NEW YORK, March 14, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New York-based OLO, the fastest-growing digital commerce engine for restaurants, announced today that Sheryl Kimes, Professor of Operations Management at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, will join its advisory board.

Kimes has led and published multiple studies on the benefits and demand of online and mobile food ordering platforms, including The Current State of Online Food Ordering in the U.S. Restaurant Industry, which concluded that restaurants with an online ordering experience show a considerable increase in order frequency and order accuracy and recognize labor savings. Kimes' publication Online, Mobile, and Text Food Ordering in the U.S. Restaurant Industry further established that all forms of electronic ordering increased sales – particularly through automatic upselling and information storage so that customers are encouraged to repeat their previous orders with a single click.

"Dr. Kimes' background is the perfect fit for this role," says Noah Glass, Founder and CEO of OLO. "We welcome her expertise as our newest advisory board member and know her leadership will benefit our clients."

Kimes currently teaches restaurant revenue management, yield management and food and beverage management at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. She has been named the school's graduate teacher of the year three times. She has published over 50 articles in leading journals – such as Interfaces, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Service Research, Decision Sciences, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly – and served as a consultant to many hospitality enterprises around the world, including Chevy's FreshMex Restaurants, Walt Disney World Resorts, Ruby's Diners, Starwood Asia-Pacific and Troon Golf.

About OLO:

Founded in 2005, OLO is the original and best-in-class provider of online and mobile ordering capabilities for the restaurant industry. Five Guys Burgers & Fries, Cold Stone Creamery, SONIC Drive-In, and more than 150 top restaurant brands rely on OLO's award-winning multi-channel sales platform to seamlessly integrate online and mobile orders with their point-of-sale systems, empowering restaurants with self-service ordering programs that maintain operator's freedom to utilize best-of-breed technology without sacrificing its independent relationship with its loyal customers. As a result, OLO clients have reported 25% larger average order sizes, 32% increases in customer visit frequency, 5x growth in customer relationship management (CRM) databases, and 8% lift in same stores sales. Today, more than 2 million customers use OLO to order ahead and get food faster at their favorite restaurants, including users of GrubHub, the leading consumer brand for mobile and online ordering in more than 75 major cities and 300 college campuses across the nation. OLO's exclusive relationship with GrubHub provides client restaurants with unique access to millions of new local consumers. Learn more at www.olo.com or olo.tumblr.com.

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For Sheryl Kimes photos, click here.