Technology buying failures rarely happen because a team chose the “wrong” software. They happen earlier when facilities or restaurant operations enter the RFP process without the strategy, clarity, or alignment required to make a good decision.

Most technology buyers in retail and restaurant facilities only see a handful of locations, kitchens or service workflows over the course of their careers — often within the same company, sometimes within the same operational model. That means they know what their environment looks like, but they have limited visibility into what “good” looks like across industries, growth stages or facility types. At the same time, technology is accelerating, vendors are proliferating and consolidating, and marketing claims are getting louder — especially around IoT-enabled building management, kitchen automation and integrated facilities platforms.

Against that backdrop, many buyers treat the RFP as a starting point. They move quickly, rely on familiar signals and focus requirements on the most immediate problems in front of them. Unfortunately, those instincts often lead to predictable and expensive mistakes.

Read Retail and Restaurant Facility Business’s full article to learn the 10 ways buyers get it wrong before the RFP ever hits the street and what a strategy-first approach does differently, according to JBF’s Strategy Principal, Tara Buchler.