my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Ground Level   » Designing POS Software - Asking For Input (Page 2)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Author Topic: Designing POS Software - Asking For Input Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 10-27-2009 11:20 PM                     No I'm talking about if the server on-site goes down. I know when I worked downstairs at one location it wasn't uncommon for the CC processor to go down and would require a reboot. But the only way for you to find that out was to swipe the card and have it time out a few times. It would be much preferable to have the server simply tell the clients the status of each service or something similar.  |  IP: Logged Cody Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 214 From: Edinburgh, IN, USA Registered: Jun 2004 posted 10-28-2009 06:30 AM                        Chris, I know that feeling. The Cinema I use to work at had a POS that would count down from 60, the cancel button didn't work. The CC Processing will be incorporated on each standalone terminal, however by design it will check to see if the connection is active. I will disable the CC mode if the connection goes down though. Thanks for the suggestion, Coody  |  IP: Logged Paul J. Neuhaus Expert Film Handler Posts: 126 From: Iraq.. Again! Registered: Jun 2005 posted 10-28-2009 02:35 PM                     Cody, This is great. I'm so glad somebody with skills is putting the time in to get it right and is actually willing/asking for sugestions. -warning levels for tickets sold so you can start to know when limited seating is available. People like to know this when they buy a ticket it cuts down on complaints -work in a showtime scheduling program for the managers computer. You could put in run times and trailer times. This could do many things for you. First it would give a visual representation to the manager when he is making his schedule of how start times and let out times overlap. Then you could also integrate the trailer times into the box office. Then the box would know where exactly the movie is. Is it still in trailers?? How far in the movie is it? The box office attendant would have that info! I've never seen this done before but it might make for a nice feature.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 10-28-2009 03:17 PM                     And I like warnings based on the percentage of seats left rather than the actual number. Like 30 seats left in a 300-seat room is way different than 30 in one w/ 100.  |  IP: Logged David E. Nedrow Master Film Handler Posts: 368 From: Columbus, OH, USA Registered: Oct 2008 posted 10-29-2009 09:55 AM                        Hmmm, the .Net part is unfortunate, since it means you're locked into using a Windows system for the backend, regardless of how the users interact with the system. My general suggestions... Relational database backend for all data storage. And, most importantly, do NOT require a specific server. If you stick with standard SQL queries, there is no reason a business with an existing database setup can't host host your data as well. Allow any merchant services credit card processing company to be used. Most businesses already have a card processor, so they aren't going to want to break a contract to use Mercury Pay. And if you only do MP, why would anyone look at using the software if the already have a CP? Allow full keyboard and/or touchscreen control at the terminals. Do NOT do anything that requires the operator to use a mouse. When their hands aren't on the screen or on the keyboard, they aren't making money for the business. You can find multiple ergonomic studies that show that mouse usage in a sales scenario can significantly reduce productivity. -David  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 10-29-2009 07:08 PM                     From your screenshot, make the tabs at the top bigger. It's easy to miss those things on a touch screen if you don't have a spare pen around. Same with everything else, big buttons in easy to read fonts. For concessions items, I'd like a system where if cashiers press seperate items it automatically goes to the cheapest combo price. If a cashier can say 'i/the till made it cheaper for you' it will encourage repeat food purchases, the positive aspect of the saving pushing the negative that everything is still very expensive to the wayside.  |  IP: Logged Paul J. Neuhaus Expert Film Handler Posts: 126 From: Iraq.. Again! Registered: Jun 2005 posted 10-30-2009 02:54 PM                     Caleb brings up an excellent point. I have never seen a POS system that actually recognizes when a all the items in a combo has been ordered and making it the cheaper price. This could be useful depending on the combo. If all of a sudden the cashier told the customer that they now get a free candy for what they ordered that would go over quite well. It also takes the crap the customer paying for what they ordered and then realizing that they are an idiot at the end of the transaction and wanting you to redo all of it tying up your line. That would truly be a cool feature!  |  IP: Logged Damien Taylor Master Film Handler Posts: 493 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2007 posted 10-30-2009 09:08 PM                     The non cinema-centric POS at my other job Fujitsu onePOS has automatic multiple item and combo reductions. It also has real time back-end and EFT line status monitoring. It runs on XP bit ran happily on NT4 until a few months ago. This POS is geared for high volume retail but it shows that these features are possible and worth the effort of coding.  |  IP: Logged Paul J. Neuhaus Expert Film Handler Posts: 126 From: Iraq.. Again! Registered: Jun 2005 posted 11-01-2009 01:23 PM                     What is EFT?  |  IP: Logged Damien Taylor Master Film Handler Posts: 493 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2007 posted 11-01-2009 06:13 PM                     Electronic Funds Transfer. As always, wikipedia explains it much better than I can. It seems this is an Australian/NZ/GB system. Wikipedia: Electronic Funds Transfer  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 11-02-2009 11:47 AM                        quote: Chris Slycord And I like warnings based on the percentage of seats left rather than the actual number. Like 30 seats left in a 300-seat room is way different than 30 in one w/ 100. Why is that, Chris? Arent 30 seats (or car slots) the same to the boxoffice person, regardless?  |  IP: Logged Chad Souder Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 962 From: Waterloo, IA, USA Registered: Feb 2000 posted 11-02-2009 01:13 PM                     Every system I've seen allows the administrator to set the warning and sell-out levels based on number of seats left in each individual auditorium. A fixed percentage would be a bad idea since the auditorium design along with the type of movie being played could vary the warning numbers. When running a kid's cartoon, for example, you want to up those warning levels to account for the small children for whom you do not charge (unless you issue a free pass for that age which I have never seen but could be done.) Also, I prefer being able to continue selling tickets even if a show reaches it's "sell out" point rather than locking out the sales. You would want to lock out the online sales, but allow cashiers to sell more to fill those last individual seats.  |  IP: Logged Cody Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 214 From: Edinburgh, IN, USA Registered: Jun 2004 posted 11-02-2009 03:46 PM                        Chad, I am curious on your baby scenario. How does your staff maintain the max occupancy of the theatre without issuing a babypass? The theatres around here all issue passes for young children as we couldn't have strollers in the isles as it can become a tripping/firehazard? Also, currently I have a Number of Seats and 2 levels of warning in the backend setup. The warning levels will be based on actual numbers rather than percentage. This would only need to be set up once but would allow customization if the management ever wants to change the threshold.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 11-02-2009 04:11 PM                     quote: Jack Ondracek Why is that, Chris? Arent 30 seats (or car slots) the same to the boxoffice person, regardless? You're leaving one big thing out of your assessment: Guests/Customers. If there are 30 seats left in a 600 seat room, they are most likely random, scattered single seats or at the front of the auditorium only. And if I blindly sell a guy 2 or 3 tickets without informing him of that, it won't be that shocking if he comes back for a refund. And he'd probably be a little annoyed that I didn't inform him of that. Whereas 30 seats out of a 75 seat theater will likely not have the same problem at all.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 11-03-2009 10:30 AM                        OK, good point. I could see some merit in having both types of warnings, so long as they could easily be discernable. Lockouts, in my mind, are a bit of a moving target. For a drive-in, it's a deal breaker. The car capacity of radio based fields, especially those without speaker poles, tends to breathe a bit, depending on the overall size of vehicles on a given night, and the skill of the parking staff. In our case, we have areas (staff parking lots, back rows of other fields, etc) where we could put cars, but normally don't. For various reasons, these areas aren't reflected in my capacity settings. Our system screams in big red letters that we're selling past our declared capacity, but (if allowed by administrative settings) will continue to spit out tickets. Though I don't agree with the practice, some indoor operators will find online ticket "no-shows" and will resell those seats to late arrivers. You can count on them to squawk if they don't have that ability. In order not to become part of the philosophical debate over the practice, just putting option buttons in the system setup will deal with it.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.