Discover Untapped POS Revenue In Schools

As a POS VAR, you might be painfully aware of the challenges of selling POS systems to restaurants. Customers going out of business is a common occurrence. Chasing payments is another. Then there's the challenge of getting restaurateurs to buy into the notion of paying for ongoing support. It's for these reasons that Business Data Systems (BDS) began looking at other POS revenue opportunities. What the VAR discovered may well pique your interest enough to make a similar shift of focus.

According to James Coffelt, president of BDS, the restaurant POS business is riddled with customers that don't pay on time. In addition, there is a constant cycle of restaurants going into and out of business. With this information in mind, consider BDS' primary goal of building recurring revenue through software and hardware maintenance. "Our restaurant customer base is large enough that if, in a month, we installed 15 restaurant systems, it was realistic to have the same number go out of business," says Coffelt. "After 17 years of selling POS systems to restaurants, we found ourselves working hard to stay even in terms of building recurring revenue." Then, three years ago, BDS began looking for more lucrative POS opportunities. After doing some market research, the VAR discovered a group of customers with a need for food service POS, that pays bills on time and has a high rate of participation in software and hardware maintenance contracts — schools.

While building recurring revenue has been the most significant benefit of targeting schools, Coffelt points to additional advantages the VAR has realized. First, school POS systems use the same hardware used in restaurants. That meant BDS employees didn't have to spend time learning new or different products. Second, Coffelt found that since schools have professional IT staffs to work with, integrations at the schools seemed to go smoother than at restaurants. Third, the margins on school POS sales are similar to those for restaurants. Fourth, with school districts, you rarely have to deal with bad debts. Finally, with school POS, there is little to no after-hours support. "Only from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., during weekdays, are you busy with support," says Coffelt. "After 3 p.m., during weekends, summer, and holidays, there's very little support activity to consume our resources."