As a restaurateur, you want to focus on providing great food, top-notch service, and an enjoyable ambiance to keep customers coming back for more. Choosing the right Point of Sale (POS) system for your restaurant, bar, or café can help you do just that. And the digital age offers more choices than ever before. So, should you go with a cloud-based or traditional on-premises POS solution?
Cloud-based POS systems (aka SaaS or web-based) like KwickPOS store data on remote servers accessed through the internet, while traditional POS rely on a local computer and server equipment housed onsite. While traditional systems were the norm in years past, growing restaurants now adopt cloud options thanks to significant advantages. Let’s explore what cloud-based POS systems have to offer restaurants, along with the limitations of legacy onsite technology.
Real-Time Actionable Analytics and Insights
With a cloud-based system, your POS system gives you access to a trove of up-to-the-minute data on your restaurant’s performance whenever needed. Automated reporting built into SaaS POS dashboards gives you instant visibility into critical metrics as they come in. This includes:
– Current sales and revenue totals
– Number of customers and average spend per guest
– Real-time inventory of products and ingredients
– Staffing schedules and hours
– Refunds or discounts awarded
– Popular menu items and peak hours
– And much more
Cloud systems compile these stats across your organization in an easily consumable format via web or mobile apps. This empowers smarter decisions, improving service, boosting purchasing practices, informing targeted promotions, and more based on accurate data. For example, knowing your slowest hours helps schedule staff appropriately. Alerts notify you automatically when the stock of high-volume menu items gets low so you can consistently replenish what customers crave. Onsite POS setups don’t provide such efficient consolidated performance monitoring.
Improved Operational Efficiency and Speed
Restaurant work keeps you hustling during service, but the faster you can serve guests while minimizing errors, the more successful your venue becomes. Here’s how cloud technology optimizes your day-to-day efficiency:
Faster Order Taking – With integrated mobile tablets, servers can place orders tableside and instantly transmit selections digitally to the cloud system and kitchen. This saves steps racing to the central terminal and back. Customers see engagement, too.
Streamlined Payment Processing: Staff spend minutes less per table running payments via pay-at-table wireless terminals that batch sync sales data to the cloud—no more bottlenecks waiting as one bartender processes a stack of checks.
Mobile Management Access: Owners and managers can view dashboards from phones anywhere. Quicker access to metrics means timelier decisions when responding to what’s happening in your venue. Monitor sales mid-service without heading downstairs to boot up an office computer.
Inventory and Menu Synchronization: Centralized databases mean no manual uploading of product lists at every terminal when you tweak recipes or run specials. Price changes and 86’ed items also update universally.
With everything interconnected in the cloud, teams access the same real-time information, reducing redundant steps. This means faster table turns, shorter lines, and attentive customer care.
Enhanced Security
Restaurant POS houses sensitive customer payment data, making security paramount. Local onsite systems risk:
– Malware if viruses infiltrate from staff browsing or external drives used for data backup. Once infected, systems stay compromised.
– Information theft should a break-in occur to an interior server room with payment data storage accessible to access physically. Burglars efficiently haul local servers/computers away.
– Fire or flood physically destroying onsite network infrastructure and hardware. There needs to be a quick backup solution.
In comparison, SaaS POS systems provide:
– Encrypted data security compliant with banking standards like PCI DSS transmitted through SSL or TSL protocols protecting credit card information. Cloud platforms rely on advanced network firewalls.
– No local financial or customer data storage minimizes vulnerability to in-house theft or tampering. Data resides securely on cloud servers instead.
– Backup reliability with cloud hosting platforms that backup constantly to prevent loss. Should disasters strike, you move POS terminals to a new space and proceed with service, knowing data resides intact and safely in the cloud — avoiding business disruption.
While no data solution today promises 100% bulletproof security, cloud platforms undoubtedly provide the most comprehensive protections while freeing owners of common restaurant security threats.
Scalability When Your Restaurant Grows
Ambitious restaurateurs plan on attracting larger customer volumes over time through expansion, increased foot traffic, quicker table turns, and so on. Cloud-based POS offers innate scalability traditional onsite deployments lack through:
– The ability to onboard additional terminals or locations seamlessly without new servers or software required. Just plug another tablet or workstation into the cloud network.
– Unlike limited local storage dependent on standalone HD capacity, handling influxes in customer data as sales grow without slowing down or crashing altogether—capacity overload stalls service.
– Built-in support for the latest next-gen software, apps, back office, and CRM platforms as innovations hit the market. Cloud platforms see continuous upgrades and feature enhancements.
You can test new seating sections, roll out merchandise items or loyalty programs, and run multiple promotions across every store. The flexible infrastructure adapts without complex upgrades. When leveraging cloud POS, you only pay for the capacity needed today, sparing expensive excess investments and servicing speculative future growth that may never happen.
Access Anywhere Convenience
Onsite POS depends on physical proximity to localized servers communicating with fixed terminals. But web-based platforms allow transacting and managing from anywhere with internet connectivity across virtually unlimited devices. Advantages like:
– Managers can view reports offsite after hours, staying in tune from home.
– If disasters require closing your actual store, you can quickly establish a “pop-up” kitchen with tablets linked to your cloud POS to serve guests and pocket sales, no matter the temporary cooking conditions.
– Traveling managers inspect multiple locations without disruption because cloud data stays consistent across the business.
– Staff movement between stores means no retraining on different POS interfaces, reducing headaches.
With reliable internet, almost any web-enabled device gives you the flexibility to oversee operations anywhere, anytime.
Lower Upfront Costs
Legacy POS requires sizeable upfront investments to purchase servers, backup systems, software licenses, computer terminals, printers, extended service plans, and dedicated IT build-outs. And upgrades eventually force buying everything new as aging local infrastructure becomes obsolete.
Cloud POS services instead offer subscription models allowing you to:
– Only pay for capacity needed today – add/reduce terminals to meet evolving needs
– Avoid major hardware purchases that depreciate severely
– Deduct monthly service fees as regular operating business expenses on taxes
– Shift from CAPEX to OPEX freeing cash, activating kitchen upgrades or designer décor boosting customer experiences more directly
While monthly SaaS fees apply, eliminating huge initial outlays for maximum power systems brings simplicity, shouldering fewer financial burdens as you strive to build the hottest new dining destination in town!
Which Works Best for You?
Migrating fully to the cloud may only suit some restaurants perfectly due to niche operational environments. But for most owners, web-based POS removes significant friction, delivering unmatched visibility, reliability, flexibility, and security, manifesting in delighted guests. Still, trying to commit fully? Many providers offer hybrid solutions allowing onsite hardware with cloud reporting. And with POS innovation only accelerating, the case for cloud solutions grows more substantial yearly. The time is now to evaluate the efficiencies and simplicity a cloud-based system brings your restaurant.
KwickPOS Will Boost Your Profits With Better Management and Higher Efficiency!
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