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Online ordering system will get bigger slice
By Chuck Soder of Crain's Cleveland As if college students weren’t doing enough for the pizza industry. The three Case Western Reserve University seniors who founded O-Web Technologies Ltd. say the company is shifting its primary focus from web development to its rapidly growing online food ordering system. The company’s 1-year-old ONOSYS web application now serves more than 100 restaurants, most of which are in Northeast Ohio. And the three students plan to speed up the spread of the system — partly because they won’t be students for long. Founders Stan Garber, Alex Yakubovich and Oleg Fridman turned in their final exams last week and are slated to graduate from Case May 20. They admitted that the business took precedence over schoolwork this year — “We still finished strong,” Mr. Garber said with a laugh — and now O-Web Technologies, and ONOSYS in particular, will have their full attention. The online food ordering system makes up about 20% of O-Web Technologies’ business, but Mr. Yakubovich said he expects ONOSYS to become the company’s main source of income. The $2-per-day fee charged to each store provides a recurring revenue stream.“ONOSYS is probably going to be the driving force behind our growth,” Mr. Yakubovich said. O-Web Technologies was already expanding. The company earned about $250,000 in revenue during 2006, up from about $120,000 in 2005 and $60,000 in 2004, its first full year. The founders aim to double their revenue to $500,000 this year, with an increasing amount coming from ONOSYS. They also plan to hire their first two employees.The trio built ONOSYS when Rascal House Pizza of Cleveland asked them to design a system customers could use to order food on the restaurant’s web site. The local chain worked with O-Web as the company designed the product, which remembers past orders so that customers can repeat them and so that it can recommend additional purchases. “The joke is, ‘Do you want breadsticks with that? We already knew that,’” said Mr. Garber, senior sales manager. The company markets the product to independently owned businesses that deliver food. It already has snagged a few stores owned by larger franchises such as Quiznos Subs and Chili’s Grill & Bar in hopes of expanding to more stores in those chains. ONOSYS has competitors, but many restaurants still don’t have online ordering systems, said Mr. Fridman, senior information manager. “We’re in a very new industry, so no one really has a stranglehold on it yet,” he said. None of the company’s restaurants have dropped the product, and Pizza Pan, the largest ONOSYS customer, requires new franchise owners to use it, said Annie Maver, director of operations for The Original Pizza Pan Inc. of Cleveland. Ms. Maver said the system is good for customers who don’t speak English. Rascal House president Mike Frangos said it leads to fewer errors and less waiting to place orders. “I think the customers like it because it saves them time,” Mr. Frangos said. The product is one of three nominees that will be considered for an award in the best web site/e-commerce application category during the Northeast Ohio Software Association Best of Tech Awards May 22. There were 60 entries, said NEOSA director Brad Nellis. “The competition in this category was pretty strong,” he said.
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