“Restaurants can expect to process more debit transactions with the transition to chip, as restaurants move towards mobile POS devices that can be brought to the table, in order to accommodate chip and a PIN (personal identification number),” she says. 

Leon Tang, president of SecuTrans Inc, a credit card and debit merchant service provider based in Markham, Ont., agrees and says the biggest news for the industry in 2011-2012 will be major credit cards’ EMV compliance — chips with a PIN.

“If the restaurant cannot offer an alternative way – for example, mobile or cordless devices – the merchant will have to change their ‘pay at table’ way of payment. The deadline for Visa and MasterCard for setup was the end of October, but this has been postponed to mid-2011.”

Interac’s Romano says all POS devices that process Interac debit must be upgraded by 2015. As the transition to EMV chip technology — which began in 2007 — continues, it is expected that chip technology will help prevent debit card skimming and the production of counterfeit cards.

Interac also recently introduced a contactless enhancement of Interac debit called Interac Flash, which increases the functionality of Interac-branded debit cards by leveraging dual-interface chips.

“This gives cardholders the ability to carry out a point-of-sale debit transaction without the need to insert the card or enter a PIN,” explains Romano. “It provides merchants with faster throughput at the point-of-sale, reduces the cost of handling cash, and is delivered at the same low cost of conventional Interac debit transactions.”

She adds that cardholders are protected from unauthorized transactions under Interac’s zero liability policy and merchants continue to receive the benefits of secure and nonrefutable transactions associated with PIN-based Interac debit.

Online ordering grows

Another trend increasing in popularity is Online Ordering, or OO, which can be fully integrated with a POS system, such as Restaurant Manager.

Andrea Roberts of Toronto-based Teletec Systems, a provider of POS systems that was first formed 40 years ago for the cash register equipment business, says once an owner signs up for OO, the program simply runs in the background of the restaurant’s website.

“The customer clicks on ‘online ordering’ and the menu is displayed. The customer orders, then pays by Mercury e-pay or Paypal so the restaurant has the money upfront. The order is then fired directly into the kitchen through the kitchen printer.”

With customers wanting the ease and convenience in carryout, Roberts says that OO allows establishments to think outside the box.

“Customers can learn about a restaurant over the web 24/7, then connect and order within minutes. In a busy office setting, a manager may be more inclined to buy repeatedly from a restaurant that provides an ordering vehicle they are very familiar with (the Internet) and one that responds quickly and accurately.”

She adds that aside from building loyalty and repeat business, the benefits of online ordering to the restaurant are also clear. 

“The typical check associated with an order placed online can be 25 to 35 per cent higher than phone-in orders. From a cost standpoint, restaurants can eliminate the labour required to answer phones, while reducing errors due to employees entering orders incorrectly.”

Additionally, the Restaurant Manager POS system — which Teletec sells — offers a fully integrated OO solution that provides establishments with a way to easily enhance their customer loyalty program. It also provides the ability to do complete menu management from one place, while tying together all operational reporting and eliminating the hassles that may be associated with using third-party online ordering providers.

“The important issue is that (this) is all integrated and can be added a module at a time,” adds Roberts.

Crash prevention

SilverWare POS Inc.’s Thalas thinks the single biggest concern for a restaurant operation is a complete system failure, usually caused by a server crash such as hard drive failure, power supply failure, or motherboard failure. For this reason, “redundancy” has been a key selling feature of restaurant POS systems for more than 15 years.

“Until now, redundancy has been accomplished by implementing one of two solutions,” he says. “The installation of a dedicated server computer with hot swappable drives/RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) technology and redundant power supply; or integrated software-based solution mirroring from the main workstation to a secondary workstation. Both of these solutions have served a great purpose by significantly minimizing downtime, but not without their disadvantages.”

For instance, dedicated server computers can be costly (starting at around $2,500), and may still be vulnerable to the failure of a network card or other component. And the second solution is accompanied with a certain amount of downtime (an estimated minimum of 10 minutes before restaurant management recognizes that a server is down and initiates backup mode).

New technologies have emerged to redefine the term “redundancy” by offering automatic failover.

“Utilizing modern SQL server capabilities, automatic failover design can occur with two POS stations,” Thalas explains. “If the principal workstation becomes unavailable, all POS stations will automatically connect to the mirror workstation, which is now the principal.” 

This occurs seamlessly and transparently, without intervention from restaurant management or the POS help desk. This technology also gives the restaurant operator peace of mind by simply using the existing infrastructure and without the need for costly dedicated server computers.  

“Ensuring that your POS system is running with no disruption will equal higher profits, better customer retention and happy staff,” Thalas adds.

Theft and compliance

As POS systems become more sophisticated, so do the thieves. In today’s marketplace, any viable POS system needs to be PCI compliant. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a worldwide information security standard defined by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. It was created to help payment card industry organizations, which process card payments, prevent credit card fraud through increased controls around data and its exposure to compromise.

“This means that the credit/debit information does not stay at the POS,” explains Roberts. “Hackers are not then able to access a customer’s data.”

To this end, businesses can protect themselves from fraud by using credit and debit terminals that interface directly with POS systems.

“If there is a switch of the payment devices, the POS terminal will not recognize the switched terminal ID and will not process,” says Roberts. “Then, (an establishment) should have cameras to go back to, that will show who made the switch.”

Tang of SecuTrans adds that another way businesses can protect themselves from theft is to ensure that all PIN devices are sealed and self-destroyed if broken.

“These devices’ IDs are also registered at the back service. It’s technically impossible to steal the PIN from the PIN input devices, even though many interested persons have tried in many ways,” he says.
 
POS projections

As to what the future holds, it may seem mind-boggling to think about what will be available in the next few years. Tang, though, has a theory that may just be on the brink of reality.

“Maybe in 2015,” he says, “customers will click their cell phone to pay the bill. Just make sure your POS system is flexible, mobile and personal if you’re looking for a new system or to upgrade your current one.”

Lisa Kopochinski is a freelance writer and editor and can be reached at lisakop@sbcglobal or at www.lisakcommunications.net.