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Point-of-Sale systems have been around for a long time, but the rise of today’s cloud-based systems have catapulted the standard POS into a robust engine filled with capabilities. The past POS was the center of your operation, but today’s cloud POS platforms, what we like to call a restaurant management platform, have capabilities that are far beyond legacy restaurant POS solutions. 

Cloud POS restaurant management platforms help manage virtually every aspect of your enterprise: front of house to kitchen, inventory, recipes, schedules, staff timekeeping, waitlists, reservations, employee communications, manager coordination, customer interaction, digital everything, customer loyalty, marketing, and more.

Why Switch to Cloud POS?

Let’s take a step back. With traditional client-server POS systems, restaurants have devices for taking orders and processing payments, typically the monolithic terminals you see at the counter, host stand, or bar top. These operations talked to a POS server, essentially a big computer sitting in a back room. Then there was some kind of network — wires and networking gear such as routers/switches — that carried and managed the traffic flow between the POS terminals and the POS server.

Cloud-based POS for restaurants provides tangible advantages in cost, simplicity, flexibility, and function. They completely change the acquisition and maintenance model, and so much more.

1. Avoid or Reduce Data Center Costs

CIOs / CTOs and others who budget for and manage IT resources are all too familiar with the cost of acquiring and maintaining infrastructure to support both corporate and store operations. In-store, client-server POS and other systems require hands on to, update and troubleshoot. Some of these systems are mission-critical, so you may have redundant data centers in case one goes down.

Cloud POS and other cloud restaurant systems avoid many of these costs because they are borne by the cloud technology provider.

2. Avoid Up-front Capex and Per Terminal Fees

Cloud POS eliminates the need for a server and moves traffic flow to someone else’s data center. What we end up with is something much simpler, like this: Devices running apps that are connected to cloud computing.

Simplicity lowers cost but unlike other alternatives, with cloud there are few compromises. You get performance, scaling and security.

3. Gain Visibility Beyond the Four Walls

As you know, data is the currency of success. By design, cloud technology makes it easy to access important metrics even when you’re not onsite. This also gives a multi-unit restaurant operator and/or corporate visibility into important metrics across multiple locations, seamlessly, from a centralized reporting portal.

4. Benefit from More (and Better) Integrations

Cloud Restaurant POS are developed using modern programming languages, so systems can natively and more easily integrate with other systems used to serve guests (such as third party ordering) and manage the restaurant such as staff scheduling.

Having more and simpler native connections and integrations makes it easier to serve today’s guests in the way they want to be served. It also tends to lower overhead IT costs and reduce finger-pointing. 

Ready to Consider Cloud POS?

A modern Cloud POS restaurant management platform can launch a restaurant to new heights of success, saving you tons of money and turning trends and customer insights into sales and competitive advantage. When searching for a POS provider, look no further than Xenial.

There’s a lot of noise in the POS space, so parsing out the best system for your restaurant also requires choosing the best partner for your business. With over 35 years of experience in the QSR space and a digital ecosystem of technology, Xenial, a Global Payments company, is the one-hand-to-shake solution.

 

To find out more about ����Cloud POS or the full stack ecosystem trusted by 135,000 stores, visit www.xenial.com.