Franchise Update Magazine Issue II, 2017 | Page 45

CHOOSING
TECHNOLOGY
PARTNERS
BY SARA WYKES
HOW 10 BRANDS UPPED THEIR TECH GAME
C
raig Ceccanti could be the
Clark Kent of franchise soft-
ware development. Beneath
his everyday garb as CEO and
co-founder of Pinot’s Palette lies his
hidden superpower: a double major
degree from LSU in computer science
and information systems, strengthened
by seven years as a software developer
for major clients, including the Florida
House of Representatives.
When Ceccanti wants to build or up-
date the software at Pinot’s Palette, he
and Charles Willis—Pinot’s co-founder
and president, as well as an electrical
and computer engineering major in col-
lege—do it in-house.
Craig Ceccanti
Yet that’s not what he recommends
for 90 percent of his colleagues in fran-
chising. Ceccanti coaches some of those
colleagues and his advice is simple: If
the choice is between building or rent-
ing software, rent. “Most people don’t
understand the full cost of buying,” he
says. “But to be successful whether you
build or rent, you need to have some core
competencies in technology.”
Without that, navigating the addi-
tion of new technology for a franchise
operation can seem like moving to a new
town without friends or family. It’s an
unfamiliar landscape that, fortunately,
can be transformed with smart decisions
to help avoid dead-end streets and pot-
holes. It’s not easy or simple, but without
exception, adding new technology to
franchise operations is worth the effort.
Painful first steps
If Ceccanti’s story represents perfect
circumstances, Ron Holt’s tale is the
imperfect followed by a grand recovery.
Holt, CEO and founder of Two Maids
& A Mop, wanted to give his residen-
tial cleaning customers the speed and
convenience of online scheduling and
payment.
Holt was not a complete technology
novice. He had already embraced the
use of Facebook, Instagram, and Pin-
terest. The feedback from those social
media platforms allowed him to evalu-
ate traffic from those sites and follow a
customer from first social media visit to
appointment. He wanted more, but had
few other industry-specific examples to
follow. “The residential cleaning industry
is 90 percent mom-and-pop, so there’s
been very little technological innova-
tion. I saw the opportunity to create new
technology that would give our business
Ron Holt
an advantage,” he says.
To build the new software, Holt
chose a firm about two blocks from his
office. “We felt it would be important
to work with a local firm because we as-
sumed there would be hours and hours
of face time needed to complete the
project,” he says.
That assumption turned out to be
wrong: Holt discovered that 95 percent
of his communication with the firm could
be done online. He also learned that he
had gone into the project with his “eyes
not quite open,” he says.
“I am not a software guy and I was
naive early on about what the project
would entail. I assumed there would be
some flexibility with the contract,” he
says. “That naiveté turned into realism
very quickly. We were billed for our
time beyond what we thought would
be our cost.” The software delivered
to Holt from the outside vendor took
18 months instead of the promised six
and cost him $500,000, instead of the
$150,000 he initially expected.
Franchiseupdate I SSUE I I , 2017 
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