Off the top of my head, here is our current thoughts on the POS systems we have considered.
Even though DiamondTouch is local to us, we decided against them after meeting with the salesman at their offices for a demonstration. They system had glitches on the screen. Mind you, this is the demo setup at THEIR offices. Then the salesman was testy with us. Big turnoff. Lastly, it was Access-based and they were rewriting for SQL. The upgrade would not be free. So why would we invest in old technology?
We really, really liked Intura’s product. Very slick and they, too, were local to us. Unfortunately, when I explained my concerns over the founder of the company becoming one of the owners of the Garlic Jim’s franchise here, he got snippy and said, “Good luck with Speedline”. (Went to check out the new Garlic Jim’s that he is an owner of. Easily $30K worth of Intura’s products in there. Flat panels everywhere! LOL. Must be nice.)
Revention is probably out with us since we don’t want to be tied to their online service. It seems too much like putting all our eggs in one basket. Their ads are also overly aggressive in our opinion.
Point of Success has a great price point, a loyal following, a dedicated owner, and the right attitude about allowing self-installation. Unfortunately, it does not seem they see online ordering as imperative as we do.
Speedline looks terrific and their online/remote ordering API is very full-featured. I mean, very cool. It would allow us to have a remote call center, online ordering, you name it. If we go with Speedline, this would be the primary reason. Unfortunately, I could not get any information on the specifics of it. Rather, said my programmer would need to “purchase” the API. Another problem is the proprietary/closed database they use, which requires the purchase of an ODBC client to use, should we wish to access the data. So they are VERY protected, to the point that it makes purchasing their product risky. In addition, they will not let you self-install your system unless you pay $15,000 to get “certified” by them. Since my partner and I are IT professionals, the install cost is a waste of valuable startup resources.
Firefly has been very helpful and friendly. This may be the deciding factor in picking a company. Josh should be proud of that fact. He has really put up with a lot of PITA questions from me. Open database (mySQL) for our custom programming and some very interesting features. Though they will not budge on disallowing self-installs, they have made some significant price concessions on a basic system. As a startup, this is critical. Online ordering is not very sophisticated as the system just accepts an XML file from the online provider and returns a confirmation code. Not a tight integration. As it is a web-based app, we may be able to come up with something else on our own to work with it.
I am sure I am leaving out many other POS systems that we have reviewed. It just gets so jumbled over time.
I opened my Pizza Business Dec 1st I bought into PDQ and I am total total unhappy with what they said they where able to provide and what I got. Can anyone help me out their that has had PDQ and has had problems. I cant even get the owner to call back, to see what they are going to do. Also if anyone can give advice to a POS system they can sware by.
I am a former customer of PDQ. I bought my system in 2000. I never had any problems. When I sold my shop in 2007 PDQ was the only piece of equipment I kept. At this time it sits in my basement awaiting the day I might want to get back in the bizz. In defense of all these companies, your not going to find any of them who don’t have a few customers that aren’t happy. Software is software but every pizza shop is run differently.