Panda Restaurant Group is one of the largest family-owned restaurants, not only nationwide, but globally known around the world. It actually started in 1973. Fifty years later we are now at 50,000 associates, over 2,500 stores, and in 11 countries - and we're still expanding. I oversee the strategic implementations of large enterprise systems such as Workday. I also manage not only the ongoing support, but making sure that we continue to leverage the system ensuring that we maximize its value. Going into this new ERP journey we knew that it would be high impact because we're replacing all of our systems – finance, HR, procurement, etc., right? we wanted to see how we can streamline it, how we can optimize it, right? And I would say the key word in all this is we wanted to be able to see how our business can transform.

What we saw in KPMG is that yes they have the industry experience, they have the experience with Workday, but what we also saw is that they seem to understand that core piece of who we are as a company, you know loving your people, caring about the guest, as well as giving back. We see all of those values and philosophy also embedded in KPMG.

Some of the benefits that we got from our partnership with KPMG is learning about the leading practices in HR, in finance, and the procurement. These are things that we haven't really thought about before, but now we're thinking in more detail. They've helped us with process design and with coming up with some creative solutions, and now we're being able to see that. You know for something as large and complex as this we would think oh maybe 2 years, right? We're seeing how it can be done in a year. I would describe KPMG’s style of work as being very collaborative and strategic. We not only love and value our associates, we also value our partners. They are part of the Panda family.