Cloud Based POS Systems for Bars and Restaurants
Press release: 5/4/2012
Cloud based restaurant POS systems are on the cusp of significant growth. Cloud based POS systems offer some significant advantages over traditional server based systems but still lag behind in one key area: Speed.
These days many professionals in the hospitality industry would struggle to recall the days when servers recorded orders on pen and paper and then that handwritten order became the order ticket used in the kitchen. The solid majority of bars and restaurant have adopted electronic POS systems because their cost is far outweighed by the operational efficiencies they create. Restaurant POS systems foster many benefits such as quicker order times, standardized order formatting for the kitchen, rapid bill printing and payment as well as a whole host of reporting functions. The growth of cloud based data management systems in the past year or so has spawned an interesting new option for bar and restaurant owners: Cloud based bar and restaurant POS systems.
Jamie Edwards, owner of Bar-i intelligent inventory (www.bar-i.com), makes the following observations, “Cloud based restaurant POS systems offer a number of interesting improvements on traditional server based systems. Having all data backed up in the cloud means serious system meltdowns can be recovered from much more quickly. Accessing data remotely can create significant operational efficiencies since bookkeepers, accountants and upper management can all have access to sales information which previously had to be pulled off a system by someone who was physically on-premise.”
Cloud based systems also present their own unique challenges. If your internet goes down, so does your entire POS system. Manufacturers are developing solutions to this such as back up connections or off-line functioning for their systems. Another hurdle is that cloud based systems tend to operate more slowly. Every time a user wants to pull up a screen, in order to ring an order, the system has to communicate with a remote server which can take a second or two. This time delay can be extremely frustrating for servers who have become used to the speed of server based systems which are instantaneous. Edwards adds, “We have yet to find a cloud based system which has addressed these problems in a satisfactory manner. In addition, the systems we have seen to date have not yet been developed sufficiently to handle the unique challenges which a bar or restaurant environment creates. We have no doubt however that cloud based systems are here to stay with all off the benefits they offer including easy of scalability and excellent ergonomics like using tablets or even smart phones and handhelds.”
For details of Bar-i’s liquor inventory system, which integrates seamlessly with any cloud or server based POS system, go to www.bar-i.com.
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