Why Quick-Service Restaurants Are Exploring Network-as-a-Service

Digital transformation has changed everything

When you walk into any quick-service or fast casual restaurant today, new technology is everywhere. Mobile orders are waiting for pickup, customers are ordering from kiosks, kitchen management systems are integrated with third-party delivery platforms, and digital menu boards are updated in real-time. According to the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant Technology Landscape Report 2024, 76% of restaurant operators say using technology gives them a competitive edge, and 73% of operators increased their technology investments in 2024, marking the highest rate of digital adoption in the sector's history.

Alongside all these advances, a challenge often goes unnoticed. Most of these new technologies depend on reliable network connectivity. Mobile ordering, delivery service integrations, cloud-based point-of-sale systems, customer Wi-Fi, smart kitchen equipment and security cameras all rely on the store's link to the outside world. If the network fails or slows down, the action stops. Orders can't be placed, payments can't go through, and customers end up frustrated.

QSRs face intense competition, narrow profit margins and high customer expectations. In this setting, network issues can quickly hurt both revenue and brand reputation.

The resource problem: Too much Network, not enough team

Restaurant operators want to spend their time on creating great customer experiences. Despite their dependence on store networking, they aren't interested in becoming experts in network engineering any more than they want to build expertise in electricity generation and distribution.

Many QSR brands operate with lean corporate IT teams out of necessity. Often, it's just a handful of people responsible for supporting hundreds or even thousands of locations. These small teams are expected to design and operate complex distributed networks, and respond to incidents or outages at locations spread across multiple states, time zones, or even countries.

The shortage of qualified technologists has exacerbated this situation. For restaurant brands competing with technology companies for talent, attracting and retaining experienced network engineers is a difficult task, and qualified candidates expect compensation packages that can be challenging for companies operating on slim profit margins to justify.

The end result is that IT staff spend more time fighting fires instead of working on projects that help the business grow. A single network outage during a busy period can disrupt an entire day's plans and maintenance. Add in technical debt, deferred maintenance, and security issues, and IT teams end up primarily reacting to problems instead of preventing them.

The hidden costs of your infrastructure

When restaurant operators consider the cost of their network, they can make the mistake of focusing solely on per-unit acquisition costs and overlooking the long, expensive tail of operations.

To see the full cost, you have to consider your network's entire lifecycle. The large capital investment to buy enough hardware for all locations is just the start. Deploying new hardware at scale takes dedicated project managers to handle the careful planning, coordination and tracking. Once deployed, teams have to manage support contracts, carrier relationships, field support agreements, and a help desk for incident calls. Operations staff handle software and security updates, troubleshoot problems, keep spare parts inventory, and dispatch technicians for repairs.

In addition to all of this, poor total cost visibility and predictability are commonplace, causing frustration for corporate finance teams. Ongoing costs are challenging to forecast and optimize when you lack the necessary data and expertise to model and report them accurately.

What network-as-a-service delivers

Network-as-a-Service fundamentally changes how you manage your network. Instead of owning and maintaining your own equipment, you consume networking as a subscription service, much like cloud-based software. You pay a set monthly or yearly fee for a full range of networking features. NaaS providers usually supply all the hardware, carrier connections, network management, 24/7 support, security updates, and equipment replacements. Performance guarantees are codified through service agreements.

The benefits are immediately clear. Rather than your small IT team managing the network, the NaaS provider's operations center handles 24/7 monitoring. They may spot and fix issues before your staff even notices. If hardware needs replacing, they handle the technician dispatch and reconfiguration. Support issues and outages are managed directly with the provider, and their systems can be integrated with yours to streamline incident management.

Financially, NaaS turns unpredictable costs into steady monthly or yearly payments that cover the entire service. When you open new locations (or close underperforming ones), the cost changes at a known rate. This approach makes cash flow easier to manage and simplifies your budgeting.

Most importantly, your IT team can focus on what matters most: supporting growth, improving customer experiences, and driving new ideas that boost revenue or delight customers. Instead of spending most of their time on maintenance, they can work on strategic projects.

Real-world impact: Where NaaS makes a difference

Consider a mid-sized QSR chain planning to open 75 new locations over the next 12 months. With traditional in-house infrastructure management, this expansion creates a massive workload, including procuring and configuring equipment, coordinating with telecommunications carriers across multiple markets, scheduling installation technicians, and testing and troubleshooting at each location.

The IT team often handles deploying new locations without extra help. This creates increased risk for ongoing support and potential delays in new openings. The newly opened stores are additive to the sustainment workload, leading to more trouble tickets, outage calls, and firefighting. Over time, this cycle can hurt team morale and cause burnout.

With NaaS, the same expansion can happen with minimal internal resources. The provider handles all aspects of the deployment, increasing the probability that new stores come online on schedule. The IT team provides input on requirements and monitors progress, but they're not bogged down in the daily operational details. And when the new stores are open, the support burden for the internal team hasn't increased because the NaaS provider handles it all.

As another example, consider a critical security incident such as a software vulnerability in networking equipment that requires immediate patching. With in-house management, your small team needs to inventory affected devices, regression test the patches, schedule maintenance windows, coordinate with store managers, deploy the updates, and verify success, all while handling their normal workload.

With NaaS, the provider can leverage their scale to amortize the burden of testing and preparation efforts across their customer base. They already have detailed inventory records and can manage updates in a controlled manner throughout their fleet. Their size and automation expertise mean updates happen faster, more safely, and with clearly reportable results, all without using your internal resources.

The cost transparency advantage

A key benefit of NaaS is the clear view it gives you into costs. Most in-house IT teams have trouble tracking the true cost of networking for each location. While they may know what they spend on equipment and contracts, it's hard to account for support time, travel, spare parts, training, and management across many sites. This often gets overlooked or poorly estimated.

NaaS providers give you detailed cost information. You can see exactly what each location costs every month, which makes it easier to plan for growth, compare performance in different areas, and calculate the return on your network investment. This transparency supports better decisions and helps explain IT spending to company leaders and franchisees.

Choosing the right NaaS partner

Picking the right partner is important. Select a provider who has experience working with restaurants and retail establishments. These settings have special needs and can be more complex than they seem. Look for high-quality Wi-Fi, seamless integration with POS, payment, and kitchen management systems, support for smart devices such as IoT sensors and cameras, and a proven track record of resolving problems within SLA bounds.

Evaluate potential partners across several dimensions:

• Examine their service level agreements carefully. What uptime guarantees do they provide? What are the response times for different severity levels? What remedies are available if SLA targets are missed?
• Assess their geographic coverage. Can they support all your current locations and the markets where you plan to expand?
• Understand their security capabilities and compliance certifications. Do they support PCI-DSS requirements? How do they handle data privacy?
• Evaluate their support model. Is support available 24/7/365? What contact methods do they provide? Do you get a dedicated account team that understands your business?
• Consider scalability and flexibility. As your business grows and your technology needs evolve, can the provider adapt? Do they have a published service enhancements roadmap?

For QSRs operating nationwide, only a few NaaS providers can meet all these needs. Very large brands might consider working with two providers, but this can add complexity that may not be worthwhile.

The competitive imperative

The restaurant industry is in a technology arms race. Customers expect high quality, seamless digital ordering, fast Wi-Fi, and innovative experiences. Operators who can't deliver on these expectations will fall behind. Delivering great experiences increasingly requires reliable network infrastructure. In an industry with tight margins, labor shortages, and intense competition, dedicating scarce internal resources to managing networks is increasingly untenable.

Moving to Network-as-a-Service can be a strategic shift to focus your limited resources on the things that matter most to your business. By partnering with specialized providers that deliver enterprise-grade networking as a managed service, QSRs can achieve predictable costs, expert support, and greater freedom to innovate.

Key takeaways

• Small IT teams struggle with digital demands – Many QSR brands have lean IT teams managing hundreds of locations, spending more time on operations and firefighting than driving strategic growth initiatives.
• Hidden costs go far beyond hardware – True network ownership costs include deployment, maintenance, security updates, spare parts and field support – expenses that are difficult to forecast and often poorly tracked.
• NaaS delivers predictable pricing – Network-as-a-Service provides comprehensive management, 24/7 monitoring, hardware replacement and security updates at a predictable cost that scales with your business.
• Expert management enables faster growth – NaaS providers handle new store rollouts, operations and maintenance across all locations, leveraging scale and automation without burdening internal teams.

If you're ready to explore how Network-as-a-Service can transform your restaurant's network infrastructure, contact us to discuss your specific needs and learn about our trusted NaaS partners who specialize in supporting quick-service restaurant operations.