trained bakers and a steadfast adherence to tradition have earned Boudin Bakery the reputation as the quintessential purveyor of ‘San Francisco sourdough’.
In fact, Boudin bakers still use a portion of the original 160-year-old mother dough to start each and every new batch.
The Situation
Boudin Bakery is the No. 1 bakery-café concept in the San Francisco Bay Area, having earned a reputation for quality and freshness at reasonable prices.
The company launched its catering program in the 1990s using a manual system that enabled a 10% to 20% increase in sales.
However, the use of a manual system also led to errors in order fulfillment and execution.
(As states by David Wolfgram, Chief Executive Officer of Boudin Bakery’s parent company, Forklift Brands).
Using nothing more than paper and pencils, the catering teams were finding it increasingly difficult to track orders and truly understand how the business was evolving.
When Wolfgram arrived at Boudin Bakery in 2004 – 2005, he went in search of an automated system that could help the catering program continue to grow easily and efficiently.
“Our baking operations and our retail counter sales were well managed using dedicated, professional systems to ensure productivity and efficiency, but our catering business had no equivalent,” Wolfgram said. “We knew we were leaving money on the table.”
Teaming up with MonkeyMedia Software
“Boudin quickly found itself dealing with mounting complexity, and lacking in effective systems to keep track of its new revenue stream. [Monkey's] back-office functionality alone saves us hours of effort each week, easily justifying the investment through constant innovation and expandable, scalable solutions.”
Boudin Bakery was already well acquainted with MonkeyMedia Software on the baking side of the business and had been using the MonkeyBakery ERP platform to run its bakeries for several years.
So when Boudin’s catering program was in need of an overhaul, Wolfgram turned once more to the Vancouver, Canada-based catering software provider.
“It was difficult to grow the catering program because we didn’t have the system to grow it,” Wolfgram said. “There was really no other software provider that addressed our back-of-house needs.”
Those needs included the establishment of automated processes for centralized order management, consolidated store-level production management, visibility into order history, inventory, and accounts receivable.
While programming MonkeyCatering around Boudin’s requirements wasn’t easy, being able to manage the chain’s catering business via a web-based platform was a big benefit.
Additionally, there were no additional hardware or software installations, reducing upfront costs as well as long-term maintenance requirements.
“In the end, we came out with a fantastic product,” Wolfgram said. “The entire MonkeyMedia Software team is exceptionally strong, and even as they grow, they continue to invest time in their customers and work really hard to meet their needs.”
Boudin has now been using the MonkeyCatering platform for six years and has a scalable system in place that can handle the chain’s unit growth as well.
“We use MonkeyMedia Software to run an order desk so, as we open new restaurants, we’re able to leverage the (catering platform) infrastructure,” Wolfgram said.
The Results
“Catering sales have grown significantly – a level of success that would have been impossible prior to implementing MonkeyCatering.”
Since putting the MonkeyCatering platform in place, catering sales have increased threefold, Wolfgram said.
The catering team has better tools and information at their disposal, and senior management enjoys greater visibility and control over the business.
“Having the software certainly contributed to our growth in catering sales. The back-office functionality alone saves us hours of effort each week, easily justifying the investment,” Wolfgram said. “We have much more accurate data for our entire catering business, and we’re able to make better decisions about its future growth.”
An additional bonus is that now more than 55% of the company’s catering orders come in online rather than over the phone.
“When the customers are inputting their orders, their order accuracy goes up tremendously,” Wolfgram said. “MonkeyMedia Software has proven its worth as a vendor, and they remain an immensely important partner to our business. I don’t think we would have been able to grow as we have without MonkeyCatering.”
The post Case Study: Boudin Bakery appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>The post Psst, Courtney s01e01: Weekly YoY Sales Dashboard appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>Welcome to Psst, Courtney! An ongoing series where Monkey’s Sr Manager of Partner Success chats about our latest features and how to use them.
In the pilot episode of Psst, Courtney, Lee and Courtney discuss one of our newest features: the weekly YoY sales dashboard.
Got Feedback?
Drop us a note at [email protected]. Your ideas help shape future releases—thanks for swinging by!
The post Psst, Courtney s01e01: Weekly YoY Sales Dashboard appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>The post New feature: Weekly YoY Sales Dashboard appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>We are excited to deliver some great news to all of our partners: we have officially launched our new Weekly YoY Sales dashboard in the admin console!
This new addition to our system dashboard highlights the top and bottom-performing locations at a glance, as soon as you log into the admin console.
The weekly year-over-year sales dashboard is tailored only to show the data relevant to your permitted regions. The dashboard presents a rolling weekly, year-over-year overview to help quickly and easily review performance metrics for the current sales week.
Performance metrics shown in the weekly YOY report:
- Up to 5 top-performing stores
- Up to 5 bottom-performing stores
- Sales totals
- Number of transactions
- Average spend per transaction
This YoY sales data is refreshed daily, so you’re always up to date on how your weekly sales are trending compared to the same time period last year.
Additionally, changes in performance that trend downward are displayed in red to identify areas where improvements can be made.
Got Feedback?
Drop us a note at [email protected]. Your ideas help shape future releases—thanks for swinging by!
The post New feature: Weekly YoY Sales Dashboard appeared first on MonkeyMedia Software.
]]>