Serving Up Innovative Pizza POS Software Solutions
Leading Canadian pizza chain Pizza Nova has been satisfying hungry appetites with authentic Italian cuisine since 1963. When the time had come for an IT upgrade, they hoped to improve communications, increase efficiencies and save money at the same time. To acheive all this, they tapped restaurant point of sale software developer Volante Systems and their Pizza POS solution to do the job.
Volante’s enterprise POS software is currently installed in 13 of 120 Pizza Nova restaurants, with plans to implement the software throughout the chain by two to three stores per month.
According to Merrilee Stoll, Director of Information Technology for Pizza Nova, the driving force to replace their former pizza POS system was to improve communications between the various stores and head office, and to take advantage of the cost savings offered by a point of sale system that was able to run on Linux. Volante stood out from other pizza software companies because it offered these advantages and more, which sealed the deal for Pizza Nova.
“Volante was one of the few point of sale systems out there that offered Linux functionality.” says Stoll. “We were very interested in the cost savings that Linux offers, and not having to worry about the cost of proprietary software.”
Linux POS software solutions are very attractive to many restaurant and hospitality operators these days, due to the ease of use and definite cost advantages that Linux offers.
Volante’s multi-location, enterprise POS capability has also translated into greatly improved data reporting for Pizza Nova. “Volante enterprise allows us to see a repository of dates and to see everything we want to see from each of the stores.” Stoll explains. “This information is very useful to have. I can tell you already that Volante has really improved on our data reporting functionality.”
Volante offers clear and concise data reporting with its Data Synchronization feature. Data Synchronization enables databases to talk directly to each other. A single connection from Database one to Database two is established and outstanding data is sent asynchronously between them. Establishing a connection is a one step process thus eliminating any problems that can occur in-between. Since Volante is written in pure Java, all the information needed is generated in real time, quickly and easily. Restaurant owners and managers can now easily create custom reports and charts on demand, in real time, or save them for viewing at a later date if they wish.
Volante also provides the call centre order interface for Pizza Nova, where orders from the call centre are delivered instantly to the POS system at the restaurant. This new pizza POS software collaboration provides Pizza Nova restaurant operators a better and faster way to get orders to their stores, allowing them to efficiently grow their business through the use of leading edge technology.
“We used to have an in-house system,” Stoll explains. “But now we’re working towards two way communications between the store and the call centre. It also really helps with inventory control on a store level, for instance if the store is running out of cheese, they can communicate that to us right away and we can act on it immediately.”
Another feature Volante offers is improved ordering capabilities for restaurant servers through the use of it’s intuitive and user friendly touch screen POS terminals. Managing the many combos and pizza toppings has become much easier for Pizza Nova staff. Pizza Nova is now able to set up the same screens across all their stores, and keep them consistent.
Installing a state of the art pizza software solution has also provided the pizza chain with improved driver tracking, a feature that is especially important to Pizza Nova.
“With Volante, each driver is assigned to an individual order, we can track when the order left the store, and when the pizza is finally delivered.” Adds Stoll. “This really helps when customers call to find out the status of their delivery, we can tell them exactly when it left the store, and the approximate time they should receive their order. To us, this is a huge thing, since it really improves overall communications at the store level and between customers.”
Future plans for Pizza Nova include the utilization of Volante’s wireless POS technology through it’s mobile hand held devices and Volante’s self-order, self-pay technology.
Derek Meade is a writer, webmaster, and owner of Meade Internet Services, a search engine optimization, internet marketing and public relations company in Ontario, Canada.
Article from articlesbase.com
