Tim Walter Spotlight Interview
Join us for a Spotlight Interview with Tim Walter.
Tim is the award winning CIO of Edward Don & Company, a major restaurant equipment and supply company based in the Chicago area.
Tim really dedicates the awards to his teams, which are the ones who make the projects work. Recent awards include the 2025 Orbie CIO of the Year Award, The CIO 100 Magazine award for 2025, to name a few.
One of the reasons for the most recent awards was the success of Tim and this team integrating AI into their RFP process. First - they identified the RIGHT problem from the business that needed help. The business explained they were only able to respond to about 50 RFPs a year, even thought they were getting asked to respond to over 200.
As Tim explains it, creating an RFP for a restaurant or chain is a very time-consuming process, and lent it self to getting the help from AI. As an example, from table to glassware, most restaurant chains want their unique look and spec.
So they found a provider that had already had done work in this area, and shaped it to work with Don. An RFP that would previously take 4-6 weeks would now take under 30 minutes for the first version! Now they just have to check for errors!
They are looking at over a 400% increase in their ability to respond!
Now this is where another benefit comes in - the Sales Team is working directly with the system, which, in effect is teaching the system better choices as they go forward.
Prior to Edward Don, while at Randa, Tim and that team did a significant optimization of their supply chain system. Being able to know from conception to delivery, where is the product in the cycle. Where are the parts and the products on the supply chain system. They were early on the use of RFID and they also built an full Digital Twin System. They reduced communication, got on top of their order and optimized their process.
Great interview with Tim and happy to have him involved on our Board of Advisors community!