In the traditional restaurant business model, restaurants need technology inside of their store to take orders from their customers coming up to a counter, or if they need to punch in orders that come in over the phone. This in-store ordering technology is the POS (point of sale) system.

The POS system will have a menu for the restaurant, a screen to allow the in-store employees to punch the order in (with buttons on the screen), and it’ll be wired up to a credit card terminal so you can accept payments. These POS systems are purposely built for a restaurant employee, the menus for speed of entry, and typically require training to use.

You can think of an online digital ordering system as having the same functionality as a POS system, but from outside of the store. The difference is that online menus have to be built so that anyone can use them, without being trained, and have a disconnected payment processing methodology so you can accept payments outside of the store. An online restaurant ordering platform is the e-commerce solution to achieving the same features as in-store ordering. It allows your customers to order from your menu and pay for it from home or work.

Most restaurants want a single “point of truth” where all of their data flows through so that’s why our team at Onosys ensures that those online orders are injected into your already-existing POS system, reducing hassle on your end.