Recent installments of this blog have focused on the addition of different software modules to retail and restaurant point of sale systems to bolster their capabilities. But forward-thinking vendors like pcAmerica aren’t stopping there.

If you’re like most retailers and restaurant operators, labor scheduling ranks among your least favorite tasks. Slotting staff members into shifts can be extremely time-consuming, and confirming just how many employees are slated to work a particular shift and the roles to which they’ve been assigned often necessitates a significant effort as well.

While standalone meal ordering solutions are readily available in the marketplace, a trend toward applications that integrate the online ordering function with restaurant point of sale applications is quickly emerging.

Okay, so you’re sold on the benefits of implementing online ordering in your restaurant. Now it’s time to select from among the many solutions available in the marketplace. But don’t let your excitement about the potential advantages to be gleaned from offering customers the opportunity to place orders via a Web site force you into making a rash software purchasing decision.

Chances are, you’ve heard quite a lot in recent months about online ordering solutions. Maybe you’ve even used them yourself to get takeout or a delivery from another restaurant. And now, it’s time to seriously consider implementing such an application for your own operation.

As if that weren’t enough, you can utilize historical point of sale information to set minimum and maximum “stock-on-hand” levels. This will prevent overstocks and, in turn, minimize the need to ever tell a customer that you are “out” of a product or menu item.

Nominated for consideration by Mercury Payment Systems, pcAmerica won the award for their installation with low calorie frozen dessert chain Tasti D-Lite. For this installation, pcAmerica and Tasti D-Lite collaborated to utilize Restaurant Pro Express POS software to integrate social marketing with their customer loyalty program.

Remote log-in program. Once this type of program is installed, you can access your store, restaurant, or home computer from the software provider’s Web site by entering your user name and password. This type of software can be provided by pcAmerica.

Internet security solutions, including antivirus software, antispyware software, and firewall software. The antivirus piece ensures that your computer cannot be maliciously destroyed by outside hackers. With antispyware, unwanted ads will not pop up on your screen. Most importantly, firewalls prevent outsiders from stealing your data.

“Support” and “maintenance” are nebulous terms, but when it comes to these two elements, retailers need to be very clear about what they’re getting from their POS systems vendor.