Which is the Best Android Epos system ?

[adamdylan]

Hi Just looking at epos systems for restaurant / pubs coffee shops
trying to figure out which way to go.

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

We should be looking for an Android tablet costing under £100 that opens the till and prints receipts (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?


Your site wont let me post the url so try

retailsystems.org automation/2012/01/android-is-about-to-truly-kill-the-pos-business-model.


Thanks

 

[ZoeAmy]

You can get a Android tablet based epos system for £799; that covers the first month of epos cloud software usage, a 10 inch Samsung tab 2, receipt printer and cash drawer + basic setup and online training. Monthly costs for the cloud software around £28

I believe you may also be able to get an epos specific android system, with the same set up and training for as little as £699 very soon.

Hope this helps

Zoe

 

[adamdylan]

Thanks ZoeAmy

Who is that deal with ?

 

[SPA_EPoS_Solutions_Guy]

Hi Adam

Zoe is one of my colleagues.

My company offer this solution, if you call me on 07917701481 I'll be able to give you the details. Alternatively our new website, with our new android product range will be up by the end of the week, just search SPA EPoS Solutions in google.

Regards

Guy

 

[bovine]

The vr100 (it had a name change) is quite a nice solution, but it's not really an open platform. There are a few apps at run on it, but to be honest the only one worth considering on it is the Casio app, which comes from dealers. Not all Casio dealers understand it and are able to implement it effectively. It's a bit of a learning curve on the app for all involved. Some of the dealers are experts in it, some cant/wont install it. The cloud app is not released yet, so that's why you cannot get decent info on it. It's all being pinned down at the moment, expect info in a couple of weeks.
The vr100 should be considered more of an advanced cash register than a full on restaurant/ bar machine. This is actually where Casio put it in their range - the qt6100 and 6600 are the ones aimed at this market and perform brilliantly.

Android tablets and open source software linking to wireless printers are one future, but the software available at the moment is woefully inadequate. For most restaurant/hospitality applications a fixed install still offers a better solution.

 

[8420PR]

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?
Thanks

OpenERP would seem to fulfill your 2 requirements - POS and accounting. I haven't used it, so cannot recommend it. However it is on my list of opportunities if business grows, and I plan to install it on a cheap VPS to test.

Anyone using OpenERP?

 

[SPA_EPoS_Solutions_Guy]

The vr100 (it had a name change) is quite a nice solution, but it's not really an open platform. There are a few apps at run on it, but to be honest the only one worth considering on it is the Casio app, which comes from dealers. Not all Casio dealers understand it and are able to implement it effectively. It's a bit of a learning curve on the app for all involved. Some of the dealers are experts in it, some cant/wont install it. The cloud app is not released yet, so that's why you cannot get decent info on it. It's all being pinned down at the moment, expect info in a couple of weeks.
The vr100 should be considered more of an advanced cash register than a full on restaurant/ bar machine. This is actually where Casio put it in their range - the qt6100 and 6600 are the ones aimed at this market and perform brilliantly.

Android tablets and open source software linking to wireless printers are one future, but the software available at the moment is woefully inadequate. For most restaurant/hospitality applications a fixed install still offers a better solution.

The VR-100 is a good solution, but as you say, it is more of an advanced cash register. I thought the software with it was very easy to use. What issues did you encounter with it? I also thought the software was very attractive and asthetically it was a good combination of modern apps and traditional EPoS software.
However there were some gaps in hospitality function and Cloud capability (there was no Cloud capability), that meant we didn't feel it was suitable for our customers. We also felt it missed some of Android's major selling points, such as the style of the tablets, as well as missing the durability of the traditional EPoS hardware.

Whilst most Android software is inadequate currently, there are a number of Windows EPoS software developers rewriting for Android. The software that we use at SPA has been developed for 5 years in Linux and rewritten for Android. This software matches most software offerings on traditional EPoS functionality, and surpasses them with its real time Cloud reporting.

Out of interest, why did Casio rebrand the VX-100 to VR-100?

 

[bovine]

The app in its basic form is easy, but it's when you want to get really into it that it gets more complicated. I've spent quite a lot of time with it and installed it into some quite diverse customers. Just changing a function key when it first came out was difficult!

It's best viewed as a replacement for the te4500 to be honest, but with better reporting.

My understanding of the rebrand is it had something to do with verifone. Does mean the pos shares its name with a robot Hoover!

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Why do you want a android system rather than a normal PC like these

http://www.eposnow.com/shop/epos-systems.html?gclid=CPOz-6Tzla8CFc0htAodRRtsyA

 

[SPA_EPoS_Solutions_Guy]

The app in its basic form is easy, but it's when you want to get really into it that it gets more complicated. I've spent quite a lot of time with it and installed it into some quite diverse customers. Just changing a function key when it first came out was difficult!

It's best viewed as a replacement for the te4500 to be honest, but with better reporting.

My understanding of the rebrand is it had something to do with verifone. Does mean the pos shares its name with a robot Hoover!

Ahh fair enough, I only did the basic setup, on a training day with casio. We found holes in regards to hospitality, which is our main area and decided it wasn't for us. When you sell the VR, do you tell the customers, that it should be thought of as an advanced cash register?

 

[DoubleSpeed]

What I would say is don't limit yourself to just Android there are now a new breed of fantastic ePOS systems that are hardware friendly and will work on PC, Mac, iPad/iOS, Android etc and what's more are combined with an eCommerce Webshop so you can sell both online and instore your stock. What's more there are often no up-front costs !

www. ShopTill-e .com is a great example of this incredible features, no up-front cost and as it works with your existing hardware which means their full featured free trial is truly risk free!

What's more no pushy sales people to deal with

 

[antropy]

I dont like the idea of paying for the cloud though upto £50 per month especially in these hard times

At risk of going off on a slight tangent, do people generally feel we're still going through hard times? We've been officially out of recession for quite a while now ... what are people's thoughts and experiences?