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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: Recommendations for POS (point of sale) systems
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Tristan Lane
Master Film Handler
Posts: 444
From: Nampa, Idaho
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 06-07-2008 01:15 PM
quote: Justin Hamaker
Perhaps I'm expecting too much from RTS, but I find it to be overly complicated in many areas and too simplistic in others.
Took the words out of my mouth. Although RTS is an economical system and at the price it really is the best option for someone on a tight budget, it leaves a lot to be desired for multi-site companies or companies with more than just basic POS needs.
To their defense, they continue to add features and their support is very good.
If you are considering cook to order items, RTS has the functionality to set up a "fill order" station. Certain items can be set to display on the fill order station with a printed reciept with the customer order # being printed at the time of sale. Once the item is ready for the customer, the fill order station displays the current orders. You finish them out and the attached printer will also print up a ticket with the corresponding order number for pickup. It sounds like John is using this function at his drive-in.
We tried to use it in our kitchen for certain cooked items we sell in our concessions stand. It worked, but proved to be too confusing to the kitchen staff since other orders were coming in from the table service POS system.
RTS has a "table service" option within their software, but so far all it does is change the splash screen at startup to say "RTS Restaurant"
Clarity Commerce Solutions is one of the more popular venue pos systems in Europe and Marcus Theaters has migrated their entire operation from Radiant to Clarity and the folks I talk to said it is very good. They also offer restaurant POS and a number of other modules and options like wireless POS and such.
Radiant is still one of the highest priced POS systems for exhibition that I've dealt with, regardless of them losing Regal and AMC. Their software is probably the most robust I've seen and I'm wondering if the theater POS really isn't that important to them anymore since they purchased Aloha restaurant POS, which is a direct competitor to Micros. Both are widely used in most restaurants.
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 06-07-2008 03:35 PM
RTS has been working on a major rewrite for some time. I don't know when it will release, but it's supposed to allow for more flexibility. Apparently, the current database scheme limits some of the functionality we might like.
Screen esthetics are a personal issue that seems a matter of choice. I don't have a problem with the way it looks, though I will admit that the Sensible system is has a flashier presentation.
Whether to use one or the other amounts to your personal needs. The Sensible Cinema software is purchased outright... you own it. There are no other charges involved, other than possibly those related to credit card and internet ticket processing. Since there is no subsequent revenue stream from you to Sensible, you must pay for anything past the most simple email-based questions. Updates are infrequent and the "support staff" is small. For me, that didn't work at all. When I was using the software, it was a "staff" of one... the owner, and he wasn't easy to contact or deal with.
The RTS software can be downloaded from their web site. It is fully operational, except that any station that actually conducts a monetary transaction must be licensed. The licenses are annual. You can network any number of unlicensed machines for monitoring and database administration. You only have to pay for the ones that actually sell or void something. For the money, you get frequent updates (downloaded from the internet). Support is included. Phones lines are staffed during business hours, and they have emergency pagers to get you in touch with someone after-hours.
I had my RTS system working with two sites. It seemed to work fine, but my needs may not have been as complex as others. In any case, having used both RTS and Sensible, RTS does a much better job for me.
The RTS "table service" function may not be fully developed. I asked about it last year, and I think they may be regretting that the system shows it. It looks to me like they didn't fully think out the functionality before they put the option in. Hopefully, that will work itself out. It does help them a lot when their customers spend the time to tell them what they need. I got a lot of my "wish list" worked into the system that way.
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