aleno
Technical excellence and AI-driven innovation fueled this Swiss startup to conquer the DACH region market with a cutting-edge reservation management system, delighting guests and driving the clients’ success every day.
✅ Survived the COVID-19 pandemic despite the restaurant industry crisis.
✅ Business expansion starting from Switzerland to the entire DACH region resulted in serving millions of people per month.
✅ Strong co-ownership - we help aleno with recruiting new team members with laying out processes - both business & development ones.
Project duration
- Since 2015 - more than 8 years
Provided Services
- Web Development
- AI-enhanced Experiences
- Quality Assurance
- Serverless Services
Countries covered
Switzerland
Austria
Germany
Liechtenstein
What challenges did the client face?
Rapid Development
As the number of clients started to increase at a spectacular pace, the system had to be adjusted faster. Frequent data migrations, multiple deployments, AI-driven processes, feature flags, and private betas became essential.
Extension of the provided services
Starting as just a table reservation system, aleno’s goal was to provide its clients with a sophisticated AI-enhanced restaurant (and more!) management system, ensuring an exquisite experience for the guests.
Expansion beyond Switzerland
Over time, as the system gained a reputation in Switzerland, clients from neighboring countries became interested in it. This entailed completely new challenges, including the need to make the AI-driven functionalities robust enough for different markets.
Technical & Business solutions we implemented
We entered the project in 2015, after the prototype version was ready, and focused on the rapid introduction of major adjustments based on feedback from restaurants testing the product.
Meteor’s reactivity allowed us to create a streamlined experience for the staff, as all inputs were visible in the application with no delay.
With a complete list of core functionalities, we prepared a robust architecture and development process, enhanced by implementing our Quality Assurance standards. From the very beginning, we worked on the project employing the Scrumban methodology, with the addition of a fast-track approach and immediate reaction to feature requests.
Over the past few years, integrations with external systems have been one of the main areas enabling aleno to achieve its significant business objectives – such as faster client canvassing and providing services outside of Switzerland.
Invariably, rapid development is still fundamental – this way, aleno can demonstrate its capabilities to potential clients and investors. The team tests new functionalities with the clients needing them by using an extensive system of feature flags (providing particular restaurants with access to particular features).
In more than seven years of cooperation between aleno and Vazco, thanks to the incredible commitment of the entire team responsible for the prototype version, aleno has become the market leader in its industry for the whole DACH region.
The AI-driven "Brain"
We introduced an intelligent table assignment system known as “The Brain.” This system automates table allocation and provides real-time suggestions on how restaurants can best seat guests under various conditions.
What problem does the AI solve?
Initially, we experimented with a fully automated, goal-oriented approach—letting restaurants define utilization metrics (for example, 80% capacity on certain tables). However, real-world variability, from changing weekday patterns to unexpected table conditions, made this all-encompassing automation challenging. That’s why the current Brain focuses on a highly configurable rule-based system, which can incorporate machine learning insights to refine assignments.
Time Savings
Manual table allocation is time-consuming and prone to human error.
Optimization
The Brain uses a rule-based approach, informed by machine learning (where applicable), to help restaurants configure how they want to manage table assignments.
Scalability
As aleno expanded, ensuring that restaurants could maintain optimal seating even on the busiest days became essential.
Key AI-driven features
Thanks to the Brain’s consistent analysis and data-driven approach, restaurants are able to seat more guests efficiently while offering a better overall experience.
Automatic Table Allocation
By analyzing live data, the system suggests or assigns tables to incoming reservations.
Intelligent Suggestions
The Brain can account for time to clean tables, seat turnover, and table plans across different shifts.
Configurable Rules & Priorities
Restaurants can decide if guests can share tables, define custom table groupings, or automatically block off specific areas.
What has been delivered?
Since 2015, the team has delivered numerous new solutions. Despite changing business priorities, all the solutions mentioned below have been of major importance:
Vazco and aleno have been cooperating for a very long time, and that means something. What I value most in Vazco is the way they combine technical expertise with business understanding. It's a real asset of working with them.
Eli Geoffroy
Chief Product Officer at aleno
Key numbers
- 4+
Countries covered
aleno’s partnership with other businesses allowed it to expand its services to the entire DACH region - 1000+
Companies using aleno
Solution trusted by both best-known hotel chains and Michelin star award-winning restaurants - 8+
Years of partnership
After aleno achieved the market leader status, the future of our cooperation looks even more promising.
How does our collaboration look like now?
Sustained business growth
There is nothing better than contributing to our client’s success. However, in order for it to last, it is necessary to constantly develop the cooperation and face increasingly ambitious goals, particularly in AI-driven automation.
Ongoing development optimization
A well-planned development process is beneficial for everyone. Since the moment we joined the project, one of the significant areas of our service is to provide processes tailored to aleno's needs.
Strengthening of collaboration
Due to the mutual trust, Vazco is currently responsible for recruiting new people to join the aleno tech team, helping ensure the right expertise is in place for both general development and AI-focused initiatives.
When I have the opportunity, I recommend them. We’ve been working for a long time. All projects were always well-made. Usually, we get full service - from the idea to the design and implementation. They are experts.
Ivica Belenovic
Co-founder & CEO at aleno