POS hardware is expensive. Like really expensive. Here’s a quick analysis done by Upserve if you’re curious what those cost differences might look like.
This is the same reason why we see companies like Toast often mark the hardware to $0 upfront: if you can eliminate the large cost of moving systems you’re likely to convince the merchant to do it. (Of course Toast isn’t UNICEF so you’d be crazy to think they’re not recouping those costs elsewhere).
We caught wind of Micros’ efforts through one of Micros’ largest EMEA resellers. The web link, which is now inactive, briefly shared what Micros has been working on. We’re going to paste that information for you here.
One of the biggest costs of upgrading from RES to Simphony was replacing workstations this was not only an additional cost but something that many considered unnecessary as the WS5a was built so well and robust that many F&B outlets use them even 10 years after purchasing them with no issues or only minor repairs. WS5’s were not compatible with Simphony, until now. With the release of Simphony 19.1 WS5a will see a Linux release, this release will essentially be an optimised Operating System focused on running Simphony, optimising the Workstations power to run Simphony. To upgrade your WS5a you will need an upgrade CF card offered by Oracle, you then just add the CF and boot in to the new OS and you are ready to run.
Our first thought is that this sounds a lot like the problem Orchard solves: wipe a machine, boot into Linux, then spin up whatever software you want on top of Linux. In Oracle’s case it’s loading Simphony on top of Liux, the next-gen version of Micros POS software.
Oracle Food & Beverage has invested $100 Million to create a new Cloud environment for Simphony. This new state of the art Cloud environment will significantly upgrade performance, stability reduce costs and bring new functions such as fall-over capabilities. It will also open the pathway to OAD – Oracle Autonomous Database which is Self-Driving, Self-Securing and Self-Repairing which will offer full end to end automation for: Provisioning, Security, Updates, Availability, Performance, Change Management and Error Management and will bring scaling to the next level with the ability to grow resources during peek time only.
Our first thought is the high cost of completing this. Orchard built its OS and POS for less than $2M. Necessity breeds innovation, which is why startups are often able to move mountains with seemingly nothing to support them. We wonder if Oracle could have accomplished this task for far less than $100M. Seems like something a shareholder should look into.
More and More fast food restaurants follow McDonalds trend of Kiosk ordering, this however comes at a high cost it requires specially designed Kiosks, design development and complicated integrations to allow payments and other functions. This high cost made Kiosk ordering only available to larger chains or fast food restaurants. Simphony now offers an easier solution that is more cost effective and can cover simple ordering paths for small to medium sized fast food outlets. The Kiosk works by connecting a Touch Screen or KDS to a KDS Controller and developing a User Interface that can be branded and designed according to your needs, the results is a stunning display that can be encased or mounted on a counter.
Touchscreens are only growing in popularity with the rise in minimum wage. Given how cheap hardware is in Asia we’re shocked Oracle didn’t figure out how to bring down hardware costs earlier. Not to exalt Orchard again, but they accomplished this with a $25 raspberry pi device. Ain’t exactly rocket science once you get the bureaucracy out of the way.
We where very excited to see Simphony Super Lite, Super Lite is aimed at F&B Outlets that require not more than 2 Workstations per location and is optimised with that in mind. While a standard Simphony implementation takes in average 5 days, Simphony Super Lite can be up and running within 8 hours. Yes, that you read that right. From the moment you unbox the workstations and plug them in to go-live you can be up and running within 8 hours. This includes adding you menu, setting up users and the Point of sales as well as getting trained on using Super Lite. Super Lite does however have growth in mind, if you expand or grow your Restaurant, Bar or Coffee Shop you can easily upgrade and add more functionality.
This is a great learning point: so many merchants choose cloud POS because of the ease to install and setup a new system. How Simphony could call itself “cloud” and take 5 days to implement is crazy; most people we talk with can stand up a cloud POS – complete with menu programming – in half a day. 8 hours might be a conservative number, but there are plenty of people that would give you a figure half this.
The idea to repurpose hardware is a good one. But it’s only good if Oracle continues to support the W5 workstations. What if they’re end-of-lifed?
We’ll see if it works out for Oracle or instead if it’s a tale of too little, too late. Then again, Oracle could always finagle some variety of “free” POS if they wanted to take advantage of merchants with payments processing.
SMOPP is alive and well.
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