With A “New Year Computer Checklist” Your Restaurant POS System Is In Good Health
Start out the year right for your restaurant POS system. Let’s discuss some of the most common and critical mistakes that restaurant owners make in regard to some very basic configuration aspects of the computer system. Mistakes can badly damage a restaurant or any other retail business, not to mention the huge amount of time and money. Even worse than that… it can frustrate your customers and staff.
Whether you’re the one who’s going to do the configuration or hiring somebody else to do it for you] — it’s important for you to make sure everything is done accordingly.
Please don’t let me be guilty of giving you the wrong message. I do not always recommend configuring your own computer system! I recommend letting a professional do it for you. But I know some of you will do it yourself no matter what I say. So this is for those of you that insist on doing your own computer installations and for everyone else to double check and make sure everything was done properly. This can help avoid major problems, be aware on the proper installations and save hours of precious time.
So here are some simple retail POS system configuration checklist for a Windows network you could use as a guide:
1) Using a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
One of the main causes of your electronic component failure is due to fluctuations in electricity (up and down). Having a proper UPS can solve this problem by providing clean power. I would recommedn getting a good UPS for your server. And it’s a good idea to use them on each of your worstations too.
2) Making Sure To Plug All Cables Into the UPS
Make sure all cables that power your computer and network are plugged into your UPS. It’s also important to make sure cables that can carry electrical charges are plugged into a surge protector or UPS. For example, the phone line for your modem can heat up and fry your computer if you do not plug it into a surge protector. So make sure your modem line, network cables, and power cords are all plugged in properly.
3) Passwords and Security
At the very least, I suggest locking down your server with a strong password on all Windows accounts so your employees and hackers have more difficulty messing with your server.
4) Intalling and Configuring Security Tools Like An Antivirus Software and AntiSpyware Software
It’s also very important to configure that software to update automatically every day, so you don’t forget.
5) Limit Your Employees’ Internet Access
Employees will surft on anything they can on the internet. Anti-virus and anti-spyware software does help but if an employee inadvertently downloads the wrong program or accepts the wrong message, it can cause some serious problems to your system. You can avoid this by disabling internet browsing on your computers. Or another option is to protect internet access with a password.
For restaurant owners, this is very important! In order to protect secured files from the hands of the dirty minds, limiting employee internet access is a must. A retail business owner has to enforce rules to protect his business as well as his profit. Otherwise, what good will a restaurant POS system do if it’s run by a misbahaved or ignorant personnel.
6) Configuring Your Back Up To Run Regularly
In many situations, it’s still best to configure your back up to run automatically after work hours. Don’t forget you still need to remember to change your back up device (like tapes) every day.
7) The Importance of Testing Your Back Up Regularly
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve chatted with people that have hard drive failure and think they have a good back up plan to restore. But when they try to restore they find it hasn’t been working. That’s why you need to do a “real” test restore once a month to make sure it’s working. By the way, you should restore to an alternate file location so your existing software won’t get messed up.
So please, start checking your computer systems now and do the neccessary updates, configurations and back ups.
With over 20 years of restaruant experience, the author and Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-for-Restaurants.com, helps you use your technology to be more efficient and more profitable.
Tags: Point of S, Point of Sale, POS, restaurant automation, restaurant computer, restaurant hardware, restaurant point of sale, Restaurant pos, restaurant pos equipment, restaurant pos quote, restaurant software