Integration of Self-Order Kiosks and POS

Self-Ordering Kiosks are gaining popularity in Quick Service and Fast Casual restaurants. Most recently McDonalds announced they would be rolling out self-order kiosks to every one of their 14,000 US stores. Lots of the other major QSR players have followed suit with their own trials, pilots and rollout announcements, while at the Quick Casual space businesses like Panera have been implementing their own kiosk rollout strategy for a while.

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Past the kiosk, the mission-critical system that these companies have in common is obviously their Point of Sale. But while the POS is a frequent component in all these companies, it's often times from another POS provider, given the amount of choices there are to select from. This diversity of POS systems creates some challenges for the merchants now wanting to incorporate kiosks, and also for the kiosk solution providers themselves.

There is, however, an organized manner for both retailers and solution providers to work together and effectively go about the business of researching kiosks and finding the best fit. The objective of both parties is to find the combination that offers the desirable self-order kiosk function in a solution that's also well integrated with their POS, in order to mitigate issues with respect to cost, redundancy of information, service and long-term cost of ownership.

Remember that what you are looking for up to integration boils down to two key areas:

Integration of revenue data on the kiosk to the sales database that's on the present POS. You want the sales data in the kiosk to be included in the overall sales reporting you receive from the POS, but you also need to be able to individually find the earnings that are being generated just the kiosk;
Integration of backend systems, such as payment processing and KDS. Throughout the POS, the kiosk ought to have the ability to use the payment processing/payment gateway services that you currently have in place. By the same token, the kiosk should be able to send prep info to the POS so that it in turn sends it to the KDS. To put it differently, leverage what you've got. You shouldn't be paying extra for different payment processing and KDS services for only the kiosk; nor should you consider those choices from a pure surgeries standardization standpoint.

Start with Your POS Supplier

Some POS solution providers have additional self-ordering kiosk modules to their current solution portfolio. This is the safest and most expedient method to discover a kiosk solution that's already fully integrated with your POS, because presumably the POS vendor will have done a fantastic job with the integration of the new module into their current POS framework. The vendor should be able to articulate how their"native" integration addresses both of the major points described above.

Despite the fact that this would be the preferred thing to do, you still need to be careful on one front, which is with regard to the operation of the POS vendors self-ordering kiosk program. Cost is, of course, a question to be increased, but in terms of performance, you must make certain you understand what you are getting.

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The potential problem here is due to the fact that POS vendors, of course, specialize in POS systems, rather than in self-ordering systems. Because of this, they may have overlooked required functionality or a few of those tiny functional components which are not readily apparent. They might also have rushed their product to market to be able to benefit from the developing self-order kiosk market.

Regardless, also bear in mind that there's sometimes a tendency to check at self-ordering as"simple" to develop; simple; an expansion of the POS, if you will. After having installed over 1,000 self-order systems, I will tell you that isn't the case.

So, the message here is to do your due diligence and hopefully have the ability to take advantage of the alternative, which, in the end of the day, could be your shortest, and many cost-effective route to deploying self-ordering kiosks.

Note that a version of the option is to ask your POS vendor if they work with (are incorporated with) any self-ordering kiosk systems. If so, that might be just as powerful for you, maybe more so, like the POS vendor had their own self-order module.

Search for Kiosk Software Vendors Which Have POS Integration

If your existing POS provider doesn't provide a self-ordering kiosk option or does provide one but it doesn't satisfy your needs, then your very best bet is to try to find a kiosk software vendor that knows the value of this integration point.

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It may be costly and time consuming for self-order kiosk software vendors to be integrated with more than, say 1 or 2 POS vendors. Normally, the integration is caused by a prior client engagement, and that is the way the development effort was financed. But, there are now web-based third-party frameworks that basically enable self-order kiosk software vendors to incorporate a variety of the significant POS systems on the market.

Start looking for a vendor that's been proactive in this regard and is upfront about the many POS systems that their software is integrated with through these third parties. Bear in mind that there's a cost, but it's minimal and might be contained in the software licensing cost or the cloud subscription cost, whichever you might use for your self-order kiosk program.

With this choice, you need to first see whether the POS you're using is on the kiosk software vendor's listing of integrated systems. If it's, you can proceed to ask questions regarding the integration, whether there's a third party framework involved, the cost, etc..

If neither of those options works out for you, then there's another to consider.

Discuss Integration Options & Costs with your Self-Order Kiosk Vendor

The kiosk software vendor might have the ability to work with your current POS vendor to integrate the two systems. First, however, your POS vendor should have the sort of system that could be"talked with" in the kind of Application Programming Interfaces (API). It is going to likely be your responsibility to find both vendors discussing the integration so you can find the information you require. First, if it is doable. Second, how much it is going to cost.

Bear in mind that the POS vendor and kiosk software vendor could basically reuse the integration work at other customers of theirs, so that should factor into the cost that they quote you.

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The Last Option

If you truly need to deploy self-order kiosks in your organization, but none of the choices above works out for you, there's one last option: Run your own kiosk as a standalone system.

The downsides here should be readily apparent: No earnings data integration; needing to possibly use another payment processor for only the kiosk; needing to possibly use another KDS, or receipt printer, for only the kiosk. But it may be done, and you are likely to discover that many kiosk software vendors will have something to offer in place of integration for each these areas.

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