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Restaurant POS Systems?
glamslam asks: "As the newly appointed technology director at a large restaurant chain, I've been given the task of evaluating and implementing a Point of Sale (POS) system. The main goal is to save costs on deployment across hundreds of restaurants. Another goal is to find a solution that is flexible enough to adapt to our unique operational model. Most of the vendors' products I have seen are based on Windows. I prefer the openness, flexibility, and cost-savings of Linux, yet I do not want to build the system from the ground up. Has anyone been involved in POS projects and managed to put Linux into the mix?" Are there any features that restaurants need that your traditional POS system may not include?
I'm not sure how far along this project is...
but BananaPOS seems to be decent.
http://bananapos.com/pos/index.html
ChiefArcher
Jamie Zawinski (former Lucid Emacs / Netscape hacker) looked into the option of Linux POS devices for his nightclub. You might want to read about his experiences.
Linux has been used on cash registers in the past. If I recall correctly, The Home Depot, uses Linux in its system. However, I wouldn't want to go with what they use because it doesn't have a lot of functionality. I tried to get a subtotal printed on my receipt and it couldn't do it.
Links:
sPh
I am sort of in the same boat as the original poster, and all I can say is what we did to make it work:
We went with Aloha for the POS systems, and then I slapped in a box we were going to throw away and use it to grab all the figures and dump them to the home office via some trivial bash scripts.
I begged and pleaded with the management team of the restaurant to find something linux based, but
nothing was mature enough that fit the bill.
Good luck.
Any restaurant/bar that I've worked at, and most that I've gone to have used the Squirrel system. Well, at least in Canada that has been the case. Anyway, they still use a Windows backend, but they just converted to an embedded Linux POS terminal. Maybe the rest of the system will convert to Linux in the near future as well.
One company I work for owns cruise ships. They decided to upgrade their POS systems two years ago, deployed across three vessels and in one land-based facility. I evaluated several systems, including most industry heavyweights like Squirrel, Sabre, and Micros. I decided to deploy RCS. They were by far the most affordable and flexible for our rather unique operation (our restaurants move, they can't be affordably directly networked together with any reasonable throughput to a centralized location, and our business deals with a lot of pre-sale.) The company is based in Portland, Oregon where the company I work for is based, so that was an added bonus.
The owner of RCS, Eric, is also the programmer of the software. He is on top of his game, is very down to earth, and has a quality support staff working with him, though I have rarely needed them because the software is so well realized for what it does.
The version we use runs on DOS: fast, stable, simple. You can use any old hardware without a hiccough. We use Quantum Snap servers for centralized storage. Use any pc you want for your credit card processing which doubles as a mirror for the data on the quantum in case of failure. CAT-5 ties the workstations together. All the data can be exported as CSV's so there isn't any lock-in as far as your history.
RCS doesn't lie to you about the ridiculous markups that occur in the restaurant industry on the hardware side; they will let you roll your own should you choose as the software is hardware agnostic, though I did install industrial-grade workstations with spill-resistant touch panels and cases. Don't skimp on the hardware you put in the hands of your wait staff; any money you think you are saving up front will be lost the first time it fails, and they will come up with the most creative ways to break things you have ever seen.
Running computers in a marine environment is a challenge, due to inconsistent power and climate. We have not had one instance of hardware or software failure in the POS system itself in the two years it has been deployed on any of our vessels. We did have a UPS get dropped in a bus tub full of soapy water while connected to a running system. The network did not fail and the unit attached to the assaulted UPS worked fine when rebooted on another UPS.
I can not recommend RCS highly enough.
I've seen it used in several pubs around here and it seems very easy to use, with multiple staff using the same terminals at the same time, by just logging in instantly with a fob-like device they wore.
First off, most venders I spoke with are researching Linux as an option, but are waiting before they implement anything.
That said, there are a few "platform-independent" options sprouting up. Siva Corp has an interesting enterprise POS package (Web Based / MySQL backend). Tesoro's Volante has a nice looking java-based system. I've googled like crazy over this topic and found a few smaller players (BananaPOS mentioned above somehow escaped my searches).
Then there are a few Linux-native solutions such as Sicom POS.
The temptation is to look for a "mature" POS product with thousands of deployments before you make a decision such as this. This, of course, does not exist. We are now deciding to be "early adopters" because we believe in the stability, openness, and cost-effectiveness of using open platforms. Eventually we hope to have all of our back-office computers running Linux / Open Office.
If you've been around this industry for very long, then you know that this is not an industry on the cutting-edge. (Unless you are a huge, multi-unit operator). Look for a case-study on open source in the food service business in about 6-8 months. Hopefully it will be positive. (Or I will be looking for another career ;)