It has come to me, for some reason, to give at least a preliminary recommendation on restaurant POS and back office software to my boss. I know nothing about this type of thing. Does anybody who has had restaurant experience have any recommendations for or against any of the popular packages? Pros/cons/et cetera? Thanks.

4/17/2010 2:50:25 PM

Oh, the POS stands for "Point of Sale".

4/17/2010 2:55:45 PM

WillemJoel


I think evan mentioned at some point that he had done some POS roll-outs at some point

4/17/2010 3:00:30 PM

Almost every restaurant that i know of uses this stuff http://www.squirrelsystems.com/

4/17/2010 6:24:45 PM

http://postechnologyinc.com/

4/17/2010 9:48:15 PM

as a guy who worked at a restaurant with Squirrel, I can say they truly put the P.O.S. into POS

4/18/2010 12:57:50 AM

They apparently sell something called "Squirrel in a Box."



I don't know if I should laugh or step back slowly.

4/18/2010 1:01:37 AM

Aloha is easily the best in my opinion. It's also the most expensive I think (or near the top). But it's very easy to use...and if you're employing some retards at the restaurant, it's probably a good idea.

Restaurant Manager and Micros are probably somewhere in the middle. There are pluses and minuses for both of them.

Digital Dining is probably the worst. I worked with it for about a year and got really use to it. But then I tried to pick it up again 6 months later and it was like I never used it. I haven't used aloha in 2 years but could pick it back up with no problem.

Using a new system called "One" now...it started off horribly, but I like it a lot now. We're one of two restaurants in a city where there are a million...so I don't know how common it is in other places. Still think Aloha is the best.

[Edited on April 18, 2010 at 10:33 AM. Reason : .]

4/18/2010 10:32:05 AM

Quote :

"as a guy who worked at a restaurant with Squirrel, I can say they truly put the P.O.S. into POS"

haha this is my experience as well.

4/18/2010 10:40:36 AM

Anybody have a rough idea how much an Aloha setup is gonna cost?

4/18/2010 1:56:22 PM

i worked in a restaurant that used Aloha. It's pretty hard to fuck up on there.

no clue how much it costs...

4/18/2010 2:33:12 PM

We use OpenBravo POS in our retail store. It looks like you could do some customization for restaurant work. Plus, its free.

http://www.openbravo.com/product/pos/

4/18/2010 4:27:51 PM

halo pos:
http://www.myhalo.com

4/18/2010 4:35:26 PM

Quote :

"Aloha is easily the best in my opinion."

4/18/2010 5:51:38 PM

Quote :

"Anybody have a rough idea how much an Aloha setup is gonna cost?"

Call up your local Aloha rep and ask. Depends on how big the restaurant is, how many screens you're going to have, etc. I want to say a normal system is around $10K for a decent sized restaurant. Then you pay a little extra to always have a rep on call (which is necessary...because EVERY system crashes...and on a 1am when your system crashes and your bar is full...you need to have that rep answer their phone to fix your problem).

4/18/2010 6:49:00 PM

http://www.myhalo.com/restaurant/Price_your_POS/

this has price comparisons on it. That openbravo looks like shit

4/18/2010 7:29:39 PM

has anyone used micros?

4/18/2010 7:36:11 PM

its been a while but i recall thinking aloha was easier to use the macros

4/18/2010 7:53:04 PM

^^^ specifically see this page:
http://www.vivonet.com/halo-pos/price-your-pos

If you do some cost comparisons, even with their subscription model, a halo pos system is going to be cheaper since they handle a lot of work over the web. An internet connection is required, however they have an offline buffer system in place that takes over if the system ever conveniently dies when your slammed on a Friday night. It just resyncs when the net goes back up.

The added advantage is that you can access your store data from anywhere. All data is backed up for you and upgrades are free and automatic. Their terminals are basically just touchscreen web kiosks which cuts down on hardware problems.

They were also featured on Kitchen Nightmares recently as being one of the best pos systems around.

Live demo request:
http://www.vivonet.com/halo-pos/live-demo-request

/ad

[Edited on April 18, 2010 at 8:35 PM. Reason : -]

4/18/2010 8:34:57 PM

Quote :

"Oh, the POS stands for "Point of Sale"."

4/18/2010 10:52:59 PM

i do not recommend POSitouch unless you like the system to crash whenever you become busy. also the touchscreens are fragile.. they break easily when drunk people punch them

4/18/2010 11:52:11 PM

Quote :

"Aloha is easily the best "

4/19/2010 11:43:41 AM

Quote :

"Restaurant Manager and Micros are probably somewhere in the middle. There are pluses and minuses for both of them."

I've never managed at restaurants so I don't know about the bookkeeping or maintenance side of POS systems, I can only speak for them as an employee (front and back of the house). I've never used Aloha. Restaurant Manager is pretty straight forward and easy to work with, it seemed like it was very customizable (sub-menus), and easy to update. Rarely did I have the system go down, aside from the occasional screen freeze. I don't know this for a fact, but it seems like RM is a good choice for small/local businesses, whereas most corporations/large chains go with Aloha or Micros.

To me Micros has pretty much been the industry standard POS system for the last 10-15 years. It's easy and reliable. They were the up and comer to challenge the old Panasonic systems of the 90's, and have cornered most of the POS market since then. If I had to choose one, I would choose Micros, based on the familiarity to more employees and the ease of using and learning that particular system.

4/19/2010 6:16:28 PM

Quote :

"I've never used Aloha."

That's it. I've used them all...and while Micros and Restaurant Manager are good....Aloha is HANDS DOWN the easiest to work with...not even close.

Honestly..it depends on the restaurant. If it's small and/or you know you are going to have seasoned, career servers and bartenders, then go for the cheaper option. If they're smart enough it won't matter. Digital Dining is the worst, but I had it mastered in a short amount of time. The dumb employees still fucked it up all the time.

Even the retards can use Aloha. It's the user-friendliest.

4/19/2010 10:01:00 PM

stay away from micros like its the plague...by far the worst hardware and software i've EVER worked on

our franchise currently has NCR units, and i like those 10x better...the software, though, is custom, so i can't recommend anything (except for the warning against micros...again)

4/20/2010 10:19:48 AM