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Now Book It, a vendor of table-reservation and payments software for restaurants in Australia and New Zealand, has expanded to Canada.
Canada has more than 100,000 locations that serve food, such as restaurants, cafés and brew pubs, generating $112 billion in annual sales, according to Restaurants Canada. In addition, 23 million Canadians visit a restaurant daily.
In addition to automating reservations, Now Book It’s platform supports table management, table waitlists, credit card pre-authorization when making a reservation to reduce the risk of no-shows, compatibility with social-media platforms, and integration to a restaurant’s point-of-sale system.
Now Book It recently introduced an artificial-intelligence application that handles incoming phone calls. The app, called Sadie, integrates reservations made through the app to the restaurant’s booking diary. Restaurants can view the booking diary to see table availability and current bookings in real time.
Based in Sydney, Australia, Now Book It services more than 11,000 restaurants in Australia and New Zealand. The company was acquired in 2013 by Montreal-based Valsoft Corp., which acquires and develops software companies in vertical markets, including hospitality, retail POS, and travel and leisure.
“Now Book It is not just expanding in a new market—it’s setting a new standard for restaurant operations in Canada,” Mitch Bourassa, executive vice president for Operations at Valsoft, claims in a statement. “As the restaurant industry increasingly turns to technology-driven solutions, we are excited to see Now Book It continue its trajectory of innovation and market leadership as part of the Valsoft portfolio.”
