Rugged Mobile POS Demo Wins Customer Over

Since its inception, ORDERMAN Mobile POS Systems North America has focused on one market: hospitality. Bernie Schwentick, a managing partner for the company, says offering restaurants a wireless POS solution that is rugged, secure, and simple to use and maintain is the key to helping the nine-employee POS VAR and rugged wireless handheld vendor edge out its competitors.

Your Clients Already Know Wireless POS Will Improve Productivity
Los Gringos Locos is an example of the kind of restaurant ORDERMAN targets. The Mexican family-style restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week and is packed most of the time. The waitstaff used a pen and paper to take customers' orders. Then, they walked to one of the restaurant's POS stations and waited in line to place the orders. During busy periods, the kitchen and bar were overwhelmed with orders. "The restaurant owner approached its VAR about incorporating wireless handheld devices into the order-taking process," recalls Schwentick. "The VAR's POS software wasn't wirelessly enabled, so the VAR tried talking the restaurant owner out of going wireless by suggesting it wasn't secure, and handhelds would most likely get broken or stolen."

The restaurant owner couldn't be swayed, however, and decided to look on the Internet for a VAR that offered a wireless POS solution. ORDERMAN was one of the companies Los Gringos Locos discovered, which led to an RFP. One of ORDERMAN's technicians visited the restaurant and evaluated the legacy POS system. "We recommended replacing the legacy POS software with Radiant Systems Aloha POS, and we proposed adding three ORDERMAN Bluetooth-enabled Sunny Boy Max rugged wireless handhelds, belt clip receipt printers, and an access point [AP]," says Schwentick. The total cost for the proposed solution, including hardware, software, and installation, was about $15,000, which was a few thousand dollars more than a competitor's quote. To overcome the customer's objection to the additional cost, an ORDERMAN technician met with the restaurant owner and put on a 20-minute demonstration, which included running the handheld device under tap water and even dropping it onto a hard surface from about 4 feet off the ground. It became very clear to the restaurant owner that the other VAR's solution, which included commercial-grade handheld devices, could not withstand the same treatment. The technician concluded the demonstration by showing the wireless range and security of the handheld devices. "Our handhelds use a proprietary radio signal within the industrial medical band that requires only 10% of the power of an 802.11 radio," says Schwentick. "This translates to up to 30% more usable range. Also, all of the wireless security concerns are eliminated by using a proprietary [i.e. not open] signal and implementing the handhelds in a thin-client manner."

Secure Wireless POS Leads To Revenue Growth, Referrals
After winning the bid, ORDERMAN installed the solution, which includes three POS terminals fitted with the Aloha software, three handhelds, an application server, and three receipt printers, in a 4-hour period. The solution includes an integrated payment processing module, which is connected to the restaurant's DSL (digital subscriber line). With the new solution in place, waitstaff use drop-down menus on the handheld screens to place orders as they enter them at the customers' tables. As a result, the kitchen and bar receive orders in a more orderly fashion rather than in bursts. The waitstaff is also able to cash out clients at their tables using a built-in credit/debit card reader attached to the mobile handhelds.

Within six months of the installation, the customer purchased three more POS terminals, handhelds, and printers. Two months after that, it ordered three more of everything. After using the wireless POS solution for one year, the customer reported it doubled its revenue with minimal employee growth. To date, the POS solution has generated $20,000 in sales for ORDERMAN and has led to additional business through Los Gringos Locos' referrals.