It’s no secret that traditional point of sale systems are starting to fall by the wayside. With their higher costs, outdated interfaces, and limited reporting capabilities, it’s obvious why many entrepreneurs are switching to more modern POS systems. While upgrading your system is a great way to keep your business competitive, if your selection doesn’t come with cloud integration, you may be doing yourself a disservice.
Whether it’s the enhanced data storage and security, the ability to monitor your business remotely, or the cost management solutions it offers, there are plenty of reasons why cloud-based POS systems are taking the world by storm.
Cloud-Based POS Systems Help Secure Data
At the beginning of 2019, a fast food chain found themselves at the center of controversy as they discovered that their POS system had been compromised by malware designed to capture customer credit card info. It’s estimated that the malware had been present on the system since August 2017 which means the data breach likely affected thousands of customers.
If the chain had relied on the enhanced security and encryption provided by most cloud-based POS systems, they might have avoided the breach altogether.
Loss of data, whether it be due to system downtime, theft, or malware, has a direct effect on sales, customer service, and overall production across the board. While threats to your data are too numerous to list, it is important to note the most common factors to compromised or lost data.
- Hardware failure. A fact of life is that at some time, every piece of hardware fails. It could be a hard drive, a POS terminal, or a computer, but they will fail. It is vital that any information that touches these devices be backed up at a minimum or stored in an easily accessible location. Utilizing the cloud for data storage lessens your dependence on onsite hardware, and greatly lowers your risk for lost or inaccessible data.
- Malware or viruses. Viruses and malware have been long time threats to anyone using technology. So why trust that business-critical data is immune from being compromised by viruses or malware or worse, locked up by ransomware. With a data redundant, cloud-based POS solution in place, these threats become a thing of the past.
- Compromised transactional data. Unfortunately, many legacy POS systems have a bad habit of storing customer credit card information on their systems. This puts far too much liability on your business and also compromises your customers’ trust in you. Modern cloud-based systems are able to process transactions quickly and efficiently without capturing sensitive information as they utilize top providers to encrypt customer data immediately at the moment a sale occurs.
A major benefit is that cloud-based POS systems often come with encrypted offsite data storage and redundancy. This reduces the risk of hardware failures due to equipment breakdowns, theft, or power surges while making your data easily accessible even by using a smartphone app. By integrating this system, it allows for easier scalability as your business grows while still providing you constant access to the information you need.
Cloud-Based POS Systems Provide Another Set of Eyes
When you’re running a business with multiple locations, chances are you often wished you had a second set of eyes on how each location was performing. Luckily, a cloud-based POS system can be that second set of eyes for you. Whether you’re setting up location-specific roles for each employee, reviewing your multi-location financial reports in real-time, or reviewing your labor costs against your overall revenue to assess your staffing needs, cloud-based systems give you remote access to each of your locations without requiring your physical presence.
Say your growing coffee brand recently opened a second cafe across town. With a legacy POS system, your best bet for collecting all of your sales data and managing both locations is to constantly run back and forth or rely on your employees to submit reports at the end of each night. A cloud-based POS makes running your budding cafe empire much smoother.
You’re able to assign permissions to each employee to make sure only managers are accessing the cash drawers and reconciling tips. You can also verify inventory levels and set up order alerts based on low stock levels, and make sure neither location is overstaffed
Think of it as having a virtual assistant. It automatically tracks and syncs transaction data across both of your locations, lets you adjust each location’s menu remotely, helps you manage employees through staff management integrations, and allows you to customize low stock alerts so your top selling roasts are never unavailable.
Superior Reporting Through Cloud-Based POS Systems
Managing your costs and expenses effectively can make all the difference between profitability and an underwhelming financial quarter. Integrating a cloud-based POS solution takes your business to the next level through innovative data management, reporting, and flexibility.
A smaller food truck business with two vehicles learned firsthand how difficult it can be to manage an operation across multiple locations. At the end of each night, employees at both trucks would have to stay late to manually tally sales, physically review their inventory levels, and reconcile cash tips.
They’d then have to convey this information back and forth to budget for supplies and make sure each truck had enough cash on hand for the next day. Depending on the volume of the day’s sales, this often meant extra hours on the clock, which raised labor costs and drained employee energy. The owner wished there was a way to update his daily reporting method without sacrificing the business’s mobility.
We presented them with a cloud-based POS solution that uses tablets as their primary hardware asset. By the time we got their system set up, their drivers could process payments much more quickly on the tablets, which instantly relayed their transaction data. An added perk to this solution was that the inventory levels were automatically updated, making it easier for staff members to accurately shop for ingredients without delays.
The best part? Since the food trucks were using iPads as their POS tablets, they didn’t even need a wifi connection to access their reports in real-time. Instead, they relied on cellular data which meant that their business could truly go anywhere. Without a cloud-based POS, this wouldn’t have been possible.
Experienced Help to Modernize Your POS
If you’re ready to take greater control of your business, it’s time to upgrade to a cloud-based POS system. From the streamlined reporting capabilities to the real-time updates that allow you to finally be everywhere at once, a cloud-based system is your first step towards a more cohesive, successful operation.
Need expert advice on how a cloud-based POS system will do for your business? That’s what talech does best. We understand your need for a flexible, dynamic POS system, and will work with you to make your project successful with your budget in mind. We offer a wide range of hardware and software solutions to choose from, and we can help you select a system that fits the needs of your business. Contact us today or sign up for a demo and to learn more about how talech can be your expert POS partner.
