After too much deliberation (and lack of collateral) we have finally ordered our POS. We have gone with an Australian company that specialises in Pizza and has a couple of small to medium independent chains using them, plus heaps of single stores and other types of restaurants.
The system is extremely simple to use and incorporates EFTPOS payments and online ordering as standard features. The only add on was caller ID but I think this is the same with all companies.
We scored some all in one touch screens/computers that have been refurbished for a great price (3 for <$1k plus freight) and only have to get a cash draw and docket printer from the supplier. We are adding a powerfull stand alone tower as a back up and to act as the master server for the system. For around $150 upgrading a secondhand fairly powerfull computer we got from my wifes work we will get out of it for around $3k including installation (software and hardware) which is cheap for here.
Looked at Point of Success and some other USA based similar programes but found that they lacked the ability to do our deals and specials the way we have them done without having to manually do “super” button or what ever it is called. This one does everything for us within the system plus it is very simple to update.
What we save on printed dockets and current incorect ordering/pricing issues will more than pay for the monthly operating an support fee (it is a no cost upfront programe but a very reasonable opt out anytime monthly fee with 24/7 support).
Online ordering will take some tweaking once we have it hooked up for pick up and delivery times but we can hold this off until we work everything through for a few weeks.
Looking forward to crawling out of the cave and into the computerise ordering system.
Dave
Welcome to the 21st century. Remember to get your staff to take complete information from your customers so you can use your database for marketing.
We are also getting a data base form for customers to fill out while they are waiting for their orders just in case anything got missed. We are looking at additional information such as birthdays etc as part of our marketing plans.
Also we addeda bar code scanner to the system for those small one off over the counter orders such as drinks & chocolates so we don’t have to trawl throw the POS for the items.
Dave
We finally hooked up a single station last weekend and are transitioning from pen/paper/ and cash register to the world of POS. It has been pretty interesting these last few days and I’m spending entirely too much time right now looking at reports of information that I never had before. We hooked up Point of Success and all the software/ hardware came in around $1,200. Hopefully when we add another station we’ll be able to do it for a little bit cheaper as the software will be less.
Just an update
Finally got everything installed and now just fine tuning everything they input for us. The menu reqy=uired some alterations and additions mainly due to me forgetting to tell them everything to put in but it has been a great learning curve knowing how to use the system and input data.
Just got to inform the POS company of map grids and delivery zoes and fees for each zone and to get them to fix a couple of pricing issues I can’t do and then we are ready to go.
Looking at adding the On-line ordering after about a months use. The POS company hosts the online ordering and takes 6% of online sales value for hosting, support and online payment fees etc. I think this is a pretty good deal - or at least I’m happy with it especially as we pay 16c per transaction and 1.4% fees on EFTPOS transactions so it realy only costs me around 4.2%.
Next thing is to get a car that doesn’t need a crank handle to start it. 
Dave
6%? Even 4.2%? !!! :shock: :shock:
That’s insane. Find someone that will do it for a fixed price.
My online ordering cost works out to be 0.4% of online sales - and all credit cards are automatically ran through my own POS, just like every other order.
Congrats. It’s a new world.
Ditto what Daddio said on building your customer database. The best thing about starting from scratch is that you have the opportunity to build a clean, mail-ready database. Believe me, you won’t want to deal with a mess later, so start off on the right foot: ask every caller for their home phone# up front, and enter mobile numbers into ONE record per household. Import a street database to help your staff handle new customer orders faster (and without messing up the mailing addresses). And have someone review your new customers (daily, or at least weekly) to update missing info and coach staff to collect it properly.
I wouldn’t worry about the web ordering fees yet. Per-transaction fees or percentages may actually be more economical than a flat fee initially. As your web order volume grows, there are other providers to consider…but I’d be reluctant to choose a provider that doesn’t integrate directly to your POS.
Give it a week or two, and then carve out the time to get to know your new reports. You’ll be amazed what you didn’t know about the business you know so well.
Another dinosaur has moved on. Am I the onliest one left using pencil and pad?
I just got in 5K each of counter slips and two part delivery slips. Point of Success looks good when I see what I spend on these things.
Good luck with the 0’s and 1’s, I will probably be joining you in the twentieth century soon.
Rick
Rick I hear you with just ordering pads.
We just got 50 pads of 100 sheets of our custom order pads @ $15 per pad just before we decided to go with the POS.
They will come in handy if we ever have a outage with the POS, but no-one will remember how to write up an order. 
Dave
We too just received another shipment of order pads and every time I tell myself “this will be the last shipment because we will have a POS very soon”. We hope to make the switch from good ole pen and paper to a POS, realistically, within the next 6 months. The idea of having such a powerful analysis tool at my finger tips makes me giddy, I can only imagine all the reports I’ll be running. I’m thinking we will be going with Point of Success as well with mostly refurbed equipment. Good luck with your new system, very exciting! Now the only thing you can blame your wrist cramping on is making dough instead of the bazillion tickets you write up! :mrgreen:
Dave, that online ordering rate is more than a little high. In our first year of online ordering we did about $20,000 in orders and what we paid came to about 4%, but this year we will do more than twice that amount in sales and our fee stays the same… so we are now under 2% for that service. That includes not only the hosting, but also support and updates for the system and access to the reports etc etc. As we continue to build the online side of things, I expect that cost to settle in around 1%.
We did just add mobile ordering as well which added another $100 per year to the cost.
We went live on Thursday with a few minor glitches which were worked out during the night or with the support people Friday morning. Great how they remotely log in and make the adjustments etc.
Had our first Friday (last night) using it and everything went smoothly with only 1 minor problem that we are able to manually adjust. The system allows extra toppings as a half option but doesn’t specify which half in the case the customer wnts x ingredient added on one half and another on the other half. We can do it by making it a 1/2/ & 1/2 pizza then removing the surcharge. I will talk to the support guy and see if he can add a extras button for either half. Otherwise all is fine.
The reports that can be printed were an eye opener and I can see great benefits in using them.
Really glad that we are now in the 21st centruy order wise and can now throw out the pen and papers. Long time coming but now up and running and the staff love the ease of using it.
Dave