Any feedback on Restaurant Pro? 1

[Sawyteck]

BTW, not a vendor or anything; just did a few jobs over the past year, but couldn't find a descriptive category for my level of experience.

I'm looking for a fine dining software that will give me as few problems as possible.

so far, I've been using Aldelo nextPOS

http://www.aldelo.com

and I have not been 100% satisfied with it. Right now I'm looking at the Restaurant Pro Express demo v. 11.0. It looks OK, and i like the .net and MySQL functionality, but I was wondering if any of the Gurus here has used it before or could let me know if there are any known issues or bugs, or even if there's a better product I could use other than the big guys Aloha and Micros.

Also, I've been using PCCharge but it tends to freeze often and I was wondering if any of youall is familiar with a better product out there.

Thanks a lot

 

[alohaakamai3]

Restaurant Pro Express -if I am not mistaken-- is a New Jersey based software company that has teamed up with Dell (so you're still looking at the big guys! ) to offer point of sales solutions to the table service industry. I had heard a few negative things about it from a guy who used to sell it a while back, but I don't want to slam anyones product without offering any particulars, and I don't have any that I would be willing to post publicly.

That they've formed a major partnership with Dell is somewhat troubling to me. I don't think Dell represents quality. I think Dells business model is to enter about every market it can by competing on the basis of price, staying in that market segment until the profits are all but gone, and then move on. It's been said that the Dell PCs don't even make them much money anymore--that they are just using the equipment line for other business ventures.

Anyone, my two cents aside... it's up for you to decide what Dell means to you. I just wanted to make you aware that if you're thinking about this system, you will be putting your establishment in their hands (at least in part), and I would investigate that in the form of service and turn around times when your system goes down.

We've had our share of problems with PC Charge too. I think most of the issues are "managable" if your dealer is good and you have managers working at your location are moderately intelligent. Even so, it can be a pain sometimes.

Stability also feels like a crap shoot sometimes. I've seen Aloha run great at some locations, and horrible at others. I think stability is the most important feature of all--more so than features, bells, or whistles. Stability is also dependant on the equipment used by the dealers, etc, so I would ask the people IN YOUR AREA, since that will be the best indicator of what you'll be getting.

Hope some of that helps!

 

[DTSMAN]

If you are happy with the current product why are you looking into something else?
ECRS that develops the Catapult retail software dropped PCcharge last year or so ago because it generated to many service calls. They now push Mercury or a couple of others as the preferred interface to their product.
As mentioned, it is a Dell product. I think Dell and Walmart developed their business plans based on the same business plans used by the Borg..

Bo

Kentucky phone support-
"Mash the Kentrol key and hit scape."

 

[Sawyteck]

Thank you so much for the great feedback. I'm not tempted by the Dell business model either; as a matter of fact, it was a Dell sales rep that referred me to PC America. I do like the fact that the new version uses a SQL database, but not so thrilled with the interface, just not so graphically appealing.

I like Aldeo (NextPOS) because it's easy to configure and to use, but the most major problem it has is balancing the drawer at the end of the shift; if you use staff banks instead of having all cash orders handled by the cashaire, for some reason it does not automatically recognize the cash entered by the servers when closing their banks. There's a way to make the cash register recognize that cash, but it's a little involved and the manager at the last restaurant I did refuses to do it and insists that the software should do it automatically. He does have a point though since all the data is going to the same database, why doesn't the software do the calculation automatically and tell the manager how huch cash should be in the drawer at the end of the night? I spent two hours with tech support on the phone and they told me simply that there's no simple way to do it.

My biggest headache right now is PCCharge (I realize this is becoming more of a venting form ) even though I activated three more user licenses, it still gets jammed almost every busy night and the only way to unjam it is to restart the entire system (all the stations) and that sometimes causes problems with the Aldelo database (some items do not get saved). My guess is that the Aldelo database recognizes only one user and that's why it jams when two servers are processing payments at the same time. My second guess is that PCCharge is a bad program and I need to replace it. Aldelo comes with it's own credit card processing software and it's free, but if I decide to use it instead, I will have to change the processing company and platform and don't how long the transition time will be. <p>Another idea that just hit me is that since the DSL modem is a router at the same time, maybe I need to open a particular port for PCCharge to work properly, but why would it work sometimes if that is the case???!!!

This is the kind of thing that would drive you drinking )

 

[dgosman]

Hi Sawyteck:

As one of the owners of pcAmerica, hopefully my input will be a bit helpful

Restaurant Pro Express is our software, and we develop it from input of the users. Working with Dell, you have the security and support structure (including on-site support options) from Dell, coupled with the hands on specialty support we provide on the software. Our new interface in the SQL version is nicely improved, and we're always open to suggestions.

As for PC Charge, I give it a B+. It is good, not perfect-- does generate service calls, but not at unacceptable levels. We do have built-in processing to CoCard, which means you will not need PC Charge (although you will need a merchant account with them.)

Your input is always welcome -- reach out to us any time.


David J. Gosman
Chief Executive Officer
pcAmerica
djg@pcamerica.com

 

[bam720]

I just wanted to interject a smaller(as in not big guy) company. Aspex POS is based out of Colorado, but has a growing client base. You can check them out more at

http://www.aspexpos.com,

or email Rob dot W at aspexpos dot com for more info.