Lavu POS wiki

The primary innovation in Restaurant Point of Sale in recent years has been the introduction of tablets acting as either a simple handheld for tableside service, or in many cases, a full POS. Tablet based systems have been aggressively building out their feature sets to compete with traditional POS systems for the past 4-5 years or so. From the beginning they were able to offer small restaurants, still relying on old cash registers, the ability to do much of what used to only be available to larger establishments using Micros or Aloha and the like.Now they're finally reaching a point where their features are comparable to that of the legacy systems in almost every regard, so soon we should start to see some real innovation rather than a simple game of catch up.

For now, here's my list of systems running solely on iOS for iPad and its kin:

- POS Lavu
- Revel Systems
- Ambur POS
- Breadcrumb POS
- NCR Silver Pro Restaurant Edition
- TouchBistro
* ShopKeep is also beginning to move into the Restaurant space, so I'd like to mention them here as well

Then we also have a relatively new player who has taken the Android route:
- Toast Tab

We of course have payment apps that are bordering the POS world such as Square and Amazon, but they are not currently strong enough contenders for any full service restaurant.

Simply using a tablet as a POS is nearing the end of its "innovative" period, so I'd also like to throw in some notes about areas these systems are beginning to test the waters:

- Delivery: Bringing the credit card reader to the customer's abode will dramatically decrease transaction fees by reducing the total number of Card-Not-Present transactions to nearly nil. Also, GPS not only gives drivers their best route depending on time of day, but also allows the kitchen staff to have the driver's next round prepared right when they return to the restaurant.

- Loyalty: Punch cards are darn close to death at this point, as many of the systems listed above have either joined up with a digital loyalty system or created their own. Level Up is a great example of innovation in payments and loyalty, and many POS systems would be smart to team up with them.

- Feedback: Paired with linking gift cards to customer profiles and the advent of the email receipt, the ability to collect customer feedback when it matters most is vital to maintaining a good reputation. If a customer had a negative experience at your restaurant, you'd want to know about it while they're still around, not when you stumbled upon their review on Yelp. With tableside tablets, guests can not only pay their tab, but also choose a suggested tip, and leave a kind comment right on the POS device.