Here’s A Few Tips To Keep Your Restaurant POS Computers In Shape and Extend It’s Usable Life

This article is more of a sequel of what I wrote last month about Spring cleaning for your PC. Since computers are something most people ‘set up and forget’, I figured I’d continue down that track with some more of what I consider the basics.

For restaurants, fast foods, hotels, convenient stores and other retail business owners, having a good-conditioned computer system helps keep the sales up. whether you are using the latest restaurant POS equipment or not, computer problems can greatly affect your business’ performance. So better make sure you follow these few simple tips.

1. Your Computer Needs Maintenance. Just like your car needs an oil change, your computer needs regular maintenance to keep it up and running in top form and extend the usable life. Tools like disk cleanup, defragmentation, and updating your virus protection files are necessary to keep your machine running at its’ best and to avoid small problems before they become problems.

2. It’s Important To Have An Anti-virus Software Installed. As I always say, the most important piece of software you should have is an anti-virus program. It shouldn’t be news to you that you can get a virus attack from the internet or a not-so-friendly email. Anti-virus software will notify you before you open the infected file and release the virus to do damage. What you should also remember is anti-virus software will not repair damage a virus has already done. The anti-virus software requires updates and you can do this monthly so it is “up-to-date”

to search for the newest viruses that threaten your system.

3. Backup Backup Backup. It’s one of the most important things you must do so you would never loose another important file ever again. CD-RW and DVD Disks, Tape Drives, Memory Sticks and USB External Hard Drives all make good backup media. And once your backup plan good to go, use it regularly!

Your computer will eventually retire one day. I kinda hate to tell you this, but it makes no difference how new or old your computer is, it will eventually stop working one day. Your computer is a machine that’s expert in calculating, storing and processing data. But sadly, no machine lasts forever.

Files you store on your computer may be priceless and impossible to replace, in other words, you can never buy or find elsewhere. Think of all your financial data, e-mail contacts in your email address book, digital pictures, recipes, and on and on. There will come a day you’ll open your computer wait for it to start loading and then suddenly gets disappointed because it has already retired! At that moment you’ll begin to realize how important it is to have a BACKUP. Well, what are you doing to backup all of your computer data? I find it surprising that most people don’t even have a backup plan. You’ll never know how important your files are on your computer until it is gone! So if you don’t have a backup yet, better start planning on it.

In a restaurant, having a backup plan is a must. Why? Because there are so many business info you will be needing for future references, like employee and customer information, data on the products or services of the restaurant, and so on. To be able to effectively track down sales and inventories, a reliable restaurant POS system must be used. And maintaining your POS systems in good condition is the perfect way to protect it.

4. Let An Expert Do What They Do Best. If your computer needs service, seek out help of a well trained technician, other than hiring your so-called computer expert neighbor. Your friends’ son may offer to “fix” your problem, but many times the problems even worsen. This will cost you a lot of time and money in the end. Remember, your computer system is the ‘heart’ of your business. Trained, qualified technician’s are experts in their field and will have the necessary skills and resources to properly fix your problems in a timely, cost effective way.