Restaurant POS and technology news, trends, best practices.

It started with one small pizza store in a town of 1800 people in 1981. Now, more than 30 years later, Pizza Ranch operates 163 locations in nine states. The chain, and its franchisees, have made an investment in business information and management tools with SpeedLine POS. Continue reading for more on how Pizza Ranch uses SpeedLine to drive business results.

Every time a guest calls your restaurant, visits your website, or walks through your front door, you have a new opportunity to strengthen a customer relationship and build your brand. The only way to control your guests’ impressions of your business is to design the experience yourself. Have you thought about how your point of sale system can affect your brand? Read on for ideas on how you can use your POS to build your brand for the better.

Pat and Sally O’Neal approached POS shopping with as much care and attention to detail as they invested in every other aspect of their business. After short-listing three point of sale systems, Pat and Sally spent a full dinner rush at a restaurant running each of them. They watched staff take orders, make change, and balance tills. They talked to staff and asked a lot of questions. By doing their research, the O’Neals were able to make a confident choice in the right POS for their restaurant. Continue reading to learn the deciding factor for Sally O’Neals, and how they use SpeedLine forecasting and security tools today to save money. 

At the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas last week, while the rest of us were busy at the booth, our intrepid development manager was on a quest: to soak in a cross-section of seminars and visit every booth on the floor. What he found, besides more pizza samples than he could eat, were a handful of interesting technology ideas, new insights into restaurant operations best practices, and a few potential partners.

The best insights at this show? They didn't come from other exhibitors or seminar speakers. It was the conversations with restaurant operators and executives that provided a serious education on what's important and what's challenging in the industry—and on what we are doing right as a technology vendor and where we need to pay attention and make adjustments. Read on for more on lessons learned at Pizza Expo 2012.