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NR Rest AB is the catering division of the Nordrest Group – one of Sweden's leading food service providers with approximately 5,000 employees and over 200 locations nationwide. Each week, around 5,000 catering orders are processed from corporate clients including CBRE, SKF, Karolinska Institutet, and Solna City Council.
Smart Source was commissioned to build Order365 – a complete, custom-built catering platform comprising four tightly integrated components. The result is a fully digitalized order flow: from customer ordering via webshop through to automated accounting in Fortnox, with no manual steps in between.
Nordrest AB is one of Sweden's leading food service groups with operations nationwide. The group generates billions in revenue and delivers meal services to the defense sector, healthcare, businesses, and the public sector. NR Rest AB is the group's catering division, responsible for everything from daily lunch service to large-scale conference and event catering for some of Sweden's most demanding corporate clients.
The operational complexity is significant. Clients have varying contracts, unique price lists, and customized procurement structures. Public sector clients require Peppol connectivity and OCI Punchout integration with ERP systems such as Unit4 and SAP to fulfill their digital procurement requirements. Restaurants need detailed delivery schedules, section-specific menus, and week-specific default configurations. Delivery staff need real-time information in the field – including deviation handling and return receipts. And the finance department needs everything to flow directly into Fortnox, automatically, correctly, every time.
With a client portfolio of this size and complexity, a standard system was no longer sufficient. NR Rest AB needed a platform built for them – not for the broad market.
NR Rest AB previously used a standard system for order management. It worked at a basic level, but the system imposed strict limits on what the business could actually do. With a rapidly growing client portfolio and increasing demands for digital self-service, automation, and integrations, they hit a ceiling that no standard system could break through.
The existing system could not accommodate the complex requirements of NR Rest AB's contract clients. Advanced ordering structures with departmental cost centers, delivery rules per restaurant section, flexible pricing per client category, and participant-based order management – none of this could be configured without involving the system vendor's team. The business had to adapt its processes and working methods to fit the system, rather than the other way around. This created friction throughout the entire flow – from customer ordering to restaurant to delivery.
Every connection to external systems – ERP, accounting platforms, e-commerce – required workarounds, special solutions, or was technically impossible within the existing system's framework. Establishing direct API communication with Fortnox for invoice flows, Peppol for public procurement, or OCI Punchout against clients' procurement systems required separate integration projects with vendor approval and resources. Each new integration was not a matter of days – it was a matter of months and quotes.
Future feature requirements were entirely dependent on the system vendor choosing to prioritize them. NR Rest AB had no control over the pace, direction, or prioritization of the platform's continued development. Competitors with their own systems could decide on a new feature on Monday and have it in production by Friday. NR Rest AB waited months – sometimes longer – for the vendor's next release window. In a rapidly moving market, this is a competitive disadvantage that grows with each quarter.
There was no user-friendly webshop where contract clients could place their catering orders digitally, at their convenience. Instead, orders were handled manually via telephone, email, and paper forms – time-consuming for the client and administratively costly for NR Rest AB. With a client portfolio comprising organizations such as CBRE, SKF, Karolinska Institutet, and Solna City Council – all with their own procurement systems, cost centers, and high traceability requirements – this was an operational bottleneck that directly limited growth.
With rapid AI technology development, NR Rest AB identified a strategic need to integrate AI tools tailored to their specific workflows – predictive inventory management, automated deviation detection during delivery, AI-assisted menu planning, and intelligent customer communication. The existing system lacked the API surface area and architectural flexibility required to make these integrations possible without rebuilding the platform from scratch.
The conclusion was clear: a custom-built system, designed specifically for their business, was the only path to full control, integration freedom, and a customer experience on par with modern e-commerce platforms. The alternative – switching to another standard system – risked replacing old limitations with new ones.
Smart Source was commissioned to build Order365 from scratch – a complete, custom-built catering platform designed around NR Rest AB's actual business needs and future ambitions. Instead of purchasing an off-the-shelf product and adapting the business to fit it, NR Rest AB got a system that adapts to them.
The platform is divided into four tightly interconnected components. Each solves a specific business need, but together they function as an integrated system – a complete digital order flow from customer ordering to delivery receipt and automated accounting.
The webshop is the core of the customer-facing experience. Contract clients log in with their organizational credentials and order directly from customized menus – per restaurant, section, and client agreement. The system handles complex ordering structures with cost centers, delivery addresses, and participant lists without requiring a single phone call or manual administration.
For public sector clients and procurement organizations with EDI requirements, the platform supports full Peppol connectivity and OCI Punchout integration with clients' ERP systems. This means a procurement officer at Karolinska Institutet can order catering directly from their procurement portal in Unit4, with all prices, VAT codes, and delivery rules pre-filled and correctly mapped.
Contract prices and customized price lists per client category and restaurant
Peppol e-commerce connectivity for public sector clients – CBRE, SKF, Karolinska Institutet, Solna City Council
OCI Punchout support for ERP systems (Unit4, SAP, and others)
Nets payment solution – direct payment and invoice with automated invoice flows
Order history, copying of previous orders, and scheduling of recurring orders
Cost control per department, cost center, and order category
A comprehensive back-office system used daily by NR Rest AB's restaurant managers, administrators, and customer service staff. Everything in one interface – no spreadsheets, no manual list routines, no parallel administration in separate systems.
Order management: Create, edit, invoice, and cancel orders with full audit log
Restaurant configuration: Menus, opening hours, delivery rules, section structure, and default weeks
Client management: Contracts, special pricing, user permissions, and contact persons
Invoice management: Fortnox integration with automated monthly runs and period invoicing
Reports and export functions: Excel, delivery overviews, and cost analysis per client and period
Delivery app administration: Transport assignments, delivery schedules, and resource allocation
Under the hood, a robust REST API drives all data connections – between system components and with external services. The API is designed with extensibility and future-proofing in focus. New integrations can be added without affecting core functionality, and the architecture is prepared for next-generation AI connections via MCP (Model Context Protocol).
Fortnox integration for automated accounting, invoice management, and periodization
Peppol/SFTI integration for e-commerce and e-invoicing with the public sector
OCI Punchout flow to clients' ERP systems with correct product mapping and VAT
Cellsynt SMS notifications to delivery staff for new assignments and schedule changes
Real-time events via SignalR – order status visible to all parties immediately
Excel import/export and FTP-based file transfers for external system connections
A native app for iOS and Android, built in .NET MAUI, used by delivery staff every working day. The app syncs in real time with the admin system and provides delivery staff with the right information at the right time – their delivery schedule, order details, addresses, and any changes since they started their day.
Real-time synchronization of delivery schedules and order details from the admin system
Deviation documentation with photo functionality at the point of delivery
Return handling and digital receipt registration
Push notifications for new assignments, schedule changes, and priority orders
Offline support – works without network connection and syncs when connectivity is restored
Order365 is not a completed project – it is a living system in active daily operation and continuous development. Smart Source and NR Rest AB collaborate in 2-week Scrum sprints, with close direct contact and high responsiveness to changing business needs.
This working model means NR Rest AB can respond quickly to market demands. A new client type requiring a specific invoice format? That's one sprint. A new restaurant chain to be integrated into the platform? Two sprints. A new category of Peppol clients with specific ERP requirements? Three sprints. No vendor approvals, no procurement processes, no waiting periods.
Since the project started in 2024, it has grown to involve 1,500+ hours of design, architecture, development, and integration work – and is actively in production with continuous improvements. Every new feature is driven by actual business needs, not by what a standard vendor happens to have on their product list.
Launch new client-specific features in weeks, not months
Prioritize exactly what creates the most value for their clients and business
Integrate with any external system – without asking for permission
Build AI support into workflows when ready, on their own terms
Since Order365 went live, NR Rest AB has fundamentally transformed its order process. Manual order handling via telephone, email, and paper has been replaced by a fully digital flow that operates around the clock, without manual steps.
5,000 orders per week fully automated – from customer order to accounting, without manual steps
Eliminated manual order management for contract clients – no phone calls, no email orders, no paper lists
Real-time tracking for clients, restaurants, and admins – order status visible in the system for all parties
Peppol-certified – opens the door to public sector e-commerce and procured catering contracts
Scalable architecture – the platform handles growing client volumes and more restaurants without performance issues
Full integration freedom – no vendor dependencies, free API communication with all external systems
Agile continued development – new features delivered in 2-week cycles, without external approvals
Order365 is built on Microsoft's .NET ecosystem with Azure hosting and an architecture designed for scalability, operational reliability, and future AI integrations via MCP.
One of the strategic pillars of the Order365 architecture is that the system is built to easily connect to AI tools via MCP (Model Context Protocol). Smart Source has already implemented MCP in four of its own production systems and is one of the consulting firms in Sweden with the deepest practical experience in MCP-based integrations.
The Order365 API is designed with exactly that in mind. This means NR Rest AB can add capabilities such as predictive inventory management based on historical order patterns, AI-based deviation detection and automated action suggestions for delivery issues, intelligent menu planning taking season and client preferences into account – all without rebuilding the platform from scratch. That is the value of building it right from the start.
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