How Church's Texas Chicken Manages Tech Creep
At the Restaurant Technology Network's September town hall, Church's Texas Chicken SVP and CTO Jeff Caplan described how the company manages technology demand while scaling beyond 1,500 locations worldwide. He grounds every technology decision in maximizing unit-level economics across three facets: guest experience, making it easier to prepare great food, and making restaurants easier to manage. He cited the corporate data lake as an example of spreading coverage across AI and traditional analytics. He also noted difficulty recruiting technology talent, especially people with restaurant operations experience and cybersecurity skills, and urged peers to collaborate rather than solve problems…
Impact and considerations
Multi-unit restaurant and lodging operators face similar pressure as store counts and technology scope grow faster than resources. Tying technology spend to unit-level economics and prioritizing initiatives that satisfy multiple goals is a practical way to contain tech creep. Talent scarcity and vendor-management capa…
Key points
- Church's Texas Chicken operates more than 1,500 locations worldwide, and the broadening scope of technology across the enterprise is placing the greatest pressure on its technology organization.
- Caplan grounds every technology decision in maximizing unit-level economics, focusing on guest experience, making it easier to prepare great food, and making restaurants easier to manage.
- Roughly 80% of Church's Texas Chicken U.S. locations are franchised, making unit-level economics a critical focus.
- The corporate data lake produces both AI-based and traditional analytics and BI deliverables, cited as an example of spreading coverage with limited resources.
- Recruiting technology talent is difficult; the ideal candidate combines restaurant operations experience with technology skills, and cybersecurity experience is also in high demand, even with an Atlanta headquarters.
- Caplan advises technology leaders to raise their hands and collaborate with peers rather than try to solve challenges alone.
- In retrospect, he would have spent more time and money earlier on AI infrastructure and R&D to be better prepared when demand surged.
- The article is the first in a three-part series.
Sources and time
- Primary source
- Hospitality Technology
- Other sources
- 0
- First source publication
- 24 Sept 2026, 02:56
- Page published
- 24 Sept 2026, 04:50
- Last updated
- 24 Sept 2026, 02:56
- Original links
- Hospitality Technology：How Church's Texas Chicken Manages Tech Creep (opens in a new tab)Primary source · en · Published 24 Sept 2026, 02:56