It’s not uncommon today to find restaurant chains using a mix of POS systems as varied as their menus: old and new, open source and proprietary, cloud and on-premise. There are a lot of reasons for this. Systems age at different times and are replaced by new solutions from new vendors. That replacement sometimes takes place at an individual restaurant, which then ripples across a franchise group or across a region. Existing POS systems might be left in place following a merger.
Whatever the reason, restaurant chains of all sizes, as often as not, serve themselves a fresh Garden Medley of POS.
These diverse, heterogeneous IT environments can deliver good value. But we’ve also seen that heterogeneous POS is not right for every organisation. Successful multivendor POS environments require a specific kind of corporate IT organization.
Companies that succeed with multivendor POS environments share some characteristics.
- Sophisticated IT Superstructure: A superstructure of corporate communications software and systems exists to gather, integrate and drive action from multivendor POS data.
- Global Reporting: The data generated by each restaurant’s POS is fed into a larger, enterprise solution for analysis and reporting.
- Integration Expertise: Data integration organizations exist within the enterprise to centralize data gathered from all sources—from supply chain to advertising programs to POS—are integrated.
- Budgeted Support and Support Services: That expertise—whether it’s in-house or outsourced—is a line item in the operational expenditures budget
- Corporate Marketing: Marketing programs are designed, developed, launched and monitored at the corporate level, using tools and systems outside of any individual POS.
When this kind of overarching IT oversight of POS is missing, single vendor solutions deliver the strongest value. Where IT organisations are lean, eliminating the significant overhead of data and network integration that multivendor POS environments require saves both time and money.
Making the Right Choice
The decision to maintain a heterogeneous POS solution, or standardise on a single one, is driven, in the end, by one factor. Does your company have the resources, budget and expertise to manage, integrate and maintain a diverse POS environment? For those companies—where POS is just one more element of strategic IT integration—the answer is a likely yes. For the rest, the answer is not as clear cut. Here, it can often turn out that, after a careful analysis, standardisation - not diversity - is the better investment.
If you'd like to read more on this topic, download our free POS Assessment for Multi-Location Restaurants to learn how to evaluate the pros and cons of owning diverse POS systems. This assessment outlines 6 factors to consider in choosing the POS approach that is right for your restaurant.
