Californos Point of Sale and Small Business Server Case Study 

Company profile

Californos is a family owned French style bistro with a unique atmosphere and menu. It was established in 1988 and has a large square footage for events and parties.

Business situation

Running on the legacy Point of sale system that was in place was becoming cost prohibitive and was not allowing for any expansion or integration with other systems. Californos is a heavy email marketer. POP email was hosted by a third party, limiting access to information and hindering control over this aspect of communications.

Technical situation

Californos original POS system used serial cabling and a non GUI interface. The reporting was handled on a dot matrix printer. Replacement stations were procured through a refurbisher/reseller at 4 times the original cost. System issues were hard to diagnose due to the legacy nature of the system.

Solution

Using standard PC equipment and standard networking provides a POS system that has access to internal systems such as SharePoint and Exchange web access. Since all equipment is essentially off the shelf it is fully scalable. Using small business server as the back end allows for a group policy to govern client security, providing a solid platform to conduct front of house business. It provides a security platform to protect sensitive information.  Customer WiFi access is kept on a separate network for full security.

Benefits

This heavy email marketer has full control over their primary communications channel. Email is accessible from anywhere by everyone. The entire system is completely remote supportable from anywhere using standard software. The point of sale system covers all areas of their large square footage. All employees can view the internal calendars and information on SharePoint while access to the internet is restricted. On screen reporting and output to any laser printer on the network is now available. 

Products and services used

• Windows Small Business Server 2003, Windows XP Professional
• Dell Point of Sale hardware
• Group Policies to secure POS Systems
• IT Business consulting 
• Initial POS design and training
• Verifone PC Charge 

Services provided by other groups or companies

PC America provided the POS software: Restaurant Pro Express (RPE). Dell provided the computer hardware, barcode scanners and receipt printers. Verifone provided the credit card processing software.