By Tom Buckley
Your venues stay open. Revenue keeps flowing. We handle the IT transition.
When you have three, five, or fifteen venues, IT problems scale fast. One misconfigured network or security gap affects the entire group.
Our onboarding process is structured to stabilise first, standardise second, and optimise over time—without disrupting service.
Work is scheduled around your trading hours. Security addressed immediately. Clear visibility across all sites.
Why hospitality onboarding is different
Multi-site environments create specific challenges:
Multiple networks with different internet providers and configurations. Legacy systems mixed with modern cloud platforms at different venues. Higher staff turnover means shared login credentials (security risk). Zero tolerance for downtime during service hours—Saturday dinner service is sacred. Compliance requirements vary by state (camera retention, incident records, liquor licensing).
A standard IT onboarding doesn’t work. You need an approach designed for hospitality and by industry experts who have 20+ years providing IT to large hospitality groups like All IT.
Our proven onboarding process
1. Assess: Understanding your group
We start by understanding the complete picture:
- How many venues you operate (and what’s planned for next 12-24 months)
- Differences between sites (size, systems, connectivity, operational hours)
- Critical systems (payment processing, gaming, cameras, booking systems, back-office)
- Peak trading periods (when we absolutely cannot disrupt operations)
This ensures onboarding is planned around how hospitality actually runs, not just how IT looks on paper.
2. Baseline: Document current state across all venues
Once we have access, we document what you have at each site:
- Network setup and internet connectivity
- Who has access to what (user accounts, admin access, shared credentials)
- Cloud systems and vendor relationships (payment providers, gaming, cameras)
- Security gaps and configuration inconsistencies between venues
- Known risks and issues that need immediate attention
The outcome: A clear picture of where each venue stands. Where sites are aligned and where they’re not.
3. Strengthen: Immediate security and stability
Hospitality environments handle payment data, customer information, and operate under compliance requirements. Security is addressed early in onboarding, not later.
We apply baseline security across all venues:
- Individual accounts for staff (eliminate shared passwords that create security and compliance risks)
- Extra sign-in protection on accounts with access to sensitive systems (multi-factor authentication—like a code sent to your phone)
- Security software on all devices
- Critical security updates applied
- Immediate fixes for risks discovered during baseline
This reduces exposure while ensuring all venues meet a minimum defensible standard from day one.
4. Optimise: Consistency and performance
Once stability is achieved, we focus on making multi-site operations easier to run:
- Identifying differences between venues that create risk or extra work
- Improving network reliability and performance
- Reducing friction for staff and managers
- Aligning systems that should be standardised across the group
This phase makes IT easier to manage, not harder.
5. Align: Roadmap planning
Not everything gets fixed during onboarding. We consolidate findings into a prioritised roadmap covering:
- Infrastructure that’s aging or non-standard
- Venues requiring upgrades or network redesign
- Security improvements beyond baseline
- Technology changes tied to growth or new venue openings
This lets you plan improvements strategically around budget and trading calendar, rather than reacting venue by venue.
6. Deliver: Structured project work
All changes beyond the onboarding baseline are delivered as properly scoped projects:
- Clearly defined (per venue or group-wide)
- Approved before work starts
- Scheduled around trading hours (not during lunch or dinner service)
- Delivered with clear communication and accountability
No surprise work. No scope creep. No disruption to service.
What hospitality groups value about this approach
Designed for multi-site reality
We expect inconsistency, legacy systems, and risk. We plan accordingly.
Minimal disruption to trading
Onboarding is staged and scheduled around your operational hours. Critical work happens when venues are closed or during the slowest periods.
Early risk control
Critical security issues are identified and managed immediately. Not discovered after an incident or during a compliance inspection.
Group-wide visibility
Clear view of where each venue stands. What’s consistent. What needs attention. What to prioritise.
Scales with growth
The same process applies whether you’re adding one venue or ten.
What you get from onboarding
Stable, secure foundation across all venues
Baseline security applied. Critical risks addressed. Systems documented.
Consistent standards without rushed change
Security baseline implemented during onboarding. Further improvements planned and approved, not forced.
Reduced operational and security risk
Gaps closed. Shared credentials eliminated. Security software protecting all devices.
Clear documentation and ownership
What’s at each venue. Who provides what. How systems connect. Vendor contacts. All documented.
Practical roadmap
Clear picture of what should be improved, in what order, with realistic timelines and budget alignment.
Confidence that your IT is supporting the business, not creating risk behind the scenes.
Get an assessment
We’ll assess where you should be based on the information you hold, the people you serve, and the regulations that apply to you.
Not a generic checklist. An honest assessment of your actual risk and the controls that make sense for your business.
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