What you look for in a point of sale software?

[jackandrews]

So I want to get some additional ideas into what people look for when they need a point of sale software or pos system. I know a lot use Two Touch or Aloha POS or Radiant System pos solution but tell me what improvement you wish to see in those point of sale solutions.

point of sale | Security Cameras

 

[alohaakamai3]

I am guessing this probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but after 15 years in this business, I tell prospective restaurants and customers to buy on service/reliability over features any day.

As I've seen this business evolve, it was (as your asking about) very much a race between developers to add gimmicks and features in the earlier years of touch based systems.

The focus on features has really started to fade in the last 5 years or so. Most people have used modern touch based POS systems in their previous restaurants, and owners have a better idea of what they need and what they don't than they did in the early 90s, for example. The reliability since operating systems has very much leveled out over the years too, as operating systems and hardware have become more standardized and stable.

Even the way the interfaces between various systems are taking on a similar look and feel, where people also expect to see a certain design when they use a POS system.

Features will continue to come and go for sure... but fewer of them will appear, and some will no doubt stick if they prove to be useful.

If you're a vendor looking to develop stuff and want to know specific features people would like to see, I think it depends on the specific segment of the hospitality industry. And you may find a tough time adding "absolute must haves" that people are going to pick your system over another offering, because all of the basics are pretty well covered for now.

 

[DTSMAN]

Your links take me to a sight that resells WinPOS and TEC 3700. Are you a reseller of those products?
I have worked with the TEC stuff for a short period. It is a nice and simple system which makes a great product for those small sandwich places or similar.

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

http://www.redgreen.com

 

[jackandrews]

We used to, we refuse to sell their products anymore cause of serious issues that have developed with their products. we are in the process of making our own hospitality point of sale solution.

point of sale | Security Cameras

 

[DTSMAN]

That's a tough thing to do in todays market. You would be better off buying a failing company's product and improving it.
Do the math on what it will cost to develop a working system that will compete, then figure what you want your margains to be, and how many systems you will have to sell before you break even.
I bring this up, as I have consulted with another individual that thought he was going to make a great and cheaper restaurant POS system. Couple of months into it and crunching the numbers, the ROI would be too far out.
Name recogintion goes along way.

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

http://www.redgreen.com

 

[jackandrews]

our retail point of sale is complete. the hospitality point of sale won't cost much.

point of sale | Security Cameras

 

[alohaakamai3]

I second what Bo said. Although my retail system goes back to systems that have been around longer than some of the forum users (DTS2100), I am far more familiar with hospitality stuff. The point being that I do have experience in both. The current status quo of features and functions that people expect to see in a food service packages FAR OUTNUMBER the base features consumers expect to see in retail systems.

Unless you expect to tackle a very specific industry demographic (say for example, Pizzerias), you can expect the amount of features involved to accommodate the the basic restaurant formats to be 20 times the amount of work you put into your retail system.

What I've stated up to this point I consider to be fact, the following is just my opinion.

This market is over saturated with POS systems of all prices points and industries. As someone who has been doing this for closing in on 2 decades, I feel like the easy money left this industry 5-7 years ago. If you think you've got something great that you can offer, by all means go for it. I am not trying to discourage you at all, just saying this is a really bad time to enter the market that has definitely reach maturity.

However, the fact that your asking for a list of features people consider important doesn't lend itself well to you grasping the scope of a hospitality POS system (or fully understand the cost), since there are probably 50 features that any restaurant manager can tell you are standard-must-have's in today's market. A simplistic example of this would be splitting a check- 10 years ago, this was a feature that not all systems had or couldn't do well, and something like that alone might sell a system to a buyer. Now if you walked in with a system that couldn't split a check and do it well, you'd be laughed out of the demo.
But like I said, the days of adding a few flashy features and selling a POS system are largely a thing of the past.

Back to your question- the reason you're not getting a lot of feedback on this is because the important features required to sell a pos system are simply too many to list. It's like me asking what are the important features in a car? Well, that will cover a TON of ground and largely depend on what to with it.

Though it's getting less common to be able to do this, I suggest you download as many POS system demos as you can for the segment you want to serve and just research like a mad man.