EPOS Advice Needed for New Fast Food Venture

[Liquidity1]

Hi all,

I am opening up a fast food delivery business in the coming months and have started looking into solutions for the EPOS terminal. I have 2 questions.

1) I have a limited start up budget and I need two EPOS terminals, running two different menu's. I have asked around and the quotes I have been getting are around 2.5-3k per system which is beyond my budget. Therefore I am thinking of going down the customised route of building a PC myself, hooking it up to a touchscreen monitor and purchasing an excellent software package. Surely some people go this route as well? If you have experiences of doing this, please share your thoughts/advice.

2) Secondly, I would like advice on which is the best fast food EPOS software. I am looking for the software to deliver rich intelligence in the form of daily sales reports exportable in Excel format; in built customer databases for CRM purposes and other intelligence such as trend analysis on which postcodes/areas are hot on my list etc. I would also like the ability to have remote access to all reports LIVE, so if I am away I can tap into a PC to see that day's turnover so far. Can anyone please recommend/advise on solutions?

Thank you.

Liquidity

 

[MarkMandel]

Hi all,

I am opening up a fast food delivery business in the coming months and have started looking into solutions for the EPOS terminal. I have 2 questions.

1) I have a limited start up budget and I need two EPOS terminals, running two different menu's. I have asked around and the quotes I have been getting are around 2.5-3k per system which is beyond my budget. Therefore I am thinking of going down the customised route of building a PC myself, hooking it up to a touchscreen monitor and purchasing an excellent software package. Surely some people go this route as well? If you have experiences of doing this, please share your thoughts/advice.



2) Secondly, I would like advice on which is the best fast food EPOS software. I am looking for the software to deliver rich intelligence in the form of daily sales reports exportable in Excel format; in built customer databases for CRM purposes and other intelligence such as trend analysis on which postcodes/areas are hot on my list etc. I would also like the ability to have remote access to all reports LIVE, so if I am away I can tap into a PC to see that day's turnover so far. Can anyone please recommend/advise on solutions?

Thank you.

Liquidity

Re build your own system. This is certainly possible but remember that I would expect any decent EPOS provider to provide you "retail-hardened" hardware, that is hardware that that will work in dirty,dusty,greasy enviornment that is fast-food and last 3-5 years and comes with a support contract.

A normal pc designed for an office may not last very long and who do you call when it goes wrong and your shop is packed with customers? By the time you add and integrate printer/scanner/software etc I am not sure you would save that much. You do get what you pay for.

Re suppliers - there are loads out there.

Generically I would say they breakdown into

LAN Connected Programmable Cash Registers - This looks like a cash register, but you can programme it to a degree (your menu/price/promos) but it has limited memory, crucially it also has a LAN/Modem so that you can extract sales data out and put price change data in, which differentiates it from a normal stand-alone cash register. Example here http://www.geller.co.uk/epos/ML-790-14.cfm . This is limited in future scope (e.g. hard to add loyalty system to it) but a great starting point and would be retail-hardened and come with support (at a price).

Touch Screen EPOS

These are fully functional and configurable retail-hardened units and can be programmed in multiple ways, ususally accompanying software is very configurable to your exact needs. Example here http://www.geller.co.uk/epos/Geller-ViViPOS-13.cfm

I dont work for these guys. Lots of other good people out there.
As with any hardware/system purchase make sure its at the right level to keep you going as your business expands.

Re budget have you considered leasing?

Try some local EPOS suppliers who are going to support you as your business grows.

 

[bovine]

I would suggets a price of about 1600 per till point and 1000 back office for casio touchscreens. These are good for fast food, reliable ,stable and would be supported by someone else.

It does rather depend on the type of fast food. Are you doing deliveries etc., just because you mention customer database and post codes - most fast food places dont want/need this info.

You could do it yourself, but the difficulty will be finding excellent software that someone is willing to sell you as a standalone product for you to go and install yourself. In my experience, the two dont generally go together. If someone has developed an amazing product, they usually want to install/ support it themselves. Dont forget to factor in how much time you would need to spend learning the software, programming the tills and supporting the system.

 

[ElliottRoss]

Dear Liquidity1

We work with a number of solutions that may fit your requirements;

The first is a tradition ePOS solution, with touch screen terminals and all the data capture you require. However, this does envolve a capital outlay to purchase the terminals, software, etc

The second is a piece of Cloud business software that includes modules such as accounting, CRM, stock management and ePOS but no touch screen. There is no capital outlay as it is subscription based but being Cloud bsaed, means data can be viewed and/or updated anytime, from anywhere in the world.

If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact me on: 07536 044 949.

http://www.recenseo.co.uk/business-software/

Kind Regards
Elliott

 

[Forum Retail]

In the fast food industty the enviroment is noy good for computers, i would reccommend a solid touch screen unit, easy to clean and easy to use.
have a look at http://www.forumtouch.co.uk/Downloads/megapos_lite.pdf
I think i can meet your requirements and costs for two tills, give me a call on 07538 639890 ot PM me

 

[Laurenpears]

Good morning,

i work for Noblue Hospitality, and we supply EPOS to all kinds of food shops etc, depending on the equipment you need we could do this alot cheeper than what you have quoted.
I wouldnt recommend building a system yourself, but try and buy a complete system from one provider, that also offers a support package with anything they sell.

give me a call if you think i can help further 01623 726104

 

[ricky2london]

Restaurant software should help make order entry easier, make customers happier and help build a restaurant business. Point of Success does all these and more. But I think you should go for POS software. YOU should also keep all computers in desk-board fully touch screen.
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[DDPlumbing]

Do not use Emperium EPOS by E-Novations. Utter cowboys.

 

[airposjen]

AirPOS can provide the ePOS software you need - remote access to sales data etc. We're a cloud based system, easy to set up and affordable to run.

We'd also be happy to recommend some of our hardware partners. DigiPOS do some great touch screens that are really robust and 'fast-food friendly'! ELO also do lovely touch screens.

There are tons of options for hardware really depending on your budget. I'd say pick the software you like first.

I'd be happy to give you a demo of AirPOS software, or try it out for yourself with a free demo online at www.airpointofsale.com

Good luck! And if you've any other questions about what hardware (screens, printers, pin pads) are best drop me a line and I'll do my best to help you out.

 

[antoine82]

YOU can contact EPOS direct, they are good and quite cheap.

For my whole system, hardware (touch screen, computer, cash drawer, thermal printer, kitchen thermal printer) +software (emperium), I paid something like £1,800.

Don't hesitate to negociate, they can drop their price.

I would personay not recomend to build your own system. You would end up saving a few hundreds pounds but might have big pbs in the future (no being able to cash in your customers...). I don't think it is worth it, not to mention the time you will spend on it!

 

[bovine]

It is often a good idea to get a solutions provider, who can go through what you need and guide you in the best options in terms of hardware.
They can also help setup your system and help you with layouts of product etc, which should never be underestimated.

There are lots of different options now, with new options coming through almost daily. SaaS is becoming big, with several companies pushing forward with android based products - AirPOS being one of them. Some are better than others, some are more limited than others. We even have a "proper" epos terminal running android, the VX100. But tablet solutions are becoming more viable, just as long as the software guys remember to support the unsexy but necessary peripherals (cash drawers being an important one that some seem to forget!)

If you can work out what you need, great, go for it. If you cant, talk to an expert.

And just to let people know, this is a really old thread that has been resurrected, so my advice is for people who come to this thread fresh!

 

[muneeb84]

Hi,

If you are still looking for an EPoS system, PM me - we are specialist providers of EPoS systems for all industries.

Thanks

 

[LANIX]

1) Building a PC to run an EPOS system does not require too many gizmo's and gadgets. You can build the PC itself for around £300, the touchscreen will cost around £200. One would also need a thermal printer which cost between £90 and £300.

2) There really is no "best" EPOS software, with so many different companies offering packages with a variety of features you should look at your needs and shop according to that. For example if you offer a delivery service you could look for an EPOS solution that has integrated map support so your delivery drivers also know where to go!

 

[adamdylan]

The future seems to be Android epos but where is it ?

We should be looking for an Android tablet costing under £100 (with rj45) If it breaks just buy another !

See link below which suggests android is the beginning of the end of all high price epos systems ...

Casio vx100 ......runs android sounds great for around the £800-900 mark and it can connect to their cloud. But they seem intent on tieing down an open platform. Ive spoken to the Casio guys and they are unaware of its full capabilities (eg cctv overlaying of till input via RJ45 telephone cable type) Their cloud which they say it will connect to, I can not fathom fully or easily find details of costs of the apps and hosting, Casio have not been able to direct me to such. Casio guys cant help and their recommended retailers ,,, well all sing a different song...Pity such a promising product with no comprehensive instruction manual / Casio assistance research.

A co called southwestsystems who are Casio dealers try to sell you other systems than Casio (and so do other Casio dealers ..poor casio) They suggest an apple ipad with aireus software but they are American and have a $50 monthly cloud fee

I dont like the idea of paying for the cloud though upto £50 per month especially in these hard times for what is basically a till unless it saves me money elsewhere eg linking epos to software Like accupos which sounds good linking eops to quickbooks or sage Aim reduce accountant bills

I have spoken to Earl at accupos very charming but then spoke to a Co they had provided the software to and they were akin to crying down the phone it was so bad. Earl said it works fully with quickbooks but why should pay £50 per month as urged for support for their lacking software ?

Conclusion

One day a eops system free in the cloud (google drive is free)
with accounting software ( goodbye high accountants fees)with till cctv link and product counter recognition

in the mean time for me anyone know of a good Andriod epos software today?


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