pos technology
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Table of Contents
Restaurant Description
POS System Overview
Restaurant Interview Results
Advantages for POS Upgrade
Required Features
System Requirement
Decision Matrix
Solution Recommendation
Forecasted Financial Costing
Plan of Action
People Implication
Financial Benefit
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Restaurant Description
Our restaurant is a full service casual dining restaurant located in Bethesda, Maryland.
This location is a heavily populated area where many patrons come to enjoy a night out without
the busy traffic of the inner city. Our restaurant seats approximately 60 to 100 people depending
on the layout of the tables for the evening and if there are any private events booked. Our busi-
ness will be open for lunch and dinner hours daily, and on Friday and Saturday evenings we are
open two hours later than normal for the late night crowds prowling the streets.
There will be a small bar area for patrons who care to dine alone and/or have a
small meal with a few drinks. The main target market for our restaurant is young adults to mid-
dle aged couples, families with teenaged children, and elderly couples. The atmosphere will be
somewhat quiet for those who want to enjoy a peaceful meal and will allow for seclusion of pri-
vacy if needed. The style will be somewhat contemporary with a slight edge of the newest de-
sign. The lighting will be fluorescent and can be controlled according to the main crowd in the
restaurant for the evening. For example, on Valentine’s Day when many couples will want a ro-
mantic dinner the lighting can be dulled, whereas on an evening with a lot of elderly couples the
lighting can become brighter.
Our menu is specifically designed with our target markets in mind and offers a
large variety of delectable food. The range of our target markets is huge and covers a number of
different demographics within our community. Therefore our menu is designed to make it easy
for any guest to modify their order as much as they would like with minimal pricing differences.
We care about our guests and want them to feel at home in our restaurant. With easy to alter
menu options for our guests and a larger variety of selection, our restaurant creates a competi-
tive edge within the community.
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POS System Overview
The Point of Service (POS) System is an important part of technology used in the hospi-
tality industry, especially within restaurants. The POS System’s basic functions are responsible
for sending guests’ orders to the kitchen, keeping track of tables’ orders and adding up prices,
and settling tables’ transactions. Some POS Systems are advanced enough to keep an up-to-
date inventory database for kitchens and bars and inform staff when ordering needs to be done.
POS Systems cut back on service time and allow the servers to cater more to their
guests instead of spending all their time watching over orders. There are various kinds of POS
Systems available in the market for different types of restaurant venues. Finding the perfect
POS System for our restaurant is not a task to take lightly. Due to the size and volume of busi-
ness our restaurant has, we need a system that offers multiple terminals that are easy to navi-
gate with high speed internet access. Guest satisfaction and customer loyalty are some of our
top priorities in our restaurant. The smoother our process of order taking is, the easier it will be
to create customer loyalty among our guests.
Our menu is large so we can accommodate the different tastes of our guests that come
from our target markets around the community. We need a POS System that can accommodate
our menu size and offer easy ways for the servers to input any modifications our guests’ desire.
With our large selection of items and hundreds of different possible menu mix designs, we need
a POS System that allows us change our menu at any time and program preset modifications
for the servers to use on any item.
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Restaurant Interview Results
We interviewed various staff members from different positions within the restaurant in-
dustry to find any common grounds among different POS Systems. David Kimmell is a cook that
works for Brock & Company that uses the simplest form of POS, a cash register connected to
scales and credit card systems. Although this method is easy for training and keeps the prices
consistent, it has many drawbacks when competing with newer, faster technology. David
pointed out the higher rate of human error, approximately 1 out of 15, when entering information
into the system. The system is also very unreliable and crashes about twice a month and can
take up to two hours to fix.
Gillian Grunewald is the GM for Quench in Rockville, MD and she use Future POS in her
restaurant. Future POS is user friendly and easy to operate, however it is not a very reliable
system. According to the GM the system goes down approximately five times a month and has
a slow internet connection. Although the regional account manager is great and can get the sys-
tem running through a simple phone call, the system often crashes during the middle of service
when the servers are busy. Quench uses two terminals for their POS system, one for the front
of the house servers and one at the bar for the bartenders. Only one server can put in an order
at a time and causes backups during busy hours.
Yong Park is a server at Sushi Damo in Rockville, MD who uses Amigo POS system.
This POS system is set up to send orders to the corresponding kitchen station printer according
to what the guests’ have ordered. This feature cuts back on the total time spent serving the
guests as the kitchen staff does not have to delegate out the orders. Amigo also makes it easy
for the servers to modify any orders the guests have made with special requests. According to
Yong Amigo does not crash very often, generally when there is a power outage or a problem
with the internet connection. The only major flaw with Amigo is a printing problem. The printers
do not always print out at the correct stations causing confusion in the kitchen.
The Executive Chef at The Comus Inn, Elise Wendland, uses Digital Dining in her
restaurant. Digital Dining has an easy to use touch screen and does not crash very often, about
once every other month. When the system is down it generally takes a phone call and the prob-
lem is fixed within 45 minutes. The system allows for easy input of orders and the margin of er-
ror is low, approximately 1 out of 50. While Chef Wendland does not have many complaints
about her system, she feels it is out of date and does not give her restaurant any kind of advan-
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tage. For example Digital Dining does not offer an easy way to modify orders which leaves more
room for errors.
The front of the house manager Sam Petrella at Dogfish Head in Gaithersburg, MD just
recently upgraded to the POSitouch. Sam feels this system gives Dogfish Head a huge advan-
tage in the industry. The system has only crashed once in the four months he has been using
POSitouch and was able to be up and running within 30 minutes. The POSitouch offers preset
menu modifiers, easy methods to separate checks, allows managers easy/quick access to all
the checks, and compiles end of the day numbers through various reports. The system also has
automatic modifier screens for each item that are predetermined by the managers and is pro-
grammed so every possible modifier is available for the servers to use. The main disadvantages
to using POSitouch are the system does not offer a floor plan to use on screen and the checks
have to be closed out in a certain order when using multiple payment types or the system will
not close the check.
Advantages for POS Upgrade
Over the past eight years our restaurant has been in business and during our growth
stage, we perfected our menu mix and now we want to improve our customer service aspects.
We need an up-to-date POS System that gives our restaurant a competitive advantage over our
competition. Better technology within our restaurant can improve our guests’ experience as a
whole during their visit. The latest in technology is always evolving so we need to make sure our
system is compatible with any upgrades that will be offered by the vendor. By choosing to up-
grade our existing POS system we will increase our efficiency rate and decrease our labor
costs. The overall service time for our guests will greatly decrease along with the error percent-
age rate from the servers and the kitchen. Trendy POS systems have features for management
to program and add modifications keys that are specific to our restaurant. This makes it easier
for our service staff to enter orders for the kitchen to prepare and the modifications are easier
for the kitchen staff to understand.
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Required Features
The existing POS system that we have been using in our restaurant is outdated and defi-
nitely cannot be compatible with the growing business. Since we have a large variety menu the
efficiency of service has always been one of our biggest challenges for our restaurant. Special
requests are often overlooked by servers because the current POS system doesn’t have modifi-
cation functions programmed into the system. Our system always seems to be crushing during
the busiest evening services because of our high traffic volume. Our current POS system keeps
track of limited sales data which does not provide enough information for our management team
to analyze trends for menu mix planning and human resources purposes.
Our restaurant definitely requires an updated, full featured, simple to use, and re-
liable POS System. We need an up-to-date POS System that can increase efficiency and im-
prove customer service and ultimately increase our competitive advantage over our competitors.
A full featured system is critical for efficient daily operations, accurate inventory control and ef-
fective management planning. The system that our restaurant is looking for also needs to be
simple and user friendly, so we don’t end up spending a fortune and long periods of time train-
ing our employees. Also, the system needs to be able to keep up with the rapid growing pace of
our restaurant. At the same time, the POS system should be able to be compatible with wireless
add-ons which will cope with our marketing and service plans in the near future.
System Requirements
· Operating Systems: Windows XP Pro SP3, XP Embedded, WEPOS, POSReady,
Vista SP2, Win 7, Server 2003, Server 2008 Foundation, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2
· CPU: 1.5 GHz or better Intel based
· RAM: 1 GB or more
· Hard Drive: 2 GB or more free space
· Input: Resistive touch screen
· Printer: Thermal receipt printer with USB interface
· Cash Drawer: Printer driven interface (If cashier ability is needed)
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Decision Matrix
Category Requirement Weight Micros E7 Score POSiTouch Score Aldelo Score % Scale (1-10) Scale (1-10) Scale (1-10)
Statistic Product Performance 8% 8 0.64 9 0.72 8 0.64
Statistic Vendor Reputation 7% 8 0.56 9 0.63 8 0.56
Subjective System Cost 5% 10 0.5 5 0.25 8 0.4
Subjective Flexibility of Contract 4% 6 0.24 5 0.2 9 0.36
Subjective Compatibility with other OS 3% 7 0.21 9 0.27 8 0.24
Statistic Security 6% 9 0.54 8 0.48 7 0.42
Statistic Cost of Upgrades 3% 5 0.15 5 0.15 6 0.18
Statistic Employee Training 5% 7 0.35 7 0.35 8 0.4
Statistic Installment 3% 8 0.24 8 0.24 8 0.24
Subjective Warranties 7% 10 0.7 8 0.56 9 0.63
Statistic System Requirements 2% 7 0.14 8 0.16 7 0.14
Subjective Contingency Plan 6% 4 0.24 7 0.42 6 0.36
Subjective Flow of System Operations 7% 9 0.63 9 0.63 9 0.63
SubjectiveSystem Features and Ad-dons 6% 5 0.3 8 0.48 7 0.42
Statistic Telephone/Email Support 5% 8 0.4 8 0.4 8 0.4
Statistic Overnight Replacements 4% 10 0.4 8 0.32 8 0.32
Subjective Auto Purchase Order 2% 5 0.1 8 0.16 10 0.2
StatisticOnsite Technician Avail-ability 4% 7 0.28 7 0.28 7 0.28
Binary Touch Screen 3% 10 0.3 10 0.3 10 0.3
Binary Wireless Handheld Devices 4% 0 0 10 0.4 10 0.4
Binary Receipt Printers 3% 10 0.3 10 0.3 10 0.3
Binary Kitchen Monitors 3% 10 0.3 10 0.3 10 0.3
Totals 100% 163 7.52% 176 8.0% 181 8.12%
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Solution Recommendation
Based on the research our team has conducted and the statistics provided on our deci-
sion matrix, we have concluded that Aldelo for Restaurant Pro software is the best purchase for
our restaurant. Aldelo has 8.12% favorability over Micros E7 with 7.52% and POSiTouch with
8.0%. According to our decision matrix, Aldelo for Restaurant Pro has a distinctive advantage in
the following categories: flexibility of contract, cost of upgrades, employee training programs,
automatic generation of purchasing orders based on inventory file, and most importantly up-
grades with wireless handheld devices. Before our team has conducted any research, we were
determined to find a POS system that has a handheld device attachment. Once our restaurant
installs this upgrade, our staff can input orders anywhere in the restaurant and focus more on in-
teractions with our consumers.
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Forecasted Financial Costing
First Year Ex-penses
Second Year Ex-penses
Pro 3 Station Restaurant POS
System- Cashier/Wait/Bar Stations
$5,580 (3 terminals)
Aldelo Annual Techni-cal Support Contract $495.00
Ethernet Kitchen Printer Kit with 50ft
Cable$349.00
3 Aldelo License Fee for PDA Device $885.00
Menu Programming $395.003 Wireless Handheld
Devices
$2,274.00(Partner Tech EM-
200)Software Installation
Fee $0.00
Aldelo Annual Tech-nical Support Con-
tract$495.00
Aldelo License Fee per PDA Device $295.00
Handheld Wireless Devices
$758.00/Device(Partner Tech EM-
200)Aldelo Manager Training Session $249.00
Aldelo Staff Software Training Session $75.00
Travel Expense to NuRol Headquarters
$700 (Airline tickets,
transportation, food.)
Hardware Shipping Fee $0.00
Hardware Installation Fee $149.99
Total Cost $9,045.99 Total Cost $3,654.00
Instead of purchasing the hardware, software and printers separately, we have found an
Pro 3 Station Restaurant POS System- Cashier/Wait/Bar Stations from NuRol. NuRol is an au-
thorized distributor of Aldelo based on Atlanta, Georgia that carries a variety of POS hardware
and software systems. The all in one package includes three Aldelo Pro user licenses, three
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LCD touchscreen monitors, three complete POS PCs, three thermal printers, two electric cash
drawers, three networking kit, all required cables and softwares. By purchasing this package,
NuRol has also agreed to provide free installation and training session on the hardware and free
installation and set up of the payment processing software.
The Aldelo Annual Technical Service Contract provides users with 24/7 live technical
support including remote access assistance. The contract also includes the latest software up-
dates during the contract period. We have chosen to purchase the PDA devices from Partner
Tech EM-200 because they are one of the certified hardware for use with Aldelo software and
its physical attraction. We have decided to slowly purchase the wireless PDA devices because
they are high in cost. When we first upgrade to Aldelo for Restaurant Pro, we will only purchase
one wireless PDA device for management training and use. After the first year in production, we
will purchase three more wireless PDA devices for the head servers to use during their shifts.
Partner Tech EM-200 PDA Specification Sheet
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Plan of Action
The implementation of the Aldelo for Restaurant Pro will take approximately two weeks.
Implementation Plan
In the first week
The Aldelo engineers will perform a site survey in the first week. On site surveys are to
ensure all prerequisites are in place so they are no surprises on installation days. The techni-
cians will then have a week to gather all information needed to complete a list of information that
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the restaurant owners have to know about the installations. This will also be the time where the
technician discuss and negotiate the installation schedule, customized menu, system compo-
nents and prices.
Menu Programming
In the first week
Aldelo’s menu programming services includes creating POS database, inputting the
menu structure into the database, table layout, basic employee information, front of the house
layout, etc. Menu programming implementation saves consumers’ time and maximizes deploy-
ment simplicity. To have menu programmed in the first week will create time for manager and
employee training in the second week.
Site Preparation
In the second week
To increase financial and time efficiency, site preparation and deployment will take place
in the same week. Site preparation and deployment will take place in approximately two days.
During site preparation, the technicians will carefully examine and execute step by step installa-
tion preparation to prevent any disruptions to operations. To successfully install the new POS
system, an uninterruptible power supply is required in case of any power outages. It is our
staff’s responsibilities to make sure that the installation site is clear before the installation.
Deployment
In the second week
The actual deployment will be on the second day. The installing spot will be at our old
POS system. It is possible that our restaurant will be closed on deployment day so both the
technicians and our staff and focus on the new POS system.
Acceptance Testing
In the second week
Acceptance testing will take place the same day of deployment. Aldelo technician(s) will
conduct an extensive acceptance on the newly installed Aldelo for Restaurant Pro. They will en-
sure each of the components functions appropriately defined by the management team of the
restaurant. The technicians are responsible for checking the following areas.
← Hardware stability and efficiency- whether the hardware is functioning property and
speed of information retrieved is in the correct time interval.
← Software reliability- the accuracy with processing program’s data.
← Data Integrity- whether the software is nicely integrated with the hardware.
Management and Staff Training
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In the second week
We have separated the training into two categories: managerial and non-managerial em-
ployees. The training sessions will take place at Aldelo’s headquarters in Atlanta, GA. Aldelo
manager’s training session is tailored to the restaurant managers and owners who need to have
a strong grasp of all aspects of the restaurant’s pos applications. Topics covered in this session
will include company set up, sample menu item setup, start and end day procedures, sample
transactions, and generation of different reports. Training session for managerial employees
may last over two hours. The Aldelo staff software training session is tailored towards the wait
staff and cashiers that focus more on transactional features and functions of the POS applica-
tions. Topics covered include sales transactions, returns, payment options, work orders, item
lookup, and consumer demographics. This training session usually takes forty five minutes. To
maximize learning efficiency, the trainer will use manuals, DVDs and videos to approach all as-
pects of the new POS system including potential problems and solutions. The trainer will also
provide real life customers’ scenarios that had occurred with other users of the same software.
Duration Expected
The restaurant plans to have the newly installed POS system for as long as possible.
That is defined as the restaurant staffs are able to maximize efficiency and profit of this newly
inputted POS system. However, we will consider new POS system once Aldelo for Restaurant
Pro no longer satisfy our needs.
Contingency Plan
The greatest risk that is associated with Aldelo is possible technical problems. We have
an annual technical support contract that offers a 24/7 live call center with technical support ser-
vices. Technical services are provided via telephone, email and remote access. Included the
agreement is the access to the latest software updates during the contact period. Aldelo also
provides a complimentary 30 day free support for every new customer. If by any chance the
POS system shuts down completely, our staff will simply take orders by hand and send the hard
copy of orders to the kitchen.
People Implication
One of the greatest benefits of having the Aldelo for Restaurant Pro is to increase effi-
ciency and improve customer service. Once the transaction between the order taking process
and sending orders to the kitchen is smoothed out, we can also increase customer satisfaction
by cutting service time, increase guest turnover ratio during a dining period, generate more rev-
enue per day, and also decrease skills required by our front of the house staff. Despite that we
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are spending large sums of money to install the new POS system and training program, it is fi-
nancially more efficient in long term because it reduces the time and procedure a wait staff has
to conduct during service, therefore saving time and money.
Financial Benefit
Aldelo for Restaurant Prof is cost effective because it reduces the cost of ownership.
Restaurant owners’ cost of ownership is significantly reduced from reasonable start up invest-
ments and lowered ongoing maintenance costs. Application updates are centralized to the
server computer only. Therefore, updates on PDA devices are not necessary. The benefits of
the new POS system focus on reducing complexity and efficiency of the restaurant.
← Takes care of all point of sale activities
← Accurate recording of reservation and guest lists
← Gift card management
← Provides records of customer tracking
← Provides house account charges
← Inventory and recipe file tracking
← Labor and scheduling control
← Variety of financial reports.
Risk Management Evaluation
Concerns and Initial Approach to Address
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Our initial concern of purchasing a new POS system is the amount of money we need to
spend and whether it will actually benefit our restaurant. Our budget continues to change as we
notice the different components we need to purchase in order for the software to function
smoothly. Our decisions continues to change due to the following factors:
• We would like to purchase from a authorized reseller which could be more expensive.
• We have to purchase hardwares, softwares, user license fees, etc for three stations
(Cashier, bar, and wait station).
• We have to decide how many staff should attend the training sessions, therefore our pro-
jections increased due to travel expenses.
• We would like to purchase more PDA devices/ however each license fee and PDA cost
over $900.
• Whether our staff can get used to the new POS system within short period of time.
Contingency Plans
In case of any malfunctions with the POS system or internet issues that prevent the POS
system to function correctly, our restaurant staff will simply resort to manual payment recording
methods and hand written tickets for the kitchen. The restaurant does have a power generator
to power the POS system and preserve fresh and perishable products in case of any power out-
ages. However, the restaurant will not operate if there is no power.
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