There has been a lot of movement in the past 24 months in the POS industry. We’ve witnessed the emergence of new POS companies and products (read our post on Tablets with “POS Lite” a Highlight at NRA Show), new distribution models - like subscription-based POS, free POS (Check out a recent post on POS Advice’s blog), and cloud-based POS, and the growing popularity of mobility, including POS, payments, ordering and mobile apps. Throughout 2013 we used our blog to share perspectives and offer insights into how to plan and act to get the most out of your POS. Here’s a recap of some our most well-received articles and hot topics in the news...

POS in the Cloud

The cloud has settled into its areas of strength. It’s excellent for backend operations (like data storage), but it has its drawbacks. While the impulse to move to the Cloud is about cost, your decision to migrate has to also include a careful analysis of your business to ensure the Cloud can truly handle your operation. You can read about it here.

Mobile POS

Mobility has gained in popularity. On paper, the benefits seem clear, but in reality, restaurateurs are still debating about making the move to mobility. We've published a case study on how one of our customer’s made the case for mobility, in which we discuss return on investment (in less than six months!), and challenges they had not anticipated… Read the full article here.

Loyalty and Gift Programs

There’s an art to running successful loyalty and gift programs. It’s not enough to just put them “on the menu”: you’ve got to develop quality (which doesn’t mean expensive) campaigns to inform, publicize and promote them. We took a practical look at both.

You can read about loyalty programs here, and about gift card programs here.

Forecasting

Forecasting—thinking ahead for profitability—is more analytic science than anecdotal guesswork. With Maitre'D, it becomes a very precise analysis, taking into consideration not just historical sales data, but time of day, weather, ad hoc situations (like road construction) and more. And it’s not valuable just for predicting sales; forecasting is an integral part of controlling the cost of food as well.

You can read more about forecasting here, and about controlling food costs here.

Mobile Apps

Restaurateurs across every category are using mobile apps to track, monitor and manage their business. That includes our own mobile management tool, the Maitre'D DataBoard App. If you're already a Maitre'D POS user, you're invited to click here to start your free 30-day trial, no risk or obligation.

PCI Compliance and Windows XP End-of-Life

Owners should be aware, play it safe: Microsoft has announced the End-of-life of Windows XP operating system, and there are new standards for PCI certification. Maitre'D software has been certified. But restaurant owners should make sure that every part of their system is compliant.

Here's what you need to know:

What does this mean for PCI-DSS and PA-DSS Compliance?

Quite simply put, any system using Windows XP SP3 after April 8, 2014 will no longer be PCI-Compliant. The main reason is that using a product which has reached its end of life runs up against PCI-DSS requirement 6.1, which states:

“Ensure that all system components and software are protected from known vulnerabilities by having the latest vendor-supplied security patches installed. Install critical security patches within one month of release.”

After an operating system or application has reached its end-of-life state, the manufacturer no longer watches out for new vulnerabilities or security issues, and will never issue any fix for newly discovered security issue or vulnerability.

-       PCs are now only available in 64 bit and most POS applications are not compatible

-       POS Ready & Windows 7 POS are the latest operating systems that work with 64 bit

-       POS terminals purchased from June 2012 will be compatible.

To learn more about the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy and available upgrade options, please follow this link: Official Microsoft site for End of Support for Windows XP SP3

Some of our most senior team members have said that they haven’t seen this much movement in the POS industry since the year 2000… And we’re certain 2014 has a lot in store for us. Subscribe to our blog to stay tuned!