Demystifying the Cloudiness in Cloud-Based POS Systems
A recent article from Reforming Retail discussed the reasoning behind a recent acquisition of Cloud POS provider. The reasoning was to make the provider more competitive and address market needs. As I read through the article, I was reminded that the ambiguity surrounding the Cloud moniker has now reached the Point of Sale industry.
There are many Venture Capital-backed upstarts and “Next Gen” POS solution providers claiming to be cloud based. It is becoming the buzz in the industry. Just like Cloud Computing became an overused reference and everyone jumped on that bandwagon, the idea of having a Cloud POS system is becoming one, too. What we are forgetting, and should be talking about, is the customer experience, not just the platform or method of delivery. Let’s break it down a bit further….
Restaurant owners don’t wake up in the morning and say “Wow, I need to go to the cloud today!” (at least I hope they don’t). What they are asking for is a better customer experience. When considering a POS system, this means better availability and performance, a system that is easier to manage, and one that delivers key functionality needed to not only run part of their business but help them grow.
This makes complete sense and sounds reasonable, right? Like many other industries have experienced, technology is helping transform the restaurant space and the Point of Sale experience is prime for disruption. At HungerRush, we are not alone in this thinking. All you have to do is look at the volume of VC money pouring into startups, the investments from PE firms, and the competitive landscape in any category. You’d think that all these resources should help drive a better customer experience. Of course, companies want to consume it as-a-Service (SaaS), which lends itself to the software being delivered using modern technologies as opposed to outdated software and tools.
Cloud is a platform and SaaS is a delivery model. Talking to our customers and prospects, three consistent themes come up
- Mobile capabilities (tablets)
- Better availability and performance (user efficiency)
- Lower overhead associated with running the solution (cost management)
And, by the way, a nice modern user interface helps too. The SaaS delivery model helps enable this. With SaaS, updates are delivered in real-time and the software runs on a highly available and powerful computing environment. Total cost of ownership is reduced as the customer does not have to invest expensive resources in supporting the solution on-premises like hardware, upgrades and local support while getting a faster time to value/benefit.
These are all great things, but none really gets to the core of features that make software productive. These core features allow restaurant owners to not only run their business but manage their costs while doing so. At the same time, they are not having to work around the software – the software is working for them. The software delivery model does not outweigh the need to focus on features and to know your customer. We think a combination of functionality that is aligned with the right delivery model produces the best business result.
At HungerRush, we believe that the right delivery model happens to be SaaS. We also believe that every good SaaS model must have well-designed pricing and packaging options. Our customers, the restaurant owners, tell us they want software costs that are affordable and predictable. They want to ensure access to new functionality as we implement it, and new technology as it evolves.
We are fully committed to the SaaS delivery model and continue to invest in making our portfolio of solutions robust, scalable, easy to integrate with and easy to use. In response to our customer’s desires, our 2019 and 2020 roadmap is focused on SaaS enablement, mobility, online ordering, and integrations. We are excited to be continually innovating and delivering more value to our customers.