SilverWare
SilverWare POS puts Success on the Menu for Canadian restaurants with Microsoft® software
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Company Overview
For more than 15 years SilverWare, a Toronto-based Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, has been the leader in point-of-sale solutions for the food service and hospitality industry.
Business Challenge
In 1994 the company launched its flagship solution, SilverWare POS. Restaurants are typically fast-paced environments, and they must have systems in place to make sure staff work together efficiently and that operations run smoothly. SilverWare POS is designed to help restaurants schedule staff more efficiently, cut down on food wastage, and better serve customers through effective table, reservation and customer relationship management.
The solution was widely adopted by small chains and independent restaurants across North America. However, in order for its business to grow, SilverWare had to meet the more demanding workflow needs of larger retail restaurant chains. To do this SilverWare needed to redesign SilverWare POS to offer advanced enterprise management, corporate CRM solutions, and provide more in-depth data analysis.
The upgraded SilverWare POS solution would also have to be easy to implement, and integrate seamlessly with existing systems.
“We had much success in the smaller markets and we knew with a refined product built on the newest technologies we’d be able to move into a larger market,” says Nicholas Romanidis, Director of IT/Software Engineering, SilverWare POS.
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Solution
To help meet these challenges, SilverWare built the new version of SilverWare POS, Avrio, using Visual Studio® 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. Developers also took advantage of the application lifecycle management features of Visual Studio Team System, which gave them the tools, processes and guidance to help them work together more effectively and faster. Together, Team Foundation Server and SharePoint® Portal Server also provided developers with superior bug tracking features and a way to work together more collaboratively.
“We’ve always been early adopters of Microsoft software since we became a partner,” says Romanidis. “We wanted to continue this tradition, because larger restaurant chains often have their own IT departments who are familiar with Windows-based technologies. It’s a selling feature for us.”
To help developers deliver a new user experience, SilverWare also took advantage of Windows Presentation Foundation and Expression Blend®.
“Providing restaurant employees with a richer and more compelling user experience ensures quicker adoption and reduces the need for user training”, says Romanidis. “We liked using Windows Presentation Foundation because it lets us create a rich graphical interface that looks more visually pleasing and hides the backend work from the user.”
SilverWare also replaced Crystal Reports with SQL Server® 2008 and SQL Reporting to provide data storage and reporting capabilities which integrates with the server using ADO.NET entity framework and LINQ.
“Effective data management is key to the success of SilverWare – and this is why we decided to adopt SQL Reporting.”
Finally, to enable access to SilverWare Avrio from anywhere on the floor, SilverWare supports handheld devices that run Windows Mobile® software. This allows restaurant staff to order-taking on patios more efficiently and enables customers to pay for meals without having to leave their table.
Business Benefits
After rewriting and upgrading its flagship product, SilverWare is now able to expand further into the market and deliver a cutting-edge solution.
SilverWare Avrio technology offers numerous benefits including sophisticated table management functions with zoom, focus, and graphical demographic tracking, worldwide multilingual support, integrated corporate menu management, customizable screen layouts, unlimited individual menu item price levels, automatic combo detection, and itemized employee security configuration.
Time Savings
By taking advantage of the full range of Microsoft developer software, including Visual Studio 2008, .NET Framework 3.5, Visual Studio Team System, Expression Blend and Windows Presentation Foundation, SilverWare’s developers were able to build the new version of SilverWare POS in record time.
“Using the newest versions of Microsoft developer software helped our team build the updated solution in 25 per cent of the time it took to build the old version”, says Romanidis.
Enter New Markets
SilverWare was able to build a next generation version of the SilverWare POS system, Avrio, which has enabled it to move into the larger retail restaurant market. The ability to offer worldwide multilingual support plus integrated corporate menu management helps SilverWare win more opportunities internationally and with larger restaurant chains.
In addition, restaurant operators with multiple locations can take advantage of SilverWare Avrio’s Corporate CRM Bundle feature, which includes gift card processing, frequent diner applications, the ability to leverage customer VIP programs, and other features. This array of customer management capabilities are designed to scale with restaurants as they grow their operations from one to any number of stores and still maintain the same data and application.
“We were able to provide a seamless platform that large restaurants can use to support their complex functions. It gives us a leg up on the competition and helps us win big clients,” says Romanidis.
Highly Useable
SilverWare needed a POS solution that any restaurant or retail chain could use with little training. It also needed to easily integrate within the restaurant’s existing IT infrastructure. By taking advantage of Expression Blend and Windows Presentation Foundation, SilverWare was able to build an even easier-to-use interface.
“SilverWare Avrio is used by busy restaurant employees so it had to be very intuitive. Our developers were able to make it simple to navigate and more user friendly, and we’ve had great feedback from our customers,” says Romanidis.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is the world’s most popular development environment for designing, developing, and testing next-generation Windows-based solutions and Web applications and services. By improving the development experience for Windows, the Web, mobile devices, and Microsoft Office, Visual Studio 2008 helps organizations deliver a variety of solutions more productively than ever before. Visual Studio Team System expands the product line with new software tools that enable greater communication and collaboration throughout the development life cycle. With Visual Studio 2008, businesses can deliver modern service-oriented solutions more efficiently.
For more information about Visual Studio 2008, go to: msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about SilverWare POS Inc. products and services, call 905-305-1225 or visit the Web site at: www.silverwarepos.com
