|
Volanté Systems POS Software Keeps Kansas City's Union Station Connected
To the new owners of a national landmark where "Kansas City Connects", Volanté's POS (point of sale) software
with peer-to-peer technology was exactly what they needed to keep their point of sale system, like their station,
connected.
Union Station, Kansas City, is truly a national landmark. Once the second largest train station in the United States,
it was the hub that, until its closure in the early eighties, connected Kansas City to the rest of the nation. Now, after
years of neglect, Union Station has been fully restored. The Union Station Assistance Corporation, a non-profit organization,
was formed to bring the station back to its former glory. Today, Union Station is once again a bustling center of activity.
Boasting fine restaurants, shops, and Science City, the station now draws thousands of tourists from around the world.
When Union Station's new owners found themselves entering the restaurant industry for the first time, they were
treading in foreign waters. Opening a restaurant, never mind several, requires attention to a lot of detail. One
detail of particular concern was purchasing a point of sale system that was not only reliable, but was cost effective
as well. Stories had circulated about Union Station's previous restaurant and its POS system that had continually
crashed. The first priority for Union Station's new owners was to source out a flexible, reliable point of sale system
that wouldn't go down. Jean Anderson, IT consultant for Union Station, had been referred to Essential POS of
Kansas City, to help with their POS software needs. EPOS, in turn, recommended Volanté Systems as the perfect technological
fit for Union Station's diverse requirements.
Anderson had looked at several point of sales systems before finally deciding on Volanté. In addition to
reliability, as a non-profit organization, cost was definitely a factor well. Anderson found Volanté's
pricing to be "competitive, if not better", than the other systems they were looking at. The deciding
factor, however, was Volanté's ability to expand with the organization without Union Station having to
incur any further expense. Harvey House, the station's signature restaurant, ended up needing double the
amount of POS terminals than was originally planned. Other POS companies insisted that this couldn't be
accomplished without installing a second server. Volanté, on the other hand, gets around this problem in
a new way. Not basing the system on the traditional Server/Client model, Volanté uses the power of
distributed computing with peer-to-peer technology. Peer to peer decentralizes the responsibilities
customarily given to the server and distributes the task among the peers. All clients have the ability to
publish services and instead of requesting a server to perform work, clients can request the work to be
done by any of its peers. Thus a server is not even required for normal client operations, and Harvey House
now has the freedom to expand at will with Volanté without incurring extra expense in the process.
To Anderson, Volanté's peer-to-peer capabilities and its ability to stand alone were "vital", as it
eliminated the fear of possible system failure. Volanté cannot only stand alone in a crisis, but Volanté
leads the POS software industry with its innovative Redundancy Management System. Once data is entered into the
system, its integrity is immediately protected. With other POS systems, server failure leads to an entire
system crash, bringing your business to a grinding halt. However, Volanté's unique implementation allows
all terminals to be connected yet function independently, ensuring that your business will continue to run
smoothly in the event of a terminal or server failure. Few, if any, POS systems on the market today can
offer this "fault tolerant" solution.
Working under a tight deadline to get everything in place for the station's opening, EPOS and Volanté were
up to the task. "We got everything up and running on time for the opening." says Anderson. "We were
thrilled with that."
The Station's many employees have also found Volanté flexible and easy to use. Anderson notes that to the staff,
performance and ease of use in a POS software system is very important. "They just fly through those screens,"
says Anderson. She adds, "It's also quite simple to set up a menu", a feature which makes any restaurant manager's job a
little easier. Anderson is also pleased that Volanté and EPOS were very responsive to any concerns or questions that had
arisen, although the concerns were few. According to Anderson, "The installation was actually quite pleasant." EPOS also
offers 24 hour support, which is important to a large operation such as Union Station. EPOS can be contacted at
www.essentialpos.com.
To Union Station and Jean Anderson, Volanté has been "a very good story for us." The new operators of a
national landmark where Kansas City connects have found a point of sale system, that, like their station,
stays connected.
For more information, please visit our
Products page, or email us at sales@volantesystems.com.
|
