Buying used Aloha system

[pogmahoney]

I did a search on this and only found one thread and it wasn't that helpful.

Your insights will hopefully help me make the right decision.

I have one nightclub now and am getting ready to open up a restaurant. I need two new terminals to add to my existing aloha system in my current club and will be needing another complete system for the restaurant.

I found a 4 terminal system for sale locally and am considering buying it as it is considerably cheaper than new stuff.

Questions:

1) If this is a fully functional system from a closed restaurant, shouldnt I be able to wipe their data off and add my own for a new operation without running into licensing/software issues?

2) Could I buy the system and use two of the terminals in my existing club's system assuming the versions are compatible?

3) Would there be transfer fees/software update charges associated with #2?

I have set up 2 POS systems (Micros, Positouch) including databases pretty much from scratch but have never done it where I needed to transfer ownership of existing hardware/software. How much difficulty can I expect if I attempt to cut corners here and set this up myself?

Has anyone done this before? Can you give me the pros/cons or any pitfalls I should be particularly careful of?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Jamie

 

[pogmahoney]

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[coorsman]

Aloha licenses the software with a key, usually the white thing attached to the server's parallel port or the new version is a usb key. Without that, the software is toast. The key, along with the software security numbers specify how many terminals, credit card (edc) and extra software are basically turned on when you start the system. You cannot add terminals to a system that is set for the number of terminals you originally licensed.

As far as using terminals across different versions, this is possible because a term install is usually performed on a newly installed terminal to add it to the system.

Most of the previous resaurants information can be changed in aloha manager, under maintenance, system, store settings functions.

The only thing to watch out for is the version number you are buying. With aloha you purchase a key and key numbers that allow you to upgrade to the highest version within that number.

If your key is a 5.3 key you can upgrade to the latest 5.3 version, so a 6.0 key would allow you to upgrade to the highest 6.0 version, then there is a 6.1.29 and a 6.2.25 and so on. The latest version is 6.4 and guess what a soon to be released 6.5 version. So yea, you could find yourself in a world of problems buying a used key tied to an old version of aloha.

But be informed, with the new CISP compliance program Radiant will only certify any version after 6.4 to be compliant. Of course if you do credit cards using a eft terminal there would not be a compliance issue but they would not be integrated into aloha.

Last but not lease setting up an Aloha system from scratch is not as easy as anyone thinks, there are a lot of intricate settings to get them to work, most of which you can find on this forum if you have time to look for them. If the server and terminals are still setup as they were originally install you should not have a problem.

Have fun.

 

[pogmahoney]

Thanks for the response, coorsman. As far as the upgrades go, aren't you limited to certain upgrades no matter where the equipment is purchased? It seems you always have to pay to upgrade once a new version comes out. How does it differ when the equipment is purchased second hand?

Is it that there is no way to modify the terms of the software once used equipment is introduced into the system or that the cost associated with these modifications outweigh the savings of used over new equipment?

Is there any company that offers reasonable phone support on equipment not purchased with them?

 

[DTSMAN]

This same thread was started a while back, thought it was the same one.

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1554725&page=2

You can not buy used Aloha softeware because the person who has it does not own it. It is not theirs to sell per the license agreement. Search other post for similar information.

Bo

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If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
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