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Boardwalk Ups Its Game with Flexible POS

Much-needed upgrades to accommodate evolving PCI requirements, a desire for greater stability and an ongoing requirement to support a multi-site configuration — something that had been dropped by their previous vendor — prompted the team at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (www.beachboardwalk.com) to seek out a more robust solution.  

“We were running 34 terminals and our legacy software’s approach to communications became non-sustainable,” recalls Monty Matteson, the Boardwalk’s senior supervisor of revenue systems technology. “We were having daily crashes during our peak business time.” For a seasonal company with only a limited number of days available to generate revenue, system downtime impacts the bottom line.

Matteson had an extensive list of requirements for a new system. A robust communication infrastructure was a primary concern, given the previous platform’s tendency to fail when the organization could least afford it. An ability to support multiple merchant services was also a must.

“We need to track fees for each restaurant, because each has its own merchant account,” Matteson says. With its widespread foodservice offerings and desire for accountability across each one, cashier tracking at the individual level and the functionality to use employees’ ID cards as logins to the system were also required.

In addition to features built around backend support and data granularity, Matteson says strong system integration and the ability to address customer-facing issues were also front and center as the team shopped for the right solution.

“We have a branded MyBoardwalk card that’s a stored value card,” he explains. “We wanted to integrate that card natively into the software, so we could accept it at all of our foodservice locations.”

HungerRush (www.HungerRush.com) emerged as the right partner to achieve its goals. “They understood our needs and gave us referrals for sites our size with comparable volume,” Matteson recalls. “That told me their system was very stable.”

Being a seasonal business has its advantages, and the Boardwalk leveraged its downtime to deploy the HungerRush restaurant system. “We came in on a Monday, switched over the four closed revenue centers and conducted some testing to make sure everything was working well,” Matteson says. The foodservice department then reviewed the menus and did a bit of tweaking. “Tuesday night we converted the remaining two revenue centers and reset the system. Wednesday morning everything went live on HungerRush.”

The solution’s power and stability were quickly apparent. Knowing how fickle the previous system had been, Matteson says, “The fact that it handled our busiest days and didn’t crash is the bottom line.”The MyBoardwalk payment option was incorporated post-launch, to ensure the team could integrate the necessary data.

“We wanted to make sure the reporting came across correctly because it’s a different concept than real money,” Matteson says. The card gives customers a more streamlined and cohesive experience, while providing the brand with better data insight at the same time.

The Boardwalk is now ready to go forward with a POS platform that can keep its many terminals humming and support an easy and enjoyable guest experience.