Catering to an increase in credit and debit card usage, IBM and McDonald's have agreed to a 3-year partnership to provide a new cashless payment system for about 1,300 McDonald's restaurants throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.
IBM's system will be operational by the end of 2010 and will increase the speed, flexibility and security of service to millions of customers while allowing McDonald's to experience more efficient operations on a daily basis. Business processes will be centralized onto one database to facilitate settlement and reporting.
Additionally, franchisees will be able to view their customers' card data to resolve any immediate issues.
IBM will integrate and maintain the solution, which is based on the company's already existing StorePay and Sureswitch products and is being designed around McDonald's point of sale terminal. IBM will also host the payment system in a database in the U.K.
McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. began accepting cashless payments in 2004.
