Dive Brief:

• Chowly partnered on Monday with DoorDash, enabling restaurant partners to use third-party delivery drivers while still taking orders through their native channels, according to a press release. With the DoorDash Drive integration, a restaurant accepts the delivery orders directly, and Chowly's system then deploys the DoorDash driver. 
• The DoorDash Drive integration streamlines restaurants' delivery operations during peak times, unexpected surges of orders, slow periods and service outside of standard areas.
• "We're excited to partner with Chowly and integrate our unparalleled fleet of Dashers and on-demand ordering platform with their POS solutions to help restaurants nationwide master delivery operations while maintaining their brand integrity and a deep connection to their customer base," DoorDash Drive VP Casey North said in the release. 

Dive Insight:

Though delivery is here to stay, it's taking some time to make it operationally efficient for restaurant operators. Some have had to deal with front counters littered with third-party tablets, and struggled to free up employees' time to learn those systems and manually key in orders. By providing this POS integration, restaurant operators could win back that space and time, and also win back some direct-to-consumer control given up to delivery companies handling the delivery logistics through their apps. 

The DoorDash and Chowly relationship is just one example of more companies integrating third-party solutions into their POS systems, and they're doing so not just for delivery but also for services like loyalty, catering and online ordering. Also on Monday, for example, Revel Systems announced the launch of Revel Integrated, designed to help third-party partners easily integrate with its POS. Olo also teamed up with Waitr  in August to integrate Olo Rails, a program which allows digital orders to be transmitted directly to stores, into its restaurant partners. 

Restaurants are quickly catching on to the benefits of such integration. When Checkers rolled out delivery with five different third-party companies, the company made sure it had the integration piece down — through a partnership with Olo — because executives believed it helped maintain consistency and enabled order accuracy and efficiency. Checkers & Rally's CEO Rick Silva told Forbes the company was able to maintain brand quality and control because of this full integration.

"All of the orders go straight to the kitchen. You won't see iPads on the front counter that our employees have to re-key orders into every time," Silva said. 

This integration could provide better accuracy, since employees aren't manually keying in orders. Such automation could also save on labor costs. Once Jet's Pizza integrated its online ordering process through Chowly, for example, one store saved $800 a month in labor, according to ezCater.com. 

In addition to Chowly, Revel and Olo, other companies like Ordermark and Checkmate are also working to streamline third-party services into restaurants' POS systems. Delivery companies themselves are working on the integration piece, as is the case with Grubhub's partnership with Dunkin' and Dine Brands Global, for example. 

In the DoorDash Drive release, Chowly noted its plans to expand its POS integration solutions in the coming months. As off-premise business grows and restaurants become more dependent on third-party partners to help facilitate those channels, expect even more players to adopt an integration mindset.