Aloha Training for Support 7

[Slicerdicer]

This forum was a huge help to us last time we posted and hoping to garner some more

We put Aloha into 1 of our locations for testing purposes and are looking to expand to multiple stores. Our group has 25 franchises and is using 3 different platforms (HSI Profit Series, Aloha, OnePOS).

My questions for our IT Team is regarding Training, noticed alot of experienced techs like Coorsman et all around here and wanted to ask how they obtained their knowledge on Aloha Support, does Radiant offer a boot camp for technical folks on supporting the software or are there manuals/instructions materials I could employ to train staff on supporting Aloha for an enterprise environment?

Appreciate any responses.

 

[alohaakamai3]

I'm sure the installing dealer would offer training. I know back in the day, we trained a couple of IT departments who were offering a "help desk" type of situation to their stores. And it was more technical type of training, beyond what end users would usually need.

Radiant trains the resellers. To my knowledge, they generally do not train the end users (i.e. people like yourself). And truthfully, if you have that many stores and are committing to using Aloha, you are going to need to develop a good relationship with that dealer. I would definitely go to them for this- if there is a chance they may sell 20+ systems to you, I think they will be very eager to work with you.

 

[coorsman]

Thanks for that alohaakamai3.

I have been sitting here for a few hours wanting to say something but... I don't have anything nice to say. ( I deleted all I was going to say just to be nice.)

I'll leave with this:
The reason I'm on the MVP list? I really feel for the users that have to resort to this forum for help on their POS system. Owners and Managers should be attending to the customers not calling support or searching for why their POS system won't work. Just check out all the posts on this forum if you don't believe me.

I know some of you will say, it's because Micros and Aloha are #1 and #2.

Aloha is too complicated and quirky for anyone even dealers to figure out or learn in a 2 day class.

Just my opinion



Cheers,
Coorsman

 

[alohaakamai3]

Aloha is too complicated and quirky for anyone even dealers to figure out or learn in a 2 day class.

Actually, I'll back you up and this and call it a fact, not just an opinion.

This goes for most of the POS systems out there, honestly. I get a few calls a year where a manager who was employed at a place for while, who gradually took upon themselves to learn the system is-either fired or leaves, and now the remaining staff is a little panicked with how little they know how to do.. so they want a 4 hour training session on how to do "everything".


1. That's not enough time. Some things took years to learn or really understand with Aloha. Some things I still don't ever really use or still don't really understand.

2. Repetition is key to learning. As an owner, there are probably only 5 things you'll ever do regularly on your back office. I could show you 30 other additional things that you'll eventually need to know, but if you don't need to them for a few months, you won't recall how to do it when the time comes (even if it's written down, in many cases).

3. Yes,there are quirky things. Why sometimes do I still have to go into "Preferences" and toggle it to sort items numerically, and then back to alphabetically, to get it work properly? Why, when I do a file server recovery, does the system do nothing? Would a message telling me it was recovered or some kind of prompt telling me it was even clicked be too much to ask? How come in 2011 I still my EDC transactions still dump to the back office if they can't be authorized?


All systems have these kinda quirks, but they take a lot of years to manage and work around.

In short, SlicerDicer, you'll need a dealer as another "level" of support for your in house support. What it sounds like your trying to do- handle a lot of your support through your own IT to manage costs and maintain consistency- is becoming more and more common and your dealer probably won't have a problem with it. They just want to make sure they are going to make some money, and hopefully they make it volume with a corporate chain.

This forum is great for techs and smaller 1 or 2 store chains to get around there dealers to do-it-yourself types, but all major chains are going to have to keep a good relationship with a dealer.

Which consequently, is where like of Aloha sorta ends... I think it's a decent product for corporate places who can shell out the cash and need the features. I don't think it's a great fit for smaller, regional chains or independents.

 

[360fish]

Who: Currently I'm a consultant supporting 11 local sites, coordinating with 3 others who support 80 sites total. I have access to the Radiant KB, 3rd tier support, RSIMS, and work with both enterprise and stand alone systems. I know very little about aloha as a whole because it's only 1 of 6 hats I wear, but I know as much as our reseller, who is good (East Bay Cash Register) and most techs I've met.

I started with a strong tech background. For Aloha, I have been extensively self-trained, trained by senior in-house techs, worked closely with integrators, and, apparently, am a certified aloha reseller (tech) after a two day (2.5?) class with a Radiant trainer. And been to a user conference.

PRELUDE - PREREQUISITES
The most important thing, by far, is a strong background in (windows) tech. The following presumes you are good at networking and windows OS at a bare minimum. Professional-good, not enthusiast-good.

HIGHLY RECOMNMENDED
Have a lab with a server, a couple (2, not just 1) touch screens and 1 thermal printer.

ALOHA CERTIFICATION
Worthless(why at end of this write-up)

SELF TRAINING
Valuable but very "expensive" (your time, downtime, poor purchasing decisions, re-re-re-refixing issues etc.)

HYBRID SELF-TRAINING
BEST CHOICE. Working closely with resellers makes self-training much better. For example, make sure only you (the tech) access the reseller's support-center, you sit between them and store managers. Be on-site when they do any work (watching the server if they're working remotely). Make friends, give them free stuff, hang out at their office. Ask lots of questions. Call support for things that aren't really, exactly, support issues.

Do ALL the menus, EDC configs, etc. yourself. Fix problems your managers want fixed but are relatively idiotic. Figure out things that are real problems and fix them before people know they exist. Fix about 50 different really weird, never-will-be-seen-again problems under impossibly high pressure and with 0 $ budget. If you can't do that, have a lab, break stuff in really weird ways and then fix it. Levitate your x-wing out of the swamp and you are a master.

RTFM. Especially the older PCI compliance specs. Those were a solid, basic, very good set of recommendations. The current one is *insane* and way, way over engineered (imho).

USER CONFERENCE
VERY GOOD if you have a high level of knowledge. You meet the heads of support and development for large restaurant chains, not as presenters, but as attendees. You get access to radiant product mangers and other very, very high level folks. One-on-one access. And the actual sessions are great, if a bit sales-pitch, only a bit. And even the vendor booths are very educational.

ALOHA RESELLER/TECH CERTIFICATION IS SILLY
The training, which certified us as reseller-support, able to access aloha internal support systems, speak directly to 3rd tier support, etc., really just read us the aloha technical documentation. Seriously. Like a book on tape. It had few real world examples, 0 hands-on, and, ended with a reasonably easy test . No framed diploma

DISCLAIMER: all the above is IMHO. It's long because I didn't have time to write something shorter. I sincerely hope it is somewhat helpful.

Oh, I think I agree with Coors, mostly. I do know he is a very solid tech. I just wish there was a practical alternative to Aloha. I've considered making one, but, I just don't care enough .

 

[eburks]

@ ALL

Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap.......

 

[pinoytech]

Here I think are some ways to train your team:

1. Work closely with your aloha distributor. Make sure you document
the things they do in troubleshooting your problems.
2. Ask them to customize a users and technical manuals based on the
actual operation of your company.
3. Setup a lab in your office for your team to play around with.

 

[Slicerdicer]

Well some background on us:

We operate 24 BW3's and 1 Smashburger, currently we have 2 Aloha BW3 Sites and 1 Smashburger Aloha site, we are moving out of 24/7, HSI, Aspect/BackOffice to all aloha and are in the middle of 5 transfers to Aloha right now.

The goal is to get all restaurants to Aloha with Menulink as a 1st step.

We have an excellent dealer relationship and I will be training with them.

My experience is as a Systems Admin for about 80 corporate clients in North Carolina as part of a managed IT Services Firm, so my Windows experience on server/desktop I would rate above par.

However the restaurant group wants me full time for all IT, so I am looking obviously into training for POS Systems/Software etc to educate myself to troubleshoot future issues, not concerned with the petty stuff but more on the file server issues that I see on this forum regulary.

I feel comfortable that I will be able to pick up the material over time, just would like to have a good starting point leading into it, there are alot of problems with respect to the overall IT of the group (mostly brought on by past dealers and selling things to the restaurant group way beyond what was required) but that's another story.

I appreciate the responses and will keep ya'll updated with my adventures into the POS World.