December 29th, 2011 by Mike Spence

Here is a blog from a year ago that did not make it over from our blog hosting switch over.  I thought I’d repost!

I originally wrote this blog because I have seen a number of “newer” point of sale companies posting these fantastic statistics on how much data, customer records, reporting etc they can handle.  I’ve always taken it for granted that you “over program” based on customer needs.

We originally wrote SP-1 using a C-Tree database that supports incredibly fast indexing of data files.  This allows us to be incredibly flexible when designing software.  The main programming is done in C++, .NET and Assembly for some of the routines.

To satisfy our curiosity I thought I’d check the statistics on what we can handle in our database!

Customer File and Tracking:

999,999,999 Total number of customers.  Yes just shy of one billion.

10 email addresses per customer.  Or 9 billion or  1.42 email addresses for each person on the planet.

10 phone numbers per customer.  Or 9 billion or just shy of one per every phone number possible in the U.S.

4 addresses per customer.  Or  12.8 addresses  per person in the U.S. – 314 million at last count.

 

How about order taking?
9,999 Total tickets per day – That is 6.94 tickets a minute for 24 hours.  Or 13.88 tickets a minute in a 12 hour day.

 

Menu items?  I think we have you covered. . .
9,999 Total Menu Groups.   Coffee, Pizza, Ice Cream, Smoothie, Sandwich etc.

999 Active specialty or signature items per menu group.  Examples would be Latte, Mocha, Meat lovers, Veggie etc.

999 Active modifiers per menu group.  Examples are Vanilla, pepperoni, wheat, hot, cold, extra shot etc.

99,999,999,999,999 Inventory or retail items.  (That’s Trillion with a ‘T’ and probably the only thing bigger than our national debt).

Yes – 9 million specialty and 9 million modifiers!  By the way that’s just active at any given time.

 

Pricing options?  Other than flat pricing of $1.00, $2.00 etc. . .  We handle 195,000 unique price tables. Each price table can be setup with 9 different prices per day of the week.   That’s 45 different prices that change based on the time and day.

 

Unlimited items?

Coupons, discounts, total tickets, customer history, reporting – these are all based on the size of your physical hard drive.

 

More?
99,999 Total employees or one new employee added to the system every day for 273 years!

9,999 Active employees at a time.

5 Cash drawers per workstation.

30 workstations per store.

 

Other statistics?

We have been selling POS for over 25 years.

We have stores that have been using our products for over 20 years continuously!

Updates?  SP-1 has gone through over 87 version releases (free when you are on support) and over 500 minor program revisions since 1994.

Stability?  Over 6 of our employees have worked for us over 10 years.  Total combined SP-1 experience through Customer Service & Tech Support  is over 80 years!

Posted in Order Entry, POS Features, Technology Tagged with:

October 20th, 2011 by Mike Spence

I get it, you don’t have a lot of time.  So, here is the cliff notes version. . .

  1. It will make you money.  Really, it’s that simple.  Using SP-1 can provide an ROI (Return On Investment) of at least 1% and as high as 7%.  Average customers see 3% minimum.
  2. Stop making mistakes.  We both know that your staff prices things wrong.  That’s bad.  It’s bad for your customer, your consistency and your business.   SP-1 will stop it.
  3. Theft controls.  We don’t like it but people steal.  Not all people – but some of them.  SP-1 will help you catch them and put a stop to it.  Everything is tracked.  Voids, free items, discounts, double punching, coupon theft.
  4. Reporting.  Do you like sitting at home entering numbers into Excel or Quickbooks?  Stop doing it.  Put SP-1 in and let us take care of that for you.  Get back to what you love.
  5. Gift & Loyalty.  If you are paying a swipe charge or monthly fee for this, then you are most likely getting ripped off.   It’s FREE.   Stop doing handwritten gift certificates that are a pain, stop using punch cards that are cheated on.  Stop hoping your staff uses the right discount.  Make it professional and fool proof.
There you go. . . 5 quick Cliff Note style reasons.  Now, call us and let us give you the full novel version!

Posted in POS Features, Technology Tagged with: ,