Menu Planning Platform Modernization for Compass Group India's Corporate Dining

Key challenges

A hard cutover date, driven by a renewal deadline. Cilantro 2 ran on a low-code platform approaching its renewal date. Waiting for that renewal was not an option — Compass needed the new system live before it hit, with fixed scope, fixed cost, and zero disruption to a business serving 1,300+ corporate sites every day. Delivering the platform was only half the challenge. Delivering it before the renewal deadline, with the business still running, was the other half.

Compass Group India’s existing menu-planning application, Cilantro 2, was experiencing significant performance issues. The platform that Corporate Dining teams relied on for menu planning, projections, requisitions, and production was not performing at the level the operation demanded.

Beyond performance, Cilantro 2 carried several functional and technical gaps. Closing them meant more than patching the existing application. It meant rebuilding it, fixing the gaps, introducing new features, and optimising performance to improve the overall user experience.

Corporate Dining doesn’t pause for a platform change. Compass Group India serves 1,300+ corporate sites through a network of 900+ cafes, and the operation that runs on Cilantro 2 could not stop for a rebuild. Existing data had to migrate to the new platform with it.

Client in spotlight

Compass Group is the world’s largest contract foodservice company with $46 billion in revenue, 590,000 employees, and a presence across more than 25 countries. Compass Group USA alone serves over 14 million meals every day, with clients including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Compass Group India’s Corporate Dining operation is built around 900+ cafes serving 1,300+ corporate client sites. Cafes place their food requirements through the platform, and chefs plan and produce against them. Menu planning, projections, requisitions, and production all run through Cilantro every day. At that scale, the platform’s speed and reliability are not convenient. They are part of the service.

Unlocking Digital success

Ideation

Compass Group India’s Cilantro 2 application had significant performance issues and several functional and technical gaps. Compass needed a rebuild fixed scope, fixed cost, a hard cutover date for a platform serving 1,300+ corporate sites. Kellton’s answer was to rebuild it from the ground up as Cilantro: close the gaps, add new capabilities, and deliver on Compass’s calendar.

Our approach

Kellton owned the rebuild end to end: solution and architecture design, a full SDLC with documentation at every phase, separate QA, Staging and Production environments, and source code auto-pushed to Compass’s own repository. Cilantro combines a DataEngine for automated projections and validations with role-based access and dashboards. Cilantro 2 data was migrated across, security was VAPT-tested, and hyper-care and warranty carried the platform through go-live.

Outcomes

Cilantro went live against Compass’s hard cutover date. The rebuild closed the performance and functional gaps in Cilantro 2, added new features, and improved the user experience through performance optimisation. Menu planning completes in approximately 30 minutes, automated validation delivers 100% calculation integrity, food waste falls 20–25%, and the engagement is 2+ years in and still delivering enhancements.

Project outcomes

Delivered against a hard cutover date fixed scope, fixed cost, and a live business with Cilantro taking over from Cilantro 2 on Compass’s calendar.

Performance and functional gaps in Cilantro 2 closed with new features and optimisations improving the overall user experience.

Menu planning in approximately 30 minutes Cilantro lets frontline staff plan without technical expertise.

100% calculation integrity in projections and production quantities Cilantro’s DataEngine applies automated validation.

Food waste reduced by 20–25% Cilantro’s optimised inventory planning reduces over-procurement and unnecessary food waste.

Existing data migrated and security VAPT-tested Cilantro 2 data moved to the rebuilt platform, with AAA logging and encryption in transit and at rest.

A 2+ year engagement, followed by Hyper-care and warranty carried Cilantro through go-live, Kellton continues to ship enhancements, and a companion digital-signage application is in development.

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