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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.
Once all the POS systems at Fuddruckers were down because thir windows based network was infected with NIMDA. They couldn't figure out how to sell hamburgers without them. Four people had to suggest using pen, paper and a calculator to record sales before the manager would do it. You are right to want to avoid windows, but you need to be ready to stay open if all the computers crash even on Linux. Keep the old style guest checks on hand, and some pocket calculators.
How ya like dat?
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.