Background
Curriesonline is one of the UK’s leading niche players in the online takeaway market. From a start-up in 2008, the business has rapidly grown to become the Indian sector specialist delivering an easy-to-use online ordering experience coupled with a host of value-added consumer benefits including their much praised ‘currypedia’ information source for lovers of fine curry.
The Challenge
Adoption and take-up of the online ordering business are critical to the success of the country’s food outlets. A recent report from a major pizza chain saw online sales account for over 60% of turnover. Yet whereas large corporate chains can easily dictate the direction of their business model, the likes of Curriesonline must be more persuasive in their sales proposition dealing almost exclusively with single operator companies.
Ease of use and cost are two major perquisites according to Shamin Hoque, Founder and Managing Director of Curriesonline: “From the early days where restaurant owners would only want to take phone or fax orders from our platform, at last the penny has dropped. Today, sophisticated yet one button control printing devices are the key to our business. With no need for fixed line connectivity, GPRS SIM-based technology enables food operators to receive and acknowledge online ordering.”
The Solution
Curriesonline consumer platform has been developed to lead consumers directly to their takeaway of choice in just two simple steps. With a seamless ordering process, the two-way connectivity between platform and outlet then becomes the critical link. Orders are logged, paid for and then packaged directly to the Curriesonline portable printing device located at a food outlet’s point of sale. Simplicity of use for all operators has resulted from continued investment in the printing hardware and software interface, all developed in-house by Curriesonline’s development team. And it is here that the arrival of the Global SIM has positively enhanced the overall technology interface. “The ability for a Global SIM to aggressively roam for optimised network strength means that our entire business model does not require human intervention to individually test each location,” continues Shamin Hoque. “This keeps our cost-base down and creates a highly competitive cost of entry for all participating outlets.”
Delivering the entire connectivity platform is the responsibility of Wireless Logic, Europe’s leading M2M Managed Services connectivity provider. With access to every UK and European mobile network, Wireless Logic have brought specialist and independent advice to Curriesonline, steering the organisation to select the Vodafone Global SIM as primary network. “Our brief was to recommend a resilient solution that would plug and play regardless of location,” states Justin Godfrey-Cass, Business Development Manager for Wireless Logic. “Curriesonline also required complete visibility and control so that data usage or indeed misuse would be well and truly managed. By recommending a Global data SIM, its roaming and data-only functionality have met the business’s needs entirely.”
Provisioning, monitoring and usage alerts are all managed by Curriesonline using Wireless Logic’s ‘SIMPro’ platform. Each SIM can be monitored with individual reports and billing options available to the Curriesonline team. “This gives us a 360 view of our SIM estate – we can view performance, roaming choice and control usage in real-time. In this way, the lifeline of our business between platform and food outlet is in our hands, at all times,” continues Curriesonline’s Shamin Hoque.
Cost management is key to the online business. “A competitive monthly 10mb tariff was sought,” explains Justin Godfrey-Cass. “Wireless Logic packaged a Vodafone solution tailored to the specific needs of the online business. With this, Curriesonline can roll out a highly competitive monthly cost which is supported by a range of value-added services. Our solution gives Shamin’s business a worry-free connectivity platform which allows him and the Curriesonline team to focus on customer service and customer acquisition.”
We have thousands of food outlets online with us, yet the market is still untapped. Our unique curry-only proposition with low cost of ownership and 99.99% reliability is fundamental to the needs of our sector. We know and love curry and it’s our goal to support the industry with the best online experience. Having a specialist connectivity provider in Wireless Logic gives us peace of mind and confidence knowing that we are getting best-in-class and impartial advice in our choice of networks.