Why Open Architecture is Key in Point of Sale Software

One theme that came out at last year’s National Restaurant Association show was that restaurant operators were looking for their POS systems to integrate with the technologies they wanted. Open architecture was high on restaurant chain wish lists, and leading technology vendors whose products talk to each other are making exciting things possible for connected restaurant operators. 

Any technology investment is significant, and although the new technology you roll out today may not be the technology you need a year or five years down the road, waiting can leave you in your competitor’s dust. Choosing an open architecture POS platform is one way to hedge your bets. The more options you have to connect existing systems and new technology solutions to your tried and true POS—both today and as your needs evolve in the future—the safer your investment.

In the search for the convenience of an all-in-one solution, too many restaurant companies lock themselves into built-in solutions for web and mobile ordering, loyalty, or video security that lose their shine over time as the POS provider fails to keep up with new technology or raises its fees. For these restaurant operators, there is no way out except to change out the POS at the core—a cost that can be hard to justify, and even harder to sell to franchisees.

Hospitality Technology magazine surveyed restaurant executives on two topics: the POS platform innovations most in demand for their next upgrade, and their overall purchasing plans for the future. The results showed exactly what we expected: that a desire for open architecture software and open APIs for integration is a major factor driving point-of-sale decisions today.

In HT’s survey, more than 51% of all restaurant operators named online ordering as the POS feature they would most likely invest in. The freedom to choose the best POS system for their restaurant is key to that decision.

For Red’s Savoy Pizza in Minnesota, the open architecture of SpeedLine POS was the number one deciding factor when they went point-of-sale shopping. “We wanted options,” says Director of Marketing Reed Daniels, “and being able to choose each vendor based on how their functionality worked for our business was the most important feature we were looking for.”

To learn more about how SpeedLine helped Red's Savoy Pizza drive growth while lowering costs, read the full case study here.